As the next year’s U.S. presidential election is likely to become a competition between the current 81-year-old President Joe Biden and the former 77-year-old President Donald Trump, other presidential candidates are trying to differentiate themselves by emphasizing their youngness through sports activities.
According to the U.S. political media Axios on Tuesday, Republican Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis, who is 44 years old, sent baseball cards featuring himself swinging a bat in a baseball park to the members of the Republican Party in four states, including Iowa. DeSantis, who played baseball as the captain of Yale University’s baseball team, did an interview with Fox News in a baseball stadium in Florida, highlighting his career in baseball, which is a sport well-loved by Americans.
Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who is 38 years old, is putting forward tennis in his race to become a Republican presidential candidate. He posted videos of himself playing tennis on social media and included a tennis match in his campaign schedule. Republican Senator Tim Scott, who is 58 years old, released pictures of him running on a treadmill. He also had a photo shoot of him throwing a football to let the public know he was a high school football player. Governor of Virginia Glenn Youngkin, who is 57 years old and is considering running for the election, played basketball with state legislators.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a 68-year-old lawyer who announced his candidacy for a Democratic presidential candidate, showcased his strength by doing pushups and lifting weights shirtless and in skinny jeans. "When you have a Democratic president who is 80, and about whom the public has major doubts that he is up to the job, having RFK Jr. doing pushups and showing off his physique is an obvious way to compare the two,” said Chris Cillizza, the writer of “Power Players: Sports, Politics, and the American Presidency.”
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