Ageism during the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election: thematic analysis of tweets

When the 2024 U.S. Presidential election was announced, Joe Biden and Donald Trump were two of the oldest candidates in election history. This circumstance created sentiments of ageist political discourse and arguments for presidential age limits. Despite clear ageist discourse during the U.S. election, there is a notable lack of research examining this issue. This study used posts from X (formerly Twitter) to understand ageism on social media during the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, particularly focusing on the campaign period when the race was between Biden and Trump.

Posts were collected from X during the American presidential election campaign from February 11-25, 2024. After filtering out non-English, incomplete, and unrelated posts, 1,254 relevant posts were coded line-by-line and then thematically analyzed. Rigor was established by using multiple strategies ranging from a strong audit trail to using interrater reliability during thematic analysis.

Four main themes were identified: (1) old age as an inherent weakness: "they're both too old," (2) dementia-related stigma, (3) dehumanization of older adults: "ancient fossils are running for office," and (4) fear of perceived incompetence.

Our study's findings shed light on how ageist discourse on social media threatens the credibility of older political leaders by shifting the focus from policies to stereotypical age-based attacks. Further research is needed to examine the impact of ageist discourse on electoral campaigns.