Richest, oldest, youngest: Democratic candidates could make history in the White House

This year, we Americans could elect our oldest president ... or our youngest.

We could get our first Jewish president ... or our first Hindu in the Oval Office.

Three candidates still in the running could become our first woman POTUS.

There’s also a chance we’ll elect our first openly gay president.

And yet, with only the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary in the rear-view mirror, the 2020 field of presidential candidates has already lost much of its diversity with the exodus of three African Americans (Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick), a Latino (former HUD Secretary Julian Castro), and an Asian American (Andrew Yang).

President Donald Trump, who will be on the ballot again this year, made history in 2016 when he became the first billionaire to get elected president.

As voters in the Carolinas prepare to play their part in shaping history — South Carolina’s primary is Feb. 29; North Carolina’s, March 3 — we could still be on the verge of a few firsts for the White House in 2020:

First female president

Women have been running for president since 1872, when Victoria Woodhull campaigned for the job under the banner of the Equal Rights Party. North Carolina’s Elizabeth Dole, a Republican, was a candidate — briefly — in the 2000 election cycle. And Democrat Hillary Clinton, the first woman to be nominated by a major party, came close in 2016, even winning the popular vote.

There’s still hope that, this year, the nearly 51% of the U.S. population that is female will finally see one of their own elected to the country’s highest office.

Three women are still in the running for the Democratic nomination — and the chance to make history with a win in November. They are U.S. Sens. Amy Klobachur of Minnesota and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.

Oldest elected president

In 2016, Republican Donald Trump, then 70, became the oldest person ever elected to the White House. Before him, Ronald Reagan — 69 on Election Day 1980 — had that distinction.

But three of the Democrats running in 2020 are older than Trump. When Americans go to the polls in November, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont will be 79, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg will be 78 and former Vice President Joe Biden of Delaware will be 77 (though his birthday is Nov. 20, so he’d be 78 when/if he took office).

Youngest president

Who was America’s youngest president? A tricky question. Democrat John F. Kennedy was the youngest elected president. He was just 43 on Election Day in 1960. But Republican Theodore Roosevelt took office at age 42 in 1901 when then-President William McKinley was assassinated. Roosevelt was his vice president, so was sworn in upon McKinley’s death. TR went on to win election in his own right in 1904.

But this year, there’s 38-year-old Pete Buttigieg. The former Democratic mayor of South Bend, Ind., would be the youngest president ever elected and the youngest to take office if gets his party’s presidential nomination and then unseats Trump in November.

First Jewish president

Religious diversity has not been a hallmark of the American presidency. Almost all of the presidents have been Protestants, according to the Pew Research Center, including 11 Episcopalians and nine Presbyterians (including Trump).

John F. Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, ended the Protestant monopoly when he was elected in 1960. Since then, it’s been only Protestants again in the White House.

But this year, according to the polls, two of the leading Democratic contenders are Sanders and Bloomberg. The election of either would give America its first Jewish president.

Sanders, who is not religiously observant, did recently release an ad titled “Bernie Would Be The First Jewish President,” according to Religion News Service. Bloomberg, raised in a kosher home, is more traditional in his Judaism, RNS reported.

First Hindu president

Two U.S. presidents, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, had no formal religious affiliation, and four others were Unitarians — a denomination that sometimes differs from traditional Christianity.

But U.S. Rep. Gabbard, D-Hawaii, would be the first member of a non-Christian religion to become president. She is Hindu, the faith of many Indian Americans who have emigrated to a United States that grows more religiously diverse every year.

First openly gay president

Buttigieg married his husband, Chasten Glezman, in 2018 — two years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all states must allow and recognize same-sex marriage.

The current delegate leader in the Democratic race, Buttigieg told Axios that he suspects there have been gay presidents in the past who kept it private. “I would imagine we’ve probably had excellent presidents who were gay,” he said. “We just didn’t know which ones. ... I mean, statistically, it’s almost certain.”

Historians have speculated that a few presidents — including Abraham Lincoln and James Buchanan — may have had intimate relations with some men. But, if elected, Buttigieg would be the first openly gay president.

First president whose highest previous office was mayor

Buttigieg and Bloomberg would represent another first if either wins the White House: Never before has a former mayor reached the presidency without first serving in other, higher posts.

Seventeenth president Andrew Johnson, a Democrat who was Lincoln’s vice president, had been mayor of Greenville, Tenn., early in his political career. But before becoming president, he was also a governor, congressman and U.S. senator.

Democrat Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president, had been mayor of Buffalo, but also governor of New York. And Republican Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president, was briefly mayor of Northampton, Mass., before going on to become governor of his state.

But the mayor’s office is the highest post on the resumes of both Buttigieg and Bloomberg.

Buttigieg served in South Bend, Ind, from 2012 to 2020. Bloomberg led New York City from 2002 through 2013.

Bloomberg’s predecessor as mayor, Republican Rudy Giuliani, ran for president in 2008. And his successor, Democrat Bill de Blasio, ran briefly for president in 2020. Another prominent New York mayor, John Lindsay, governed as a liberal Republican, but ran for president in 1972 as a Democrat.

Richest president

Plenty of presidents came from families with fortunes — including Kennedy and the Roosevelts, Theodore and Franklin.

But Trump was the first billionaire (with a b) to be elected president.

Yet, if Bloomberg is elected this year, Trump will no longer be the richest-ever president.

Forbes magazine estimated Bloomberg’s current net worth at $64.2 billion. That makes him the 12th richest man in the world.

In its 2018 ranking of billionaires, Forbes estimated Trump’s net worth at $3.1 billion — the 766th highest in the world.

First impeached president to run ... and win?

If President Trump is re-elected this year, that will be a first, too: No impeached president has ever run for president, first of all. So he’d also be the first impeached president to win a second term.

The U.S. House voted on Dec. 18, 2019, to impeach Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. On Feb. 5, 2020, the U.S. Senate acquitted him on both charges.

Two other presidents were impeached. But Andrew Johnson, impeached in 1868, was not re-nominated for another presidential term. And Democrat Bill Clinton, impeached in 1998-99, was already into his second term.

Trump is running for a second term in 2020. He’s expected to be re-nominated in August at the Republican National Convention in Charlotte.

Correction

An earlier version of this story gave the wrong first name for Victoria Woodhull, who ran for president in 1872 under the banner of the Equal Rights Party.