President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are the longest-serving presidential candidates in US history. By Inauguration Day in January 2025, Biden will be 82 and Trump will be 78.
If the worst were to happen in mid-October 2024, and one of the candidates died, their name would still be on the national ballot. In 2000, Mel Carnahan, who was running for the United States Senate, died in a plane crash while en route to a campaign event. Her widow, Jean, became the first senator to represent Missouri when she was appointed to replace her husband.