A large bipartisan contingent of voters say presidential candidates should have to pass a mental competency test, but few are aligned with Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s call to restrict it only to the oldest candidates for public office, according to a new Morning Consult/Politico survey.

How Haley’s argument stacks up with GOP voters

Haley’s call for mandatory mental competency tests for America’s oldest politicians is unlikely to become law given constitutional qualms and the fact that, in addition to presidential candidates, it would impact roughly 1 in 10 sitting members of Congress.

And while it’s prompted some allegations of ageism, notably from 81-year-old Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), it’s also allowed Haley, 51, to indirectly highlight 76-year-old former President Donald Trump’s septuagenarian status — a potentially potent argument with the GOP electorate.

While just 15% of Republican voters said it’s important for the party’s standard-bearer to be, like Haley, a woman and a person of color, 46% said it’s important for the GOP to elevate someone from a new generation of political leaders — as Haley has cast herself. 

Another 64% said it’s important for the party’s 2024 nominee to be under the age of 70. But that isn’t to say Republican voters doubt Trump’s mental acuity.

The latest Morning Consult/Politico survey was conducted Feb. 24-26, 2023, among a representative sample of 2,009 registered voters, with an unweighted margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

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