California Gov. Jerry Brown said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that if he were 10 years younger, he would run for president in 2016.
In Sunday's interview, the 76-year-old Democratic governor told Chuck Todd, “I can't say. I've ran three times, so if I could go back in a time machine and be 66, I might jump in.”
In the past year, Brown has not shut the door entirely on a presidential run. But his current age leads many to believe that he is too old to run for president. Brown ran for president in 1976, 1980 and 1992, but never became the Democratic nominee.
Brown said the potential candidates for 2016 should be focused on the budget, climate change and investments in science, technology and the nation’s universities.
“I'd like to see a positive agenda and not the mythology that somehow the government can retract to what it was in 1929,” he said.
Voters in California elected Brown to an unprecedented fourth term as governor in November. According to a list compiled by the University of Minnesota, he is one of the longest-serving state governors in American history.
— Daniel Cooney