Vice President Kamala Harris’ pick of Tim Walz as her running mate makes history in a most unusual way: There’s virtually no history between them. And by that I mean actual history. Both were born in the same calendar year, 1964. Harris was born on October 20th, Walz on April 6th, making him 198 days her elder.
Such a calendric pairing is so rare it’s happened only once before in the White House, with Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin in 1860, and once more with the losing ticket of Henry Clay and Nathan Sanford in 1824. (Lincoln and his second vice president, Andrew Johnson, were born in different years but only 42 days apart.)
Large gaps in age are far more common–usually in the other direction. Sarah Palin was 28 years younger than John McCain, the second-largest age gap behind James Buchanan and John Breckinridge; Dan Quayle was 23 years younger than George W. Bush, the same as Richard Nixon and Dwight Eisenhower as well as Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney.
