› For the first time in modern history, both major party candidates are nondrinkers,
A presidential election that has driven a nation to drink is being fought to the bitter end by two men who do not.
For the first time in modern history, both major party candidates for the White House are teetotalers. President Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, have not had an alcoholic drink over the course of their lives, by their own accounts.
This Teetotaler Campaign, and the fact that this circumstance has drawn so little notice, is to some extent evidence of how the once hard- drinking culture of politics is changing. Candidates, campaign aides and reporters are drinking less, aware of the scrutiny that comes in the age of cellphones and Twitter, not to mention the nonstop demands of a roundthe-clock campaign.
But it also goes to the way Biden and Trump, for all their stark differences, share some similarities in character and background, according to biographers and others who have observed them over the years. They each grew up in families shadowed by the specter of alcoholism — Trump’s brother died from it, and one of Biden’s favorite uncles, whom he lived with growing up, was a heavy drinker.
Both have distanced themselves from the
boozy social circuits in Washington and New York, Biden because he was commuting home to his family in Delaware every night and Trump because he tends to be more comfortable at home watching television.
But more than anything, it is testament to the nature of two fiercely ambitious men, and their calculation that alcohol would put them at a disadvantage, be it in the world of politics or New York City development, or running a casino.
“Th e s e a re two intensely competitive men who made a judgment early in their careers that their path to success is going to be willing themselves into the positions they wanted,” said Evan Osnos, author of a just- completed biography
of Biden. “That did not leave much room for getting drunk.”
It has been nearly a century since temperance had much bearing on American politics. The Prohibition Era began 101 years ago with ratification of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution and ended in 1933 with its repeal.
“There was a time in American public life when character was associated with a level of sobriety,” said Tim Naftali, a presidential historian. “I think that disappeared with the end of Prohibition.”
Biden and Trump rarely discuss their nondrinking ways, much less present their abstinence as any kind of virtue. Trump once joked about it as he noted he had never had a glass of alcohol in his life. “Can you imagine if
I had?” he asked. “What a mess I would be.”
Trump has over the years said the main reason he does not drink is because he witnessed his brother Fred struggle with alcoholism and later die from it. His brother’s drinking drew the disapproval of his father, which also made an impression on Trump, a son always striving for the approval of his strongwilled father, according to his biographers.
Gwenda Blair, who has written about Trump and his family, said the president realized early in his career that abstinence would give him an upper hand in the brutally competitive New York real estate development market. Later, as a casino owner in Atlantic City, he took note of the tradition of plying gamblers with free drinks to encourage them to abandon their inhibitions and stay close to the gaming table and slot machines.
“As they’re downing scotches, he’s downing Diet Cokes,” she said. “It’s part of his ultracompetitive profile. This is a guy who is so competitive that his high school coach said he was the most coachable kid he had ever coached because unlike most kids, Donald remembered what he needed to do to win.”
Biden is no less driven. He talked about becoming president as a young man, and this is the third time he has sought the office. He is also a man of self- discipline, as he has demonstrated in overcoming a stutter. While Trump talks of losing his brother to alcoholism, Biden grew up in a house full of drinkers, notably his Uncle Edward, known as BooBoo. “There are enough alcoholics in my family,” he once said when asked why he did not drink.
Osnos said that Biden has made clear “he believes there is a genetic component to this and that it runs in the family. It’s not a leap to also connect this to the struggles his son Hunter has had with addiction.”
Among the others on the two major party tickets this year, Vice President Mike Pence does not drink alcohol either, leaving Sen. Kamala Harris as the only one who has a drink sometimes.