I’m not sure about your 1880 date, but the Bible interprets itself and the Greek for “fasting” here is as a religious exercise, not just abstaining from food for the physical benefits of fasting.
Jesus was himself fasting for forty days in the desert, when He had victory over Satan; so this is most likely why He was emphatic that “this kind (of satanic entity) comes out only by prayer and fasting”...
It is all in the same way He pulled down “strongholds” or lies and accusations of Satan’s misuse of scripture in the temptation in the desert.
http://www.blbclassic.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G3521&t=KJV
Regarding "about 1880" it is not "my date." It is the era that a text (click here) thought by scholar-authors Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort to be older--hence better--was introduced. It is synthetic, cobbled together out of three text traditions. All modern Bible New Testament translations (excepting the New King James Version) have followed it.
Jesus was himself fasting for forty days in the desert, when He had victory over Satan; . . .
Prersonally, I don't think that fasting ave Jesus any greater power, since already having the attribute of omnipotency there is nothing that could make Him any more powerful should He choose to exercise it.
Whom do you think is to do the fasting? The exorcist? And why is that supposedly necessary discipline is left out of modern additions?
Again, I think this has little to do with the outcome of the election that is now upon us as a nation. Now we will get what we numerically deserve, be it a good or evil outcome. But prayer and alignment with God's view of it can affect how we handle the results, going forward.