Dem
51
GOP
49
In recent years, seniors tended to vote Republican. Yet Joe Biden is doing well with seniors. What's going on? Have the seniors all forgotten who they are expected to vote for? Actually, no. It makes sense, really. Today's seniors are not yesterday's seniors. Some people's image of a senior is Archie Bunker, the bigoted protagonist of the 1970s hit sitcom All in the Family. Every week he would rage against some "injustice" to people like him or light into some ethnic group he dislikes.
But times change, even if Archie didn't like that. Someone who is now 80 turned 18 in 1962; someone who is now 75 turned 18 in 1967; someone who is now 65 turned 18 in 1977. Many seniors came of age during the Civil Rights movement and the war in Vietnam. Many of them were involved in demonstrations and protests then. Only people older than 83 came of age during the Eisenhower administration, and that is an increasingly small group. Archie Bunker is the wrong model here. Archie's daughter Gloria and his son-in-law Michael are the models for today's seniors.
There are plenty of studies that show once someone hits 30 or so, their political views typically don't change a lot over time unless something fairly radical happens. So it is not surprising that people who came of age during the Civil Rights movement are not going to be as conservative as their parents.
In all, Boomers will make up 70% of the seniors in Nov. 2024, and they are far more liberal than the Silent Generation, which came before them. World War II vets? Anyone who was 18 or older in 1945 would have been born in 1927 or earlier. The youngest ones would be 97. Not a big part of the electorate.
Republican strength among 65+ voters peaked in 2012, when Mitt Romney beat Barack Obama by 10 points. In 2020, Donald Trump beat Joe Biden by only 3 points among 65+ voters. This year, Biden is likely to win that group, in no small part because they want to support the idea that even at 80, a person can be a smart and vigorous leader. (V)