Arizona's Senior Voter Shift: Trump Gains, Biden Struggles

A new AARP poll reveals a significant shift among Arizona voters aged 50 and over, favoring Donald Trump over Joe Biden. Despite Biden's efforts to court senior voters with policies on healthcare and social security, his support appears to be waning. The poll highlights potential challenges for Biden in key battleground states.

Voters over age 50 in the key battleground state of Arizona strongly favor Donald Trump in November's election rematch, a new poll from the U.S.'s largest organization for older Americans shows, highlighting a potential new weakness in Democrat Joe Biden's support.

Arizona voters overall favor Republican Trump over Biden by 45% to 37%, with 11% of support going to independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) poll released on Wednesday shows. Trump's lead is greatest among voters ages 50 and older, at 49% to 39%, the poll shows, showing a fresh weakness for Biden, whose support among voters without college degrees, young voters and Black voters has dropped since 2020. Among women voters only age 50 and older, Biden is tied in Arizona, the AARP poll shows.

Exit polls by NBC News after the 2020 election showed Arizona voters over 50 favored Trump by a margin of 52% to 47% for Biden; CNN exit polls showed Arizona voters aged 50 to 64 favored Trump 55% to 45%, while those over 65 favored him by just 50% to 49%. Biden won Arizona by less than 11,000 votes in 2020.

Biden's weakness in the AARP poll isn't reflective of a broader party split. Arizona voters overall favor Democrat Ruben Gallego over Republican Kari Lake 48% to 45% in the state's race for a U.S. Senate seat, while the two candidates are tied with over-50s. On Thursday, Biden's campaign kicks off "Seniors for Biden-Harris" in Arizona with bingo events in Arizona. First lady Jill Biden is traveling to Arizona on Saturday to speak to seniors.

Biden has lowered costs for insulin and other prescription drugs, passed rules that make hearing aids cheaper, and pledged to protect funding for Social Security, the U.S. government pension program. In March, the Biden campaign said it would attack Trump over Republican threats to cut Social Security and Medicare in the key states of Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, with an advertising campaign and several press conferences.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)