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Older Voters Play Decisive Role as Democrats Sweep Midterms
Americans 50+ flexed their electoral muscle at the polls, driven by concerns about the economy and protecting Social Security
16-minute read
Sabrinia Smith of Michigan, Lyle Grimm of Iowa and Rita Medina of Texas are among the older voters in swing states AARP spoke with about what’s motivating them to cast ballots in the midterm elections.
Left to right: Nick Hagen, Danny Wilcox Frazier, Christopher Lee
Key takeaways
- Democrats retook both chambers of Congress Tuesday in dominating fashion.
- Voters 50-plus cast 60 percent of all votes nationwide, helping flip deep red Senate seats in Kansas, South Carolina and Texas.
- Concerns about affordability and the future of Social Security were among the top issues motivating older voters.
Older voters played a decisive role Tuesday in a midterm election that saw Democrats gain power in Washington and across the country.
Driven by concerns over affordability and the future of Social Security, voters 50-plus cast six of every 10 ballots in Tuesday’s midterm elections. They helped Democrats with a historic victory that will reshape Capitol Hill when a new Congress is sworn in next year.
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As of Wednesday morning, Democrats are projected to win at least 228 seats in the House and at least 54 seats in the Senate, enough to take control of both chambers. Older voters accounted for 60 percent of the electorate, according to data from the NORC Civic Health & Elections Project, a nonpartisan research center.
“Once again, older voters cast the majority of ballots in this year’s election,” AARP Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer Nancy LeaMond said. “They are the nation’s most reliable voters.”
It’s a familiar trend. Voters 50-plus are typically the deciders of elections: They come out in greater numbers than any other age group. AARP polls in battleground states heading into the election consistently showed older voters appeared to be more motivated than younger generations. Eighty-three percent of voters 50-plus described themselves as “extremely” motivated to vote, compared with 66 percent of those younger than 50, according to an Oct. 15 AARP poll of 43 battleground congressional districts.
There were splits among older voters. Nationally, voters 50-plus favored Democrats by three points (50-47). Older women favored Democrats by nine points nationally, while older men gave Republicans a five-point edge. Americans 50 to 64 voted for Democrats by a one-point margin, while voters 65 and over favored Democrats by a four-point margin.
Older voters “aren’t a monolith,” LeaMond said. “How older Americans voted varies a lot when you look at factors like age, gender and where they live. What is consistent is the concern folks have about their financial security and that Social Security must be protected now and into the future.”
The future of Social Security was top of mind. Ninety percent of voters 50 and older, including 87 percent of Republicans, 87 percent of independents and 94 percent of Democrats, said protecting Social Security from cuts is very or extremely important, the NORC survey showed. The view crossed generations: 64 percent of younger voters agreed.
Voters 50-plus cast the majority of votes in the states that swung from red to blue and decided the election, including in South Carolina (65 percent), Ohio (63 percent), North Carolina (62 percent), Maine (61 percent) and Kansas (60 percent), according to the NORC data.
The NORC survey also showed wide swings among voters 50 and older from the previous midterm in 2022 that led Democrats to victory: Older Kansas voters swung 29 points toward the Democratic candidate over 2022, older South Carolina voters swung 26 points and older Ohio voters swung 14 points.
Concerns about affordability ranked high. Fifty-eight percent of voters 50-plus said the economy was their top issue, while voters 50 to 64 placed it even higher, at 62 percent, according to NORC data. Nearly a quarter of older voters said health care and prescription drugs lead their concerns.
In the run-up to the election, AARP spoke with older voters in seven states with pivotal Senate contests — Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina and Texas — to find out what issues were driving them to the polls. Six of those seven states went Democratic Tuesday evening, with Alaska still undecided. Those voters consistently told AARP it was important their voices be heard through their ballots.
Find out what was on their minds as they made their choices.
Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
ALASKA
Rusty McKenzie, with his wife Kristy McKenzie, worries about the economy and says the rising price of gas “hurts everybody.”
Ash Adams
Rusty McKenzie, 60
Anchorage
Rusty McKenzie spent much of his career working on Alaska’s North Slope for the oil and gas industry.
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always tried to vote. I worked on the slope for a long time, and in national elections, they actually had [polling places] on the slope, and I would go and vote. I think it’s very important that everybody gets out and does their part. Otherwise, you can’t complain about what happens if you don’t want to take part and do your civic duty and vote.
I’ve contributed to Social Security since I was probably 10, 12 years old. I delivered newspapers, and I paid my Social Security then, and I pay it today. Of course, I’m worried about it being there. I’m kind of a fiscal conservative, so I would like to see what people have put into it stay and be available for them. Social Security needs to stick around.
I’m definitely worried about the economy. With the price of gas the way it is, it hurts everybody. It definitely benefits the state of Alaska with the price of oil $140 a barrel. But for every average American, the price of gasoline and the price of oil is definitely jacking up their costs.
GEORGIA
Jacqueline Collins says caregiving is an important factor in how she votes.
Olivia Bowdoin
Jacqueline Collins, 71
Atlanta
I was a caregiver for my mother, who died not too long ago. It was a fight every step of the way. I feel that the elderly are really not taken care of the way that they should be. A friend of mine’s daughter came to Atlanta. She has four children. I was helping her get on her feet. I was actually paying for her to live while she was trying to get into the welfare system. There is a waiting list over a mile long to get into a shelter. It took forever for her even to get food stamps. I am looking very carefully before making my decision on who I’m going to vote on. I go to as many meetings as I can just to see what people are talking about. It’s very challenging for people right now.
Jessie Navarrete is concerned about immigration and says people should vote if they want changes.
Olivia Bowdoin
Jessie Navarrete, 66
Atlanta
Navarrete is a Venezuelan native who became a U.S. citizen in 2023.
This will be my second time voting. I think, right now, you need to vote if you want changes. My biggest concern is immigration. People are being deported every day. I am worried about losing my citizenship.
I lost my job, so right now I am on unemployment, and I just went on Social Security. I wasn’t planning on going on Social Security until I turned 70. But the economy and the employment situation in this country is so weak that I had to go on Social Security. I’m very worried about Social Security, and that makes me definitely want to go to vote.
IOWA
Calvetta Berry doesn’t have medical insurance because she says health care premiums are too costly.
Danny Wilcox Frazier
Calvetta Berry, 55
Des Moines
I haven’t often voted. No one taught me to vote. Now, as I get older, I’m thinking that it’s very important to vote. Ask me maybe five years ago, I probably wouldn’t even have thought [voting in the midterms] was a big deal. Like, I’m just going to vote for the president, and there we go. So I’m learning. Even at my old age, I’m still learning.
Midterms are very important. No one, especially an older person, should have to be trying to figure out how they’re going to pay for hospital bills or medicine versus food. I ran into that this past year. My premiums were too high, so I don’t have medical [insurance] right now. My kids have it, but I don’t have it because I couldn’t afford to feed my kids or pay this high premium that I have. I haven’t been sick, but I do need to go get a checkup. I do need to see the dentist, but right now I just can’t afford it.
Lyle Grimm wants the government to do more to protect small farms.
Danny Wilcox Frazier
Lyle Grimm, 68
North English
Grimm operates a 125-acre family farm with cattle and some crops.
I’m more on the independent side; I don’t care about the party. That’s the biggest problem we have with our political system. We’ve got Republicans and Democrats, and I wish we never had either one. If we had one group, then hey, that’s the way it is. If you’re in there and you don’t get the job done, you’re out. Out here in the rural area, candidates don’t come that much. They’re going to your cities [instead].
The biggest issue I would probably have is being able to keep the small farms. And we’re losing more and more every year. I have a neighbor. He’s probably 72 or 73. He’s been farming by himself for quite a few years. He lost his wife maybe five years ago or more. But he’s still doing it. When the parents pass, the younger generation [should] get it in a way that they don’t have to pay for the farm, so that it’s handed down.
Jeff Martin, a cancer survivor, thinks lawmakers should do more to protect the environment and public health.
Danny Wilcox Frazier
Jeff Martin, 56
Newton
Martin survived renal cancer and his wife, Lisa, is battling breast cancer.
Well, I’m looking for that candidate that checks as many boxes as they possibly can with where my concerns are. The cancer rate is something that I’m fighting every day. I was lucky enough, but I have a high risk moving forward. My wife, unfortunately, is going to be dealing with some sort of treatment the rest of her life. So clean water, responsible farming, making sure that we’re doing the things we need to with the environment to make sure we’re reducing those cancer-causing agents is probably going to be the thing that I’m going to be paying attention to the closest.
Dave Moore depends on Social Security to cover half of his expenses.
Danny Wilcox Frazier
Dave Moore, 75
Iowa City
Affordability concerns me because I feel like everywhere I go, it’s biting me. It’s not even a little guy. It’s a middle guy. It’s an upper-middle guy. They know they’ve got us everywhere you go, and it’s only really recently I’ve felt this way. I call them the oligarchs and the billionaires, the trillionaires.
There’s always been times of inflation when things got expensive, gas was high, but now I feel like they figured out that they got us, and they’re gonna keep getting us, keep squeezing every dollar they can out of any peon on every block. And how can we find our way out of this situation?
Five or 10 years ago, I would have said that anybody that worried about Social Security was a fearmonger. But now, as I’ve seen other good things that we took for granted waver, I’m beginning to wonder about Social Security. It seems astonishing you could take away something that people have paid into. It was a deal that was cut as a part of being an American. We don’t have high amounts of Social Security because we led lives not making a ton of money. We depend on it very much. It pays half our bills, probably. And, at some point, will pay most of our bills.
MAINE
Jim Fisher is worried about the level of government borrowing and wants politicians to think long-term.
Ryan David Brown
Jim Fisher, 69
Blue Hill
Fisher is the town manager of Deer Isle. His father was Congressman Joseph L. Fisher of Virginia.
I think the message I would send is: Please think long-term about how we’re going to maintain a sustainable economy. I’m very concerned about the level of borrowing right now. We’re mortgaging ourselves into an impossible financial crisis in the future. We’re saddling our kids and grandkids with a lot of debt. I would invest in productivity. I would invest in educating young people to be prepared for the future. I would invest in technologies that reduce our environmental footprint, allow us to achieve greater density with less pollution. A bunch of things like that, but they’re mostly long-term. You invest in education now, the payoff will be maybe 20 years from now.
When my father was in the House of Representatives, he [helped write] the Superfund legislation. And that was a very long-term process of trying to figure out: What are we going to do with these mistakes we’ve made? We were stuck with these old mine sites that are toxic. That kind of thinking was long-range. So I would look for the next congressman or senator to think about sort of the long-term ethics of how we run this country and how we avoid causing long-term harm for short-term gain.
Dan Miller takes care of his mother and calls the caregiving situation “extremely acute.”
Ryan David Brown
Dan Miller, 51
Belfast
Miller operates a boatyard, sits on the Belfast City Council and spent 20 years as volunteer firefighter.
My mother has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but until a few weeks ago, she was still able to stay at home. A couple weeks ago, she suffered a pretty major stroke. She’s been in the hospital since. The hospital is at the end of their ability to treat her because she’s not making the progress required. She’s going to be sent home, and we’re trying to juggle how to pay for 24-hour care for her. I don’t have a solution for the state or for the insurance companies, and I know that these things can go on forever and are extremely expensive for a caregiver. The caregiving situation is extremely acute right now. To me, it’s not a political issue specifically. There’s no number that we could reduce my taxes by that would solve this problem for me. And so I consider it a social issue that needs some government oversight, policy, regulation, planning.
MICHIGAN
Jay Williams wants candidates to promote more affordable health care.
Nick Hagen
Jay Williams, 51
Detroit
Williams and his wife, Sarah, operate an independent bookstore.
I do want more candidates that speak to Medicare for all. As a small business owner, I don’t think a lot of people realize that when you tie health care to employment, you really stifle entrepreneurship. Some people may not leave a job because of their health care. Both my wife and I have done that recently. And so health care, what used to be kind of something in the background because it was tied to employment, is now every year kind of this ‘OK, now what are the costs going to be? How do you plan for that?’ So I’m very much in favor of candidates that speak to fixing the ACA or Medicare for all or anything related to making health care more affordable and available to more people.
Sabrinia Smith has seen huge jumps in the cost of gas and food.
Nick Hagen
Sabrinia Smith, 68
Grosse Pointe Woods
I used to spend $38 for a tank of gas, and now it’s $68 and some odd cents. I don’t see how anybody is surviving that has to go far for work. I only live five minutes away, and a tank of gas lasts me a month. But I have a daughter who works almost 40 minutes away, with six kids, and it’s like, How do you even afford the gas to get to work? Even buying food, I noticed it. I clip digital coupons faithfully when I’m having my morning coffee.
NORTH CAROLINA
Sandy Riccardi says her family relies heavily on Social Security.
Mike Belleme
Sandy Riccardi, 61
Asheville
Social Security for us is kind of huge. My husband is 83, and he’s still working like a dog. It’s a blessing and a curse because we are musicians. He is a pianist, and he has work at two different schools as a collaborative pianist. He would like to be able to pull back from it, but it keeps him alive and sharp. How many 83-year-olds can play a Beethoven sonata? I would love to be able to retire my husband because I have a long honey-do list. But as I have also been a music teacher my whole life, a musician, my income has been relatively small. At 62, I could actually start taking Social Security and take a portion of what my husband’s is worth. We rely on it heavily. We’re month-to-month here.
Ann Dunn wants the government to regulate and monitor AI.
Mike Belleme
Ann Dunn, 79
Asheville
AI is a very big concern for me. I use it when I need it. I still do a lot of research and write papers. But it’s crossed the line into necessary. It’s infrastructure now for us, just like electricity and highways and the internet. And I feel as if government has a responsibility to supervise our infrastructure. That now includes AI, and that’s not going to monitor itself.
TEXAS
Rita Mendina is concerned about the rising cost of health care.
Christopher Lee
Rita Mendina, 83
San Antonio
The last few years, Medicare has been really good to us. We have not had to pay for medication. We don’t have to pay anything. But this year, all of a sudden, we’re paying copays. We’re paying a little more for certain medications. That doesn’t worry me right now. But it’ll worry me if it continues that way. We can’t really afford expensive medications or the expensive visits to the emergency room. That’s where we go half the time.
Lucila Springs wants candidates who are “trustworthy, honest, working for the people.”
Christopher Lee
Lucila Springs, 71
San Antonio
I am one of five siblings, and I have a brother who lives here in San Antonio also. Normally, the girls are the ones who are the caregivers for the family. So I cared for my mother. I think the benefits through the Medicare system do have help for certain people. We had to jump through a lot of hoops to get the care needed. I wish there was a better system in place. I just want a candidate with a heart that’s going to treat people equally across the board.
I want somebody who’s trustworthy, honest, working for the people. I don’t want anybody who’s out there just for themselves and billionaires. I have a big heart for what immigrants are going through, people of every color. We’re all created equal. And I just feel like there’s room for us to do better. I’m going to vote for somebody who I feel has God in their heart and is going to do the right thing for the people they represent.
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