AARP Volunteers Hold Presidential Hopefuls’ Feet to the Fire 

Volunteering with AARP has been an extension of Lacroix’s work as an advocate for the American Physical Therapy Association. A retired physical therapist and health care manager, Lacroix says elected officials at all levels listen when they realize New Hampshire volunteers like him are representing a quarter of a million AARP members in the state.

New Hampshire voters put a premium on one-on-one interaction with people who want their support at the polls. So, Lacroix says, even when they don’t get a question in, they can button-hole a candidate and make the pitch for them to pay attention to the issues for which AARP is fighting.

And as important as getting the candidate to pay attention to AARP’s issues, says Lacroix, is the effect a volunteer’s question can have on the other voters who are attending a town hall or candidate forum.

“It makes people aware. We tell them we’re interested in protecting Medicare and Social Security,” Lacroix says. Often, the people in the audience don’t know, for example, that the programs’ solvency could be in danger down the road if Congress doesn’t act.

“It’s like a call to arms,” Lacroix says. “We make people aware, and hopefully they spread the news and it gets momentum going to have people we elect do something about it.”

Making a difference

Before volunteers go to candidate events to represent AARP, they attend training to ensure that they know what AARP’s message is and how best to broach it with candidates. AARP staff members stress that the organization is nonpartisan, regardless of a volunteer’s own political views, and emphasize the importance of personalizing the questions posed to candidates and elected officials.

“At the end of the day, because folks like you are willing to devote your time and energy and effort is the only way we can be successful,” John Hishta, AARP senior vice president for campaigns, told a group of volunteers at a day-long voter engagement training in Manchester this fall. We don’t endorse; we don’t contribute money [to candidates],” Hishta said. “But we have the most powerful voting bloc in the country and the largest and strongest membership in the country. And politicians know that.”

AARP Senior Vice President for Campaigns John Hishta addresses a voter education training session for New Hampshire volunteers.

Tony Loung

Each AARP state office tailors its candidate engagement efforts to what works in its state. These volunteer efforts to highlight AARP’s issues will continue through the election season and even after candidates get elected.

“Social Security and Medicare may not be in the news every day because there are so many issues out there right now,” says Christina FitzPatrick, AARP New Hampshire state director. “So, if AARP isn’t going to raise the question of what leaders are going to do to protect Social Security and Medicare, there is no other group that would do that.”

FitzPatrick points to high prescription drug prices as an “example of an issue that was a sleeper but got elevated in large measure because of AARP,” recalling how in past elections the volunteers wore red T-shirts proclaiming “Stop Rx Greed” or “Fair Rx Prices Now.”  Those years-long campaigns culminated in a new prescription drug law that is already starting to lower how much older Americans pay for their medications. 

At a town hall in Hampton, New Hampshire, Christie made it clear that AARP’s presence at his campaign events has influenced his thinking about issues dear to older Americans. 

“I knew about [Social Security] before, and I had opinions about it beforehand,” Christie said. “But folks in the red fleeces show up at every one of my town hall meetings and they’re wearing their AARP buttons. And even if they don’t ask a question, they’re talking to me by their presence.”