AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Former President Donald Trump is trailing Vice President Kamala Harris with a surprising and crucial voting bloc in Pennsylvania, according to early voting tallies.
Politico reported on Friday that “in Pennsylvania, where voters over the age of 65 have cast nearly half of the early ballots, registered Democrats account for about 58 percent of votes cast by seniors, compared to 35 percent for Republicans. That’s despite both parties having roughly equal numbers of registered voters aged 65 and older.”
Historically, older voters have been the key Republican demographic in winning elections. Trump’s total among voters over 65 in Pennsylvania in 2020, a state he lost, was just over 50 percent.
Politico called the trend a “warning sign” for Trump, but noted that Democrats are voting early in larger numbers than Republicans. The report points out that the “partisan gap is narrower than it was in 2020, when views of early voting were more partisan, and Republicans take that as a good sign. But the GOP still is counting on more of its older voters to show up on Election
The data is in line with polling in the state that has shown Trump shedding support among older voters. According to a Fox News poll of Pennsylvania, Trump is running 5 percentage points behind Harris among voters ages 65 and over, slipping back from the previous month, when he and Harris were tied with that demographic.
Over the summer, before dropping out of the race, President Joe Biden was leading Trump with older voters as well. “If current polling pans out, November’s election between two historically old candidates would upend long-held assumptions about how Americans vote,” reported Axios in June, adding, “Older Americans — perhaps driven by old-school respect for institutions and distaste for Trump’s unorthodox style — are flocking to Biden, according to a series of recent polls.”
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