Recent polls show Biden winning fewer young voters than Clinton, but far more of the elderly. The questions for today are:
- Is that surprising?
- Is the trade-off a positive or a negative for Biden?
The answer to the first question is no. The elderly, by and large, are looking for peace and security; Trump has given them constant chaos, a pandemic, and throwing grandma from the train to save the economy. In addition, Biden is an elderly white guy, so identity politics won’t be an issue this time. He would be wise to cultivate this cohort, particularly with a plan to strengthen Social Security, as much as possible.
As to the second question, it’s a positive, for two reasons. First, the elderly vote in larger numbers than the young; and second, they are distributed in a way that helps Biden with his Electoral College problem. Winning younger voters in blue states doesn’t produce electoral votes; flipping elderly voters in Florida, Arizona, and the Rust Belt does.