AARP survey finds older Floridians slightly prefer Donald Trump

Vacation Seniors With Cocktails
Overall, the poll gives a slight edge to Joe Biden but numbers are close.

Joe Biden has a slight edge among likely Florida voters overall while President Donald Trump leads slightly among older Floridians, according to a new poll conducted on behalf of AARP.

The survey, conducted August 30-September 8, shows Biden leading Trump by a 48%-46% spread among all polled Floridians, an advantage buoyed for Biden by strong support from voters under the age of 50.

Those ages 50 or older favor the President’s reelection by a 50%-47% spread. A closer look finds Trump’s real advantage comes among voters ages 50-64, among whom he has a 7-point lead, while those likely Florida voters over 65 lean 1 point toward Biden.

The AARP poll also finds slight majorities of older Floridians, those 50 or older, support how Trump is managing the coronavirus pandemic and have a favorable overall opinion of the President. They also have an unfavorable opinion of Biden.

Still, nearly all of those results fall within the poll’s margin of error. That means there was an almost even split on most of those opinions.

The survey was conducted by Benenson Strategy Group and GS Strategy Group among 1,600 likely 2020 voters in Florida, with a margin of error of about 3%.

The poll also shows widespread nervousness among older Florida likely voters about vaccines, and a significant number of older Floridians planning to vote by mail in the November 3 election.

Among other findings:

— Biden holds a 48%-46% lead overall, built on a 49%-41% advantage among likely voters under the age of 50. Those ages 50-64 favor Trump 52%-45%. and those ages 65 or older prefer Biden 49%-48%. In the all-ages group, independent voters favor Biden 52%-38%. Eleven percent of independent voters remain undecided, just about the only significant bloc of undecided voters found in the survey. Biden has a big lead among women, Trump among men.

— Voters over the age of 50 give Trump a 50%-48% spread of approval on how he has handled the pandemic. That’s buoyed by a 51%-48% spread in his favor among older independent voters.

— Older voters are nervous about taking a COVID-19 vaccine if it becomes available. Overall, 46% said they would take it and 30% said no, while 24% were uncertain. Democrats actually showed more confidence in the vaccine than Republicans. The only groups in which majorities said yes were men and voters 65 years old or older.

— The biggest bloc of older voters, 36%, plan to vote by mail, while 33% plan to vote in person on Election Day, and 27% plan to go to an early-voting center. There was a strong partisan divide on this issue, as 50% of Democrats plan to vote by mail but only 23% of Republicans.

Scott Powers

Scott Powers is an Orlando-based political journalist with 30+ years’ experience, mostly at newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel and the Columbus Dispatch. He covers local, state and federal politics and space news across much of Central Florida. His career earned numerous journalism awards for stories ranging from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster to presidential elections to misplaced nuclear waste. He and his wife Connie have three grown children. Besides them, he’s into mystery and suspense books and movies, rock, blues, basketball, baseball, writing unpublished novels, and being amused. Email him at [email protected].


5 comments

  • Sonja Fitch

    September 10, 2020 at 9:13 am

    Joke! Just didn’t want to let you in on the truth! Trump is a paranoid delusional racist sexist liar traitor! Folks my age will not vote for it!

  • martin

    September 10, 2020 at 10:39 am

    anyone with an IQ above room temperature prefers TRUMP!

    • Tjb

      September 10, 2020 at 11:51 am

      Too bad that Trump’s IQ is that of today’s temperature in Denver. But don’t panic, he still capable of destroying democracy.

  • James Robert Miles

    September 10, 2020 at 5:23 pm

    These so called “old people” are just dying to lose their Social Security which is what will happen if Trump wins! DUMP TRUMP!!!

  • Valerie Sprieser

    September 10, 2020 at 5:24 pm

    Age doesn’t always mean more wisdom!
    Put your hearing aids and glasses on and turn off fox!
    Trump is chaos and death….your death because he wants herd immunity and the old and ill are the first to die!

Comments are closed.


#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, Anne Geggis, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Gray Rohrer, Jesse Scheckner, Christine Sexton, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704




Sign up for Sunburn


Categories