Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. As part of our Target Voter Series
Resurgent Republic sponsored four focus groups among seniors ages 65 and older in Tampa Florida & Grand Rapids Michigan.
These voters self-identified as Independents voted for President Obama in 2008 but are undecided on the generic presidential ballot today.
Over the past three presidential cycles the senior vote has alternated its political preference.
In 2008 voters ages 65 and older were the only age demographic President Obama failed to carry losing them by 53 to 45 percent. (Those ages 45 to 64 split giving a one-point edge to Obama.) In 2004 President Bush won this demographic by five points (52 to 47 percent) while seniors preferred Al Gore in 2000 (50 to 47 percent).
This group of voters will be one of the most reliable to turn out come November.
Key Findings
These seniors were consistent with that theme but this target voter group added the quality and cost of health care as a top priority. Many surveys have shown that health care is a top priority for older females while older men tend to worry more about fiscal issues.
In our groups however senior males and females were equally likely to bring up the health care issue.When asked how they will evaluate President Obama come November most respondents in our Target Voter Series pointed to the economy or their personal financial situation.
Additional key findings include:
- With few exceptions these seniors were satisfied with their current health care coverage and nervous about changing what is perceived as a good thing.
- These seniors recalled few specifics of ObamaCare. Recall of what is in the legislation ranges from very fuzzy to non-existent.
- However when reminded they did express negative reactions to specific features like the individual mandate Independent Payment Advisory Board and Medicare cuts.
- Seniors tended to cite the wars as more of a leading cause of the nations escalating debt crisis than entitlement spending.
- Since many of these voters have a fixed income they were acutely aware of changes in home values and everyday costs (i.e. health care food and gas prices).
Conducted by Voter/Consumer Research the focus groups were split by gender.
