Florida’s Latino Seniors Are Shifting to Biden

Experts say the pandemic and Trump’s response to the health crisis made senior citizens turn away from the president even more.

President Donald Trump may want to rethink his Saturday visit to Florida because most senior citizens in the Sunshine State are turning their back on him. 

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He may have had the advantage in the 2016 election among senior citizens but there’s a shift to the progressive side—a trend that has been happening since before the pandemic. 

Several polls indicate that senior citizens have been swaying away from Trump since 2018, and more recent polls, particularly in Florida, show former Vice President Joe Biden is taking the lead. 

A sign of this shift toward Biden was evident over the weekend when hundreds of seniors in golf carts paraded in The Villages, Florida, a senior citizen area north of Orlando. 

“I wanted [to vote for] somebody who could be a good role model,” 75-year-old Barbara Suden told the Financial Times. “I have seven grandchildren. They watched the debate, and I can tell you I immediately got on the phone and told them that was not the proper way to act.”

Suden, who has already cast her ballot for Biden, is among the 948,000 early voters in Florida—the highest early voter turnout nationwide. USA Today reports that 497,000 Democrats have submitted their mail ballots while 270,000 Republicans have also cast their ballots. 

AARP Florida shows a divide among white seniors over 50, who favor Trump by 50%, while 47% are backing Biden. However, white voters above age 65 are supporting Biden by 49%, compared to 48% who favor Trump. Among Florida Latino seniors, 59% are supporting Biden, while 37% favor Trump. The majority of Black seniors, 91%, are backing Biden. 

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Experts say the pandemic and Trump’s response to the health crisis made senior citizens turn away from the president even more. 

In an interview with Politico, Nora Super, the senior director of the Milken Institute’s Center for the Future of Aging, said the way the president has talked about senior citizens and COVID-19 did not help matters. She also said that Trump does not fit into their conservative ideals. 

“A majority of voters ages 65 and up haven’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Al Gore—it’s been two decades—and the trend has been that people get more conservative as they get older,” Super said. “The two things really changing that in this election are: one, that Trump doesn’t fit the mold of most conservatives in terms of traditional beliefs and fiscal responsibility, things that people have typically associated with Republicans and with older voters, and, two, COVID-19.”