|
E-mail this page to a friend!
Senior Citizen Politics
Senior Citizens Most Adamant Voter Age Group and
They Want Hillary Clinton
Young people surging to vote for Obama, older
voters love Hillary
 March
5, 2008 – Age is clearly a factor in the battle for the presidential
nomination of the Democratic Party. The older the voter, the more likely
he or she will vote for Hillary Clinton. The trends detected by the Pew
Research Center in the Super Tuesday elections appeared to hold in
yesterday’s elections in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island.
The Pew analysis by Scott Keeter focused on the
youngest voters following Super Tuesday. He said polling in recent years
has shown young voters trending Democratic and this year a “clear
majority” of the 18 to 29 year-olds say they are Democrats. About a
third are Republicans.
 Barack
Obama won a majority of the 2008 vote among this age group in every
state that had held a primary or caucus through Super Tuesday, with the
exception of California, Arkansas, and Massachusetts.
But, at the upper end of the scale, Clinton
received a commanding 57% to 37% majority among on Super Tuesday among
voters 60 and older. That was even more lopsided than Obama’s margin
among the youngest voters – 57% to 41%.
Obama also had a 54%-43% advantage among the next
youngest age group, those ages 30-44, while the scale tipped to Clinton
(51% to 46%) among those ages 45-59.
Beyond the vote, the exit polls on Super Tuesday
pointed to interesting differences -- and similarities -- between
younger and older Democratic voters, according to Keeter.
“Young Democratic voters are considerably more
likely than their elders to be Hispanic, and slightly more likely to be
black. They are more apt to say they have no religious affiliation (23%
vs. 18% among those ages 30-44, 15% among those 45-59, 10% among those
ages 60 and older), and more likely to say they are ‘liberal’ in their
political orientation,” he writes.
“But their attitudes on issues, and their
orientations with respect to the '08 campaign -- other than their vote
choice -- are not very different from those of their elders.
“Younger and older Democratic voters are similar in
the ratings they give to the national economy (overwhelmingly "not so
good" or "poor"), in the percentage Democratic vs. independent, and when
they say they made up their minds who to vote for in the election.
“They are no different in the importance they
assign to gender and race in the vote. And their issue priorities are
very similar to those of older voters. Notably, though younger voters
were more likely to vote for Obama, comparable percentages of younger
and older voters say they would be satisfied with each candidate.
>>
More of “Young Voters in the 2008 Presidential
Primaries”
>>
Clinton Campaign has turned a corner - March 5, 2008, CNN
Click to More Senior News on the
Front Page
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
