Trump faces a 'Gray Revolt' among older voters

Trump faces a 'Gray Revolt' among older voters

Once a solidly Republican voting bloc, Reuters polling shows older Americans are increasingly throwing their support behind Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden ahead of Election Day.

This report produced by Zachary Goelman.

Donald Trump is facing a revolt by a group of American voters who were solidly behind his campaign four years ago: older Americans.

Reuters/Ipsos polling data from September and October shows voters aged 55 and older are now about evenly split, with 47% saying they are voting for Democratic candidate Joe Biden, and 46% for Trump.

The shift appears driven by the coronavirus pandemic, and the direction is an alarming sign for the president.

Republicans have relied on the support of the older age brackets in national elections for years.

Exit polls show Trump won the demographic by 13 percentage points in 2016.

Four years before that, Republican candidate Mitt Romney had a similar margin.

Now, with just 25 days before the election, Reuters/Ipsos polls also show Biden beating Trump among older voters in battleground state Wisconsin by 10 points and drawing about even with Trumps among voters 55 and up in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida and Arizona.

In the surveys half of the older voters in the five battleground states blamed the 7.6 million COVID-19 cases and over 210,000 coronavirus deaths in the country on "poor leadership and policy decisions from President Trump." Among older Americans, 83% were concerned about the threat that the coronavirus poses to their personal health and safety.