00:00 - Focus on Aging adults is sponsored in part by AARP.

00:05 - Pennsylvania has one of the largest aging populations in the country.

00:10 - Our aging adults are vibrant, active contributors to our society.

00:14 - PCN In partnership with AARP,

00:17 - present Focus on Aging Adults.

00:21 - Welcome to Focus on Aging Adults.

00:23 - I'm Larry Kasper.

00:25 - This program is brought to you in partnership between PCN

00:29 - and the AARP of Pennsylvania.

00:32 - Today, we're talking about how voters age 50 and older

00:36 - can influence the outcome of the November general election.

00:40 - The AARP of Pennsylvania commissioned a poll on this subject.

00:44 - It was conducted by Bob Ward of Fabrizio Ward

00:49 - and Jeff List from Impact Research.

00:52 - We also have Bill Johnston Walsh, the state director of the AARP

00:58 - of Pennsylvania.

00:59 - Bill, let's consider a profile of the average older voter.

01:03 - How can their concerns and priorities change as they age?

01:07 - Sure.

01:08 - Thank you.

01:08 - Yeah, and A.P., we do have a whole array.

01:13 - Our membership starts at 50.

01:15 - So we go from 50 on up.

01:17 - So you will see, especially in this poll we're going to be talking about later,

01:20 - that the 50 to 64 year olds have a different mindset than the 65 plus.

01:26 - And they're at different places in their life.

01:28 - They're still in the workforce for the most part.

01:30 - So raising their families

01:33 - compared to

01:34 - the retirees, that that might be in the 65 plus.

01:38 - At AARP, we really wanted to to look at the importance

01:43 - of the issues that are impacting our our our membership here,

01:47 - as well as the 50 plus voters across across the Commonwealth.

01:52 - We have looked at, as in past years, you know,

01:57 - the polls that that we really want to do in the election cycles.

02:01 - And we found that in 2020, 50,

02:06 - 50, 55%

02:08 - of the voters in Pennsylvania were over the age of 50.

02:11 - Then when we looked at 2022, we noticed that 62% were over

02:16 - the age of 50 in that election cycle.

02:19 - And we know and you'll hear more about that, that it's even going to be larger

02:24 - this election cycle.

02:25 - And so we wanted the candidates to know the importance of this.

02:30 - We also wanted to know, let Pennsylvanians know what's on the minds of the 50

02:34 - plus here in the state.

02:36 - What are some of the key issues that are impacting them on a day to day basis?

02:41 - And, you know, the bread and butter that the

02:44 - the table talk kind of issues that are impacting them.

02:48 - And we really wanted to be able to lay that out for

02:52 - for the 50 plus as well as for the candidates.

02:55 - Bob, that does sound significant that 62% of the electorate

02:59 - in 2022 were older voters.

03:02 - And talk about just how important that is

03:05 - to how things turn out here in Pennsylvania.

03:10 - Sure.

03:10 - Well, 2022 was a midterm election.

03:13 - Turnout is a bit lower.

03:14 - And what happens in midterm elections is younger

03:17 - people are even less likely to turnout, which makes that bulge

03:20 - every two years for 50 plus voters.

03:24 - But for this election cycle, presidential year, we're more people do turnout.

03:28 - We're still expecting to see 50 plus voters

03:31 - make up a sizable portion, a majority of the electorate.

03:35 - Our poll put it at around 55%.

03:38 - But we have some questions in our poll that show that older voters

03:41 - are more motivated.

03:42 - Younger voters are less motivated.

03:45 - So they could actually be, you know, much bigger.

03:49 - There's some demographics involved, too.

03:50 - I mean, the baby boom generation

03:52 - is taking up a big space of of this part of the electorate.

03:56 - And they're just larger than previous generations.

04:00 - And, you know, politically they're different, too.

04:02 - But we'll get into that when we talk about the poll a little bit.

04:05 - Jeff, help us get inside the average mind of the average older voter.

04:10 - In other words, just what are they thinking about in a general sense?

04:16 - Well, I think that

04:17 - one of the findings of the survey, which we'll get into later, is that older

04:21 - voters are a diverse group and they have a lot of different concerns.

04:26 - There are differences, as Bill mentioned, between 50 to 64 and 65 plus.

04:31 - I think one thing I would flag is that as you age.

04:36 - What you mean when you volunteer an issue to a pollster and say the economy

04:40 - is the most important thing or health care is the most important thing can change.

04:44 - And a lot of these older voters, as we'll see, are family caregivers.

04:49 - A lot of them are really concerned by the ability of the elderly to age in place.

04:55 - In addition to traditional concerns among older voters like

04:59 - Social Security and Medicare.

05:02 - Let's

05:02 - consider, Bill, what's the significance of being an older voter in Pennsylvania?

05:06 - In other words,

05:07 - I imagine is different than being an older voter in another state,

05:10 - because maybe you have different resources here.

05:13 - Well, I think I can't compare this to other states, but what I can talk about

05:17 - is the older voter here in Pennsylvania and in the commonwealth, what

05:21 - we've seen over the years, especially this year, is

05:24 - where a majority of of of, you know, Pennsylvanians

05:28 - don't really start thinking about the election until after Labor Day.

05:33 - It's really not on their radar screen.

05:35 - They don't they don't really think about it.

05:37 - If they do, it's in soundbites here and there.

05:40 - But the older voter, the 50 plus voter basically is paying attention every day

05:44 - because it impacts them.

05:45 - You know, it impacts them, you know, with regards to,

05:49 - you know, their Social Security and then what's happening with that.

05:51 - And do do candidates care about making sure that Social Security

05:55 - stays solvent as we go forward?

05:58 - They look at health care issues.

06:00 - They look, as Jeff said,

06:01 - about livable communities, about, you know, aging in place.

06:04 - You know, I have this home, I have property tax.

06:07 - I have to pay on it. I have utilities, I have upkeep.

06:09 - I want to keep my home.

06:11 - What are candidates going to be doing at, you know, the federal, state

06:14 - and local level for me to make sure that I can age in place,

06:17 - I can be with my family as long as possible in this

06:20 - in the setting that I want to be in.

06:24 - Bob, In general, as you get older, as,

06:26 - you know, use more health care services, of course.

06:30 - So what were some of the issues you came up when you were conducting

06:34 - this poll? And we're going to get into those numbers soon.

06:37 - Well, sure.

06:38 - We asked voters, you know, how important things like Medicare

06:42 - are in terms of determining their vote and their very important

06:47 - majorities.

06:48 - And it doesn't matter what political party you are, a Republican, independent

06:51 - or Democrat.

06:52 - You know, issues like Social Security and Medicare, health care are,

06:57 - you know, 70 plus percent saying they would.

07:01 - You know, that issue will have an impact on how they decide their vote.

07:04 - So big issues.

07:07 - Social Security becomes a bigger Social Security, Medicare become bigger issues

07:10 - on the older side of the 50 plus electorate, you know, 65 plus.

07:16 - But health care certainly is is an issue for

07:19 - for all voters and is a big issue for those in the 50

07:23 - to 64 year old segment as well who are, you know,

07:27 - often in what we call the sandwich

07:29 - generation of raising still raising kids, but taking care of their parents.

07:33 - And as Jeff mentioned, this family caregiving issue is a big issue

07:38 - that candidates need to be taking,

07:41 - you know, be aware of.

07:43 - 27% of

07:45 - Pennsylvania voters are family caregivers.

07:48 - That's a voters 50 plus.

07:50 - That's a big chunk of the electorate.

07:52 - So, Jeff, candidates can't forget about the caregivers

07:55 - because they're a substantial part of the electorate out there.

07:59 - That's right.

07:59 - They are more than a quarter of the voters age 50 plus.

08:03 - They're an especially large part of the age group, 50 to 64,

08:08 - which is a really important group as we'll get into when we talk about the poll.

08:11 - But I think it's also important to know that not only will

08:16 - a majority of the voters in Pennsylvania be over age 50 in this election,

08:21 - but Pennsylvania is likely

08:23 - the most important state in the entire country this year.

08:26 - Pennsylvania, in the polls right now looks like the likeliest state

08:30 - to be the tipping point and decide the election.

08:32 - And again, within that state, a majority of the voters will be over age 50.

08:36 - So these concerns are especially important for candidates to address.

08:40 - A gentleman let's start talking about the poll that was just done in April then.

08:44 - So, Bill, when AARP commissioned the poll, what was the basic plan going into it?

08:49 - What were you trying to find out?

08:51 - Well, several things.

08:53 - One is we just really wanted to see where the 50 plus voter was,

08:58 - you know, what their thoughts are,

08:59 - what the most important issues for them going forward are.

09:03 - Do they align with some of the things that we've been talking about at AARP?

09:08 - We also wanted to know, you know, what are some of the horse race numbers?

09:11 - You know, who's who's leading and why and why why

09:15 - in this poll are they getting the votes, you know, and what issues are of concern.

09:19 - So it's really been, you know, that aspect of it.

09:22 - We want to have a baseline right after the primary.

09:24 - And then we would have another poll in October

09:28 - that basically we'll look at it again and see what has changed over time.

09:32 - Have the issues

09:33 - priority changed, have the numbers or who you're going to vote for changed?

09:37 - So we really wanted to be able to see that and then also be able to to let

09:43 - you know, Pennsylvania's know, as Jeff said, we are the most important state.

09:46 - I'd like to think we are always on a whole bunch of issues.

09:49 - But when it comes to elections,

09:51 - and especially the most recent elections, Pennsylvania has been in the forefront.

09:54 - Bob, how did you select people to participate in this poll?

10:00 - Well, so let's explain what we did.

10:03 - We have a number of samples that we're looking at here.

10:05 - We've got a 600 sample,

10:09 - likely voters aged 18 plus of the state.

10:13 - So that gives us sort of a holistic view of of the election.

10:16 - As it stands with everybody.

10:18 - We have an additional sample of 800

10:21 - Pennsylvania likely voters, age 50 plus.

10:25 - And we also didn't oversample of black voters, 50 plus.

10:28 - We have got a sample of 400 black voters, 50 plus.

10:32 - So how do we sample these folks?

10:34 - We start with the voter list.

10:35 - So everyone that we're

10:37 - who's going to be a candidate to take a take.

10:41 - Our survey is a registered voter.

10:44 - And we contact people

10:46 - in three different ways.

10:50 - We use live interviewers

10:52 - to contact them via landline, tells us

10:55 - we use live interviewers to contact them via mobile phones

10:58 - and we use text to web, which is, you know,

11:03 - we have your phone number from the voter file.

11:05 - We will send a text and you can click on a link and take the

11:10 - survey online.

11:11 - We have to do this because the way we communicate

11:15 - with one another changes from year to year rapidly.

11:18 - There's very few people who have, you know, only a landline phone anymore,

11:22 - but there are people who only have a landline phone

11:25 - and so we need to sample them.

11:27 - But most people have cell phones and most of our interviews are done over

11:30 - cell phones.

11:30 - And then younger people, well, they don't answer their cell phone,

11:34 - but they may respond to a text. And that's why we have text the web.

11:37 - So it's sort of a

11:38 - that our business is evolving as we evolve and how we communicate.

11:44 - And this is the AARP has invested

11:47 - in a very high quality way to conduct survey research.

11:50 - It's how our firm conducts survey research

11:52 - for our own political clients when it's our campaigns on the line.

11:57 - So it's

11:59 - pretty good research that AARP has put together in Pennsylvania

12:02 - and what we keep what we keep on hearing about,

12:06 - especially the polls that we've done in the past.

12:08 - And this poll is twofold.

12:10 - One is that it's bipartisan.

12:13 - You know, we have both Bob and Jeff and their firms doing it for us.

12:16 - And then the second piece is that it's a large number.

12:20 - It's over 1300 individuals that have been doing this.

12:23 - So we hear from the media, we hear from influencers,

12:26 - from the candidates themselves, their in their camps,

12:29 - that they look at ours and they they take it to heart

12:33 - because they know it's not just a couple hundred people

12:35 - they're interviewing and then just surmising off of that.

12:37 - It's really a larger number and it's also very bipartisan.

12:42 - So, Jeff, tell us as a pollster then, how did you know how big a sample

12:47 - to take in order for it to be representative?

12:51 - And Bill said it was more than 1300 people.

12:53 - How'd you know to make the sample that big

12:56 - right.

12:57 - That's that's a good question.

12:59 - You want to make sure that you have enough interviews

13:02 - that when you are talking about a subgroup of those interviews,

13:07 - like, say, men, women or a particular age group

13:12 - or white versus black or urban versus rural, that you're not talking

13:16 - about such a small group out of your total sample

13:19 - that it doesn't really doesn't really mean anything.

13:20 - So we we conducted this 600 interview based sample,

13:25 - which is which is a good sized statewide sample.

13:29 - But then, as Bob mentioned, there were groups that we wanted

13:31 - to be able to talk about in a lot more detail, especially older

13:35 - voters, 50 plus and black voters 50 plus.

13:39 - And so what you ended up getting here

13:41 - through this mixed mode approach is a real gold standard.

13:45 - Look at not only the state writ large through the main

13:49 - sample of the 600 interviews, but a great look within older voters

13:54 - at men, women, 50 to 64 versus 65

13:57 - plus urban, rural, suburban.

14:00 - Right.

14:01 - All of these subgroups that we wanted

14:02 - to look at by getting the extra interviews among older voters.

14:06 - So party affiliation that occurs to me as another subgroup that

14:10 - you would consider and maybe some people who participated in the poll

14:13 - didn't even have a party affiliation.

14:17 - That's right.

14:17 - That's right.

14:18 - We tend to focus on

14:22 - how the Democrats and the Republicans differ.

14:25 - But it's also true on a lot of issues that the independents may be closer

14:29 - to one side or closer to the other.

14:31 - And that matters a lot.

14:32 - And I think it also matters a lot that not all of these older voters

14:37 - that we're talking about are straight ticket Democrats or Republicans.

14:41 - You've got almost 30% of voters, 50 plus who are not voting

14:46 - a straight ticket on the various races that we asked them about.

14:50 - So not only are voters 50 plus going to turn out in large numbers

14:54 - and B, a majority of the electorate,

14:56 - but there are a lot of them that are persuadable by the candidates.

14:59 - So, gentlemen,

15:00 - let's get into the meat and potatoes of the poll that you talk and talk about.

15:04 - The most important issues that would determine an older persons

15:08 - vote and start at the top of the list.

15:12 - Bob, what did you find?

15:15 - So what this poll clearly tells us is that the economy

15:18 - is a huge issue in Pennsylvania and it's a huge issue across America.

15:23 - We look at issues like inflation and rising

15:26 - prices, the economy and jobs,

15:28 - Social Security, these are all personal economic issues.

15:32 - And when you put them together, they really speak

15:37 - to what the voters are feeling.

15:39 - In Pennsylvania, it's the economy.

15:41 - There are other issues for sure.

15:44 - You know,

15:44 - you look at immigration and border security is a big issue as a single issue.

15:49 - It's at the top of our list.

15:51 - But it is an issue that really is important

15:54 - to the right of the electorate among Republicans Bob.

15:56 - And, Jeff, did you ask the voters

15:58 - why they specified immigration and border security as a concern?

16:02 - Did they get any more specific?

16:05 - That was not part of the survey.

16:08 - So we have it as as something and we know who who mostly thinks it's a concern.

16:13 - Like I said, it's Republican voters.

16:15 - Just as you know, when you have Democratic voters who are

16:18 - you know, they have abortion, reproductive rights

16:22 - higher on their list, threats to democracy are higher among Democrats.

16:26 - So, you know where you are.

16:29 - You know, whether you're a man or a woman, whether you're a Republican

16:31 - or a Democrat, these issues are not all the same across all groups,

16:35 - with the exception of economic issues, which is at the top of everyone's list.

16:40 - So let's go back to threats to democracy.

16:43 - Gentlemen, because I have no recollection of that appearing on any previous poll.

16:47 - And naturally, all of us are aware of the ride

16:50 - that took place at the Capitol on January 6th.

16:55 - Did that seem to be

16:56 - an unusual outcome to have this cited as a concern?

17:02 - It certainly a new concern that you wouldn't have seen

17:06 - before the the aftermath of the 2020 election.

17:10 - But just as Bob pointed out, that it's mainly Republicans

17:16 - that are driving concern over immigration,

17:19 - it's mainly Democrats and mainly older Democrats,

17:23 - actually, who are driving concern over protecting democracy.

17:27 - And actually, it's it's been showing up in the list of most important issues

17:31 - pretty consistently since the since the January 6th riot.

17:35 - But again, it's mostly driven by older Democrats.

17:38 - If you look at the at the Democrats 50 plus, I think it was

17:42 - 27% of them that that volunteered protecting democracy.

17:47 - And and most other groups were sort of in the in the low two to sort of

17:52 - maybe the low double digits.

17:54 - So let's talk about

17:55 - the issue of abortion and reproductive issues and occurs to me

17:59 - that this is being viewed through an older persons lens

18:02 - and they may have raising families in their past.

18:05 - That's something they've already done,

18:09 - and yet their concern continues.

18:13 - Yeah, for sure.

18:14 - Abortion, reproductive rights, especially among women.

18:17 - And it doesn't matter if you're under or over 50.

18:19 - This is this is an important issue that we see come up,

18:23 - particularly among Democratic women.

18:26 - And so it

18:28 - you know, in in states

18:30 - where it's you know, the policies are in flux, you know,

18:34 - you may see this being even higher importance

18:38 - and so but it is it is one of those cultural issues

18:43 - that is definitely going to have a play in how people

18:46 - to cast their vote in November and what and what we see here

18:50 - on the ground in Pennsylvania has been it's really suburban women,

18:53 - especially around Philadelphia and Pittsburgh,

18:57 - that some of these issues are really race to the top.

19:01 - And it doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican in those circles.

19:06 - That's that

19:07 - reproductive rights is is a key issue, as well as the economic issues.

19:13 - Social Security and health care and caregiving have all been issues

19:18 - wrapped around that, around women,

19:21 - 50 plus women in the suburbs.

19:24 - Now, let's move on to another question that appeared on your poll,

19:27 - gentlemen, in the question simply was how motivated are you to vote?

19:33 - Jeff, get us started on the results there.

19:37 - Well, this is a question where you have enormous differences

19:40 - between older voters over 50 and younger voters under 50.

19:45 - So if you ask it's on a ten point scale where zero or 1 to 10,

19:50 - how motivated are you to vote in ten means you're extremely motivated

19:53 - to vote, and one means you're not motivated at all.

19:56 - We tend to look at what percentage of the voters are saying ten,

20:00 - ten out of ten, They're as motivated as they could be to vote,

20:03 - and that's 85% among the voters over age 50.

20:07 - But it's only 59% among the voters under age 50.

20:11 - So it's 26 points higher among older voters than younger.

20:17 - And I think and I think to Larry, there there's another question

20:20 - on the poll about how committed are you to vote in November?

20:24 - And that number even goes up higher to around 90% of the over 50,

20:30 - where they say we are committed to go to the polls or vote by mail

20:35 - in November.

20:36 - Bill, is this something you hear

20:37 - about often from your membership concerns about getting out there

20:40 - and voting and specifically this election coming up in November?

20:43 - What is your sense?

20:44 - Yeah, we do do a lot of work

20:47 - in a group about how to vote, where to vote and when to vote.

20:50 - You know, it's important, You know, there was talk earlier this year

20:54 - about changing the primary date, which they really didn't move it up.

20:57 - They kept it to where it was. Right.

20:59 - But that that had a lot of people on edge.

21:01 - Like when is that going to happen?

21:02 - When are the due dates for registration to register to vote, when everybody's

21:06 - timetable would have been upset, would have been upset on that one.

21:09 - So what we wanted to do is be able to calm people's fears on that one and say

21:13 - things are still the same and the same thing going into the general election.

21:16 - The other thing is a few years back, you know, right before the pandemic,

21:20 - they did institute mail in voting

21:23 - here in Pennsylvania, which really was something new.

21:27 - We find that a lot of older Pennsylvanians sometimes have difficulty with this.

21:32 - They they don't can't get out to the polls.

21:34 - So they want to they definitely want to vote by mail.

21:38 - However, there's one thing you have to do, like you have to sign the inside

21:42 - of of the ballot and then you have to sign the envelope.

21:44 - Right.

21:45 - A lot of older Pennsylvanians, there was much controversy over that.

21:48 - And as a result, there were a lot of flawed ballots that were even rejected.

21:52 - And that is correct.

21:53 - And it's important for us to that everyone in the Commonwealth gets to vote.

21:57 - It's their right and they need to do it.

21:59 - And we don't want to have any impediments on that front.

22:02 - So so basically we do a lot of education around the rights to vote, as well

22:07 - as giving people dates, important dates, and then helping them,

22:11 - you know, go to go to either our website or to the state website

22:15 - to figure out like, where can I drop my ballot off

22:19 - ahead of time, where are my polling places?

22:21 - Have they changed?

22:22 - Those are the kind of things

22:23 - that we just want to do the education and make sure that everyone gets to vote.

22:27 - And plus, mobility can be a challenge, obviously, for older Pennsylvanians.

22:30 - So what does AARP do to help people

22:34 - get to the polls if they don't feel like voting by mail?

22:37 - We we don't do that at a or P, But what we can do is point

22:41 - people in the right direction.

22:42 - There are a lot of groups out there that are able to get people to the polls

22:46 - if they want to do that.

22:47 - What we found was during the pandemic, obviously a lot

22:50 - more people were voting by mail.

22:51 - But Pennsylvanians like to go in-person, pull that lever.

22:56 - So we're finding that those are kind of balancing out.

22:58 - And there's more people, even over the age of 50 going to the polls

23:02 - instead of doing the mail in ballot piece of it.

23:05 - Let's consider another part of the poll here, Bob and Jeff.

23:09 - And it has to do with the political parties

23:12 - of voters that were polled.

23:15 - And so that can be enlightening to look at.

23:17 - It tells us what the balance is between Democrats

23:20 - and Republicans here in Pennsylvania.

23:24 - Jeff, would you take the lead on that, please?

23:26 - What did you find?

23:30 - Well, Pennsylvania has been

23:32 - an extremely competitive state in recent elections.

23:37 - It's, as I said, the likeliest tipping point state.

23:40 - And part of the reason for that

23:42 - is that Pennsylvanians are relatively evenly divided between the parties.

23:46 - 44% are identifying as Democrats, 41% are identifying as Republicans.

23:53 - And then, you know, as I mentioned, you've also got a large number,

23:57 - almost 30% of older voters over 50, who, when we asked them who they'd vote for

24:02 - for president,

24:03 - Senate races like attorney general don't always give you the same answer.

24:07 - Aren't voting a straight ticket.

24:09 - So there's a lot of room to persuade the voters

24:13 - of Pennsylvania, who are, again, pretty evenly divided between the parties.

24:17 - And as we were discussing earlier, some voters reported that they were

24:22 - in the independent or unaffiliated anyway, and that amounted to 13%.

24:26 - And that struck me as significant.

24:28 - How does it strike you fellows as pollsters, Bob?

24:32 - Well, actually,

24:34 - Pennsylvania is somewhat unique in having the largest amount

24:40 - of registered voters to a one of the to either two major political parties.

24:46 - So in other states that the nonaligned

24:50 - voters, the independent voters are actually bigger.

24:54 - And Pennsylvania is pretty unique in that way.

24:58 - So 13 is actually from a relative perspective, small

25:04 - But as Jeff alluded to,

25:07 - voters are not all sticking to their partizan sides.

25:11 - They jump around.

25:12 - We asked the number of ballots on this survey and we had people,

25:17 - you know, as Jeff said, almost 30% of those over 50

25:21 - not take the straight party line down the ticket.

25:25 - And what we see on the ground here in Pennsylvania is basically

25:30 - you have more liberal, liberal Republicans

25:33 - in the Philadelphia southeast section and more conservative Democrats out West.

25:38 - And it's just interesting.

25:40 - So, yeah,

25:40 - they may consider themselves Democrat, but they sometimes they're more conservative

25:43 - than their Republican counterparts in the other part of the state.

25:48 - The other thing I'd point out is on the age difference,

25:51 - because we are focused on on voters 50 plus and voters

25:55 - 50 plus are more Republican than voters under 50.

25:59 - And so that is that's a fact.

26:02 - But they're also not monolithic In

26:04 - the age group, 50 to 64 is very Republican.

26:08 - And these are the folks who grew up under Reagan.

26:11 - They're in the, you know, highest earning years of their lives.

26:14 - Economic issues are paramount.

26:16 - And then you have the baby boomers who make up a lot of the 65 plus,

26:20 - and they are not as Republican as as their

26:24 - as 50 to 64 year olds,

26:26 - much more evenly divided

26:30 - when you get to 65 plus.

26:33 - Let's talk about a question that appeared on the poll that it seemed

26:36 - to get recurs all the time.

26:38 - And certainly you fellows, as pollsters probably have an idea of what

26:42 - I'm leading up to.

26:42 - And the question is, is the country going in the right direction?

26:47 - Jeff, what did you find there?

26:52 - Well, most Pennsylvanians, like most Americans,

26:55 - believe that things are heading in the wrong direction.

26:58 - You've got almost three quarters of Pennsylvanians, Pennsylvanians,

27:02 - who think that things are heading in the wrong direction.

27:07 - This has in the past

27:09 - been a question that helps us understand whether or not

27:12 - the political environment is pro or anti incumbent.

27:17 - You know, it's been a pretty sour political environment for

27:21 - for quite a while now.

27:23 - And I think that one of the things that will decide the election

27:26 - is whether or not the president and other Democrats can convince voters

27:31 - who are not happy with the direction of the country

27:35 - but aren't furious about it

27:37 - to to vote for.

27:39 - I'm trying to appreciate the nuance of that statement.

27:44 - All right.

27:46 - Let's also just

27:47 - one more question about that particular poll question,

27:50 - since it says 73%

27:53 - of all the participants said the country is going in the wrong direction,

27:57 - and then when it goes to 50 plus voters, it was 68%.

28:01 - I wonder if that 5% is statistically important.

28:05 - Do you read anything into that?

28:07 - Bob Yeah, I do, actually, and I think it tells a little bit

28:11 - about what's happening in the electorate in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

28:16 - Voters under 50 are significantly more

28:20 - sour about the direction of the country than voters over 50.

28:24 - Both of them clearly have majorities that are think the country

28:28 - is heading in the wrong direction,

28:30 - but it's bigger among younger voters than it is among older voters.

28:34 - And that is

28:36 - weighing heavily on on some of the political questions

28:39 - that we'll be talking about in a little bit.

28:43 - And let's move on then, gentlemen, to some specific races,

28:46 - and we might as well start with the race for us president.

28:50 - The question reads,

28:51 - if you had to choose today, who would you pick for US President?

28:56 - And Jeff, tell us about your findings there.

29:02 - Well, I think that the first thing to note

29:04 - is that these findings are pretty consistent with national polls.

29:08 - Pennsylvania tends to be about three points

29:11 - more Republican in recent elections than the country as a whole.

29:15 - Donald Trump has had a very small lead in national polls.

29:18 - And so you would expect him to be ahead by a few points in Pennsylvania.

29:21 - You're given that and and he is he is.

29:24 - Whether or not you ask about it with many candidates on the ballot

29:28 - or just ask about it as a choice between Trump and Biden,

29:32 - in which case he's ahead by by four points.

29:35 - But there again, there are some pretty significant

29:38 - differences between men and women and between older and younger voters.

29:44 - I wonder if.

29:44 - Go ahead, Bill.

29:45 - No, you draw breath.

29:46 - Yeah, I did.

29:47 - The other thing, too, along with what Jeff was talking about,

29:51 - was with regards to the party line, you know, so so what we found in past

29:56 - elections were that people did vote one party at the federal level.

30:00 - But when it came to the state run seats, you know, statewide seats,

30:05 - they crossed over and then they crossed back for local.

30:08 - So it's it's very interesting to see how people will vote.

30:11 - They'll vote one way for for,

30:13 - you know, the federal Senate seat, but then they'll come back and vote

30:17 - another way for the attorney general's race.

30:20 - Now, as you gentlemen know, polls are often referred to as a snapshot in time.

30:25 - And it occurs to me, as far as president is concerned,

30:28 - I wonder what the difference would be if a debate had already been staged

30:32 - between the two candidates.

30:33 - In fact, just the other day, both of them agreed to debates,

30:36 - two debates to be exact, and one of them in June,

30:39 - which is unusually early for an election

30:41 - season, because, as Bill pointed out before,

30:43 - some people aren't even paying attention to the race until about Labor Day.

30:47 - What do you think Jeff do?

30:49 - Can debates have much of an effect on changing these results?

30:55 - I actually think that they can.

30:58 - And one of the reasons that I think that they can

31:00 - is that part of the challenge that Joe Biden has in a state

31:05 - like Pennsylvania is that he's not consolidating all of the Democrats yet.

31:10 - And I think that there are still some voters out there who don't accept

31:14 - that this is the choice, that the choice is between Biden and Trump.

31:19 - And I think that, you know, if you're Joe Biden, you probably want earlier

31:22 - debates to clarify for everybody, including some people

31:25 - who would naturally be inclined to vote for Democrats

31:27 - aren't currently supporting the president, that this is the choice.

31:31 - So it sounds, Jeff, that some voters may be going out of their way, not to vote

31:34 - just because they don't approve of the candidates in general?

31:38 - Well, I think you saw some of this expressed in the primaries.

31:40 - There were some voters within Democratic primaries that were voting uncommitted

31:45 - rather than voting for anybody.

31:47 - And again, what Biden is trying to do at this point is consolidate

31:52 - a lot of voters who did vote for him four years ago

31:55 - but aren't saying that they're going to vote for him at this point.

31:59 - One of the things I point out here is that

32:03 - and this gets to a big question mark for,

32:06 - you know, what happens in November is who shows up.

32:10 - We talked about the vote motivation question.

32:13 - If you look at the 2020 exit

32:15 - polls by age and compare them to this poll in Pennsylvania,

32:20 - what you'll see is voters 50 plus.

32:24 - You know, we've talked about them being more Republican and they are.

32:26 - And the 50 to 64 year olds are voting for Trump by,

32:31 - you know, quite a bit more than the vote than seniors.

32:36 - But they're relatively stable in where

32:39 - they were four years ago and where they are today in this poll.

32:44 - What's happened is voters under 50 have changed dramatically.

32:49 - So they went for Biden by 20 points in 2020.

32:53 - In Pennsylvania in this poll.

32:55 - They're only going for Biden by three points.

32:58 - That's a huge difference.

33:00 - And so the question is, will they show up?

33:03 - So I think to just point, you know, earlier debates could make a difference.

33:07 - It could go the other way, too.

33:08 - I mean, it's everyone wants to see that two older candidates and really

33:12 - how they perform in the debate, I think, is going to take sort

33:15 - of an outsized stage in this election.

33:18 - Let's consider the race for us Senate

33:21 - gentleman and the Democrat in that race is Bob Casey.

33:24 - The Republican is Dave McCormick.

33:26 - And talk about the findings, Jeff, if you would, please.

33:30 - Sure.

33:32 - Casey is ahead by four points, which is actually the same margin

33:36 - by which Biden is trailing in a in a two way race.

33:41 - And one of the things that you see here also is

33:44 - that voters over age 50 are extremely competitive.

33:48 - It's 47% for Casey, 48% for McCormick.

33:52 - So they will be a major battleground.

33:54 - But Casey is also doing significantly better with voters

33:58 - under 50 than Joe Biden is in this survey, which is part of the reason

34:03 - why Casey is ahead by the same margin by which Biden trails.

34:06 - And Casey is doing especially well with African-Americans.

34:08 - According to your poll, over 50 years of age,

34:12 - 87%, that that certainly sounds dominant.

34:15 - Look at McCormick is only 7% amongst the same group.

34:20 - That's right.

34:21 - That's that's an absolutely core constituency within the Democratic Party.

34:24 - And Casey needs to consolidate

34:26 - black voters, especially older black voters, at that level in order to win.

34:31 - Let's talk about another race, gentlemen.

34:34 - Attorney general.

34:35 - And by the way, let's talk about that in just in general.

34:38 - First, a bill.

34:40 - Are people in AARP watching a race like attorney general?

34:43 - Is it quite as important as, say, US Senate, the race we just talked about?

34:47 - I think I think all the races are important

34:49 - and how they have they have the impact on on Pennsylvanians.

34:53 - The attorney general's race this year is something that we really wanted

34:56 - in this poll because there's no incumbent.

34:59 - It's two it's two new faces that are there.

35:02 - They're coming out.

35:03 - They they just so happened to both be from York County, which I found interesting

35:07 - after the primary.

35:08 - However, the issues that are going to be impacting older

35:12 - Pennsylvanians really are, you know, frauds and scams, elder abuse,

35:17 - key issue, air safety issues around the state.

35:21 - And I think they will play in and they want to hear

35:24 - the attorney general candidates talk about these issues.

35:28 - And we will be talking with with these candidates,

35:31 - whether it's a video voter guide or whether it's going to be bringing them

35:34 - out, you know, on some key issues and having them respond to them.

35:37 - And it seems there's more and more potential for scams, robocalls, emails.

35:41 - It just seems to multiply

35:43 - and it seems like it's a lot of it's a big landscape to navigate.

35:47 - It is.

35:47 - And one of the questions

35:49 - and I don't have it in front of me and maybe Bob or Jeff can answer that

35:52 - is is about scams and frauds and how

35:56 - it's impacting at least the people that took the poll.

35:59 - Yeah, let's consider that.

36:01 - Bob and Jeff, just how concerned are older Pennsylvanians about that?

36:04 - Do you have figures on that?

36:06 - Yeah, I'm afraid being scammed by emails and robocalls.

36:09 - Are they?

36:11 - Yeah.

36:11 - So we have

36:14 - basically 90% say they're at least somewhat concerned

36:17 - about frauds from scams.

36:20 - 62% of voters, 50 plus say they're very concerned.

36:24 - These are really high numbers and they are, you know, across the board,

36:30 - whether you're Republican, whether you're Democrat.

36:32 - And no matter your your age group within the 50 plus,

36:36 - you know, segment of the electorate.

36:38 - So this is a big issue that people are worried about.

36:41 - It's you know, and everyone gets, you know,

36:43 - the phishing emails and the phone calls so people are familiar with.

36:47 - Exactly. All right.

36:48 - So let's let's consider the race candidates in your poll then.

36:53 - And the question was,

36:54 - if you had to choose today, who would you pick for attorney general?

36:57 - The candidates are Dave Sun, the Republican, and Eugene DePasquale.

37:01 - He's the Democrat and the numbers are pretty close there, Bob.

37:07 - They are.

37:07 - And as Bill mentioned, I mean, this is a race where there's no incumbent.

37:11 - So both of these candidates are new.

37:14 - We went in the field the day after the Pennsylvania primary.

37:19 - And so I think we have to assume here that voters at this stage

37:23 - don't know a lot about these candidates.

37:27 - And you're seeing here a, you know, a reflection

37:30 - of sort of where Pennsylvania is is largely evenly divided.

37:34 - Right. You've got

37:36 - something, you know, the Republican sun really only up

37:38 - by by one point.

37:42 - You see the same dynamics across the demographic groups.

37:44 - Older voters are voting for sun by eight points.

37:48 - Voters under 50 are voting for DePasquale by nine points.

37:52 - There's a gender gap.

37:54 - Women, 50 plus are you know about that?

37:59 - Even where men 50 plus.

38:01 - Are you know very overindex

38:04 - on the Republican candidate Sunday by 21 points.

38:07 - So it's I think it's a reflection of where

38:10 - sort of the baseline politics is in Pennsylvania right now.

38:13 - Yeah.

38:14 - Again, I'm drawn to a big disparity in the figures here.

38:17 - And again, it's amongst African-Americans, age 50 plus Dave Sun, 9%, then.

38:22 - DePasquale A whopping 75%.

38:25 - Almost blows Sunday out of the water.

38:30 - That's right.

38:31 - You've got

38:31 - you've got a really core constituency there for Democrats among older voters.

38:35 - And and again, I don't think that you can win as a Democrat

38:39 - unless you achieve those margins.

38:41 - But you also see some of the other big dynamics

38:44 - that are affecting the country showing up here, like college

38:48 - educated versus non-college educated, where day is ahead by 12 points

38:54 - with voters who don't have a four year degree, whereas Democrats are ahead

38:58 - by 17 points among voters who have a college degree.

39:02 - So they're they're obviously really important for the Pasquale.

39:06 - But I would also just call out that this is an open seat.

39:10 - There's no incumbent.

39:11 - Even four years ago when SHAPIRO won, he was at 50.9%.

39:16 - So I think that suggests that this is a race that's going to be close to the end.

39:21 - Let's talk about some

39:22 - concerns that just often come up about election time.

39:27 - And I'm thinking law and order or crime.

39:30 - However you wish to look at it.

39:33 - And was that considered on your poll and how far did that move the needle

39:37 - as far as concerns for older voters?

39:40 - Go ahead, Jeff. You're nodding.

39:43 - So one of the things that I think is interesting is that there's been

39:47 - a lot of reporting in the media about crime and about immigration.

39:53 - But when you look at the most important issue

39:55 - question of how much these voters are saying these issues matter,

39:59 - immigration comes out way ahead of crime and public safety.

40:04 - And part of the reason for that is that even though Republicans care

40:09 - about both immigration and crime and public safety,

40:13 - independents don't care nearly as much about crime and public safety as an issue,

40:18 - whereas independents look a little bit more like the Republicans

40:22 - in caring about immigration, which is part of the reason

40:24 - that that issue is higher and more salient.

40:28 - What about government spending and taxes, Bill?

40:31 - Maybe you can get us started on that.

40:33 - How often do you hear from a membership as far as you can tell

40:36 - in an anecdotal manner, to tell me how much you've heard?

40:39 - We always hear from our constituency with regards to

40:45 - issues that are impacting them when it comes to financial pieces.

40:49 - We hear about taxes across the board.

40:50 - We hear food prices across the board.

40:53 - We hear about utility prices, property tax.

40:56 - So, yes, when it comes to economic issues,

41:00 - did not surprise me that this poll showed that

41:02 - it was quite high, because we constantly hear,

41:05 - whether it be in our town hall meetings or calls that come into our office

41:09 - on a consistent basis about that, about economic and financial concerns.

41:13 - And we often hear about property taxes here on PKM.

41:16 - So is there any constructive vote

41:18 - that can be cast in November that might have an effect on this.

41:22 - Well, I think I think it's always going to be an issue that that candidates

41:25 - need to be looking at.

41:26 - And you'll see more, obviously, on a state wide level

41:30 - with with our House and Senate Republican Senate, that they're always going

41:34 - to be talking about this because they know that that's going to be an impact

41:38 - on how an individual, especially a 50 plus

41:41 - individual, is going to be a homeowner is going to be voting in that sense.

41:45 - So, yes, they they do talk about it.

41:47 - It's a hard issue to figure out because that's why it hasn't been

41:51 - they they they go around the edges when it comes to taxes

41:54 - and especially property tax.

41:56 - And it's never been dealt with because there's going to be

41:58 - some hard decisions when that time comes.

42:01 - Bob and Jeff, I was looking

42:02 - at your poll about gun control and that ranked 10%

42:08 - on the the poll as far as important concerns were.

42:12 - And obviously when we have headlines about gun violence that are fairly regular

42:16 - nowadays, how does that 10% figure impress you?

42:21 - Jeff Well, I think, as you mentioned,

42:26 - that's an issue which unfortunately

42:28 - tends to be sensitive to what's in the news

42:31 - and it tends to rise after there's a major incident or a mass shooting.

42:36 - I think that you will see a lot of candidates making gun

42:40 - safety part of a public safety message this fall.

42:44 - But I don't think that in this environment it's quite as salient

42:49 - as some other issues.

42:50 - And I would actually then bring this back to where we started,

42:54 - which is the salience of Social Security, the salience of economic issues,

42:59 - salience of family caregiving,

43:01 - which I think are going to ultimately matter more to the voters

43:04 - 50 plus who will be a majority of the voters this fall.

43:08 - Bob, how about the environment and climate change?

43:11 - Now, it's obvious that a lot of young people know stuff

43:14 - about the environment today that I never would have known about at their age.

43:17 - But what about older Pennsylvanians?

43:19 - How did that turn out on your poll as far as being a concern?

43:23 - An important concern is

43:27 - so the way we ask our question is, you know,

43:30 - what is the most important issue that's going to decide your vote in November?

43:34 - And we left out about a dozen issues.

43:36 - And then if they pick one, we asked them what their second choice is

43:39 - and the environment and climate change

43:43 - is near at the bottom of the list.

43:46 - It's it's just about foreign policy and military defense.

43:50 - It's not to say it's not an important issue,

43:52 - but in the mix of other issues, it is not driving

43:56 - what voters are thinking about in this election.

43:59 - Right. The thinking about the economy.

44:02 - Artisans are thinking about cultural issues, you know, on either side

44:06 - and the environment and climate change just isn't cutting through

44:11 - those issues to these voters.

44:13 - That's just maybe a generational thing.

44:15 - Well, from what we see, I don't know if it's a generational thing.

44:19 - You know, if you ask my kids, yes, the environment and climate change is

44:22 - important to them. Right.

44:24 - However,

44:25 - I think, you know, and Bob and Jeff have been saying this all along as well,

44:29 - is that when it comes to the 50 plus, especially the 65 plus,

44:33 - it's really about, hey, 65 plus, I'm on a fixed income.

44:37 - I have to be able to afford, you know, food and prescription

44:41 - drugs and utilities and staying in my home as long as possible.

44:45 - That concern outweighs any other concern,

44:48 - any other social issue concern that we've been hearing here.

44:52 - And it is the 60 and the 65 plus that have really been pushing that.

44:55 - Then you have the 50 to 64 year olds

44:57 - that are thinking, hey, I'm going to be in that in that pot soon.

45:01 - With regards to being on a fixed income.

45:03 - So that's why the economy, Social Security and key issue areas

45:06 - that are financial are really impactful for the 50 plus right now.

45:11 - You know, I noticed that

45:12 - gentleman that foreign policy ranked at the same figure 6%.

45:17 - So fairly low concern.

45:19 - This is interesting, of course, given recent headlines and wars

45:22 - around the world.

45:26 - That's right.

45:26 - I think that you're seeing very low salience in most polls for foreign policy.

45:32 - And if you, for example, ask questions, which we didn't in this survey

45:37 - about the war in Gaza,

45:39 - you'll get a lot of Americans telling you that they just don't know.

45:44 - Just sure how they feel.

45:46 - More than a third of Americans saying that they just don't know and are not sure.

45:51 - And I think that that's part of the reason why you see it so low.

45:54 - You see foreign policy issues so low.

45:56 - I think that this election is going to be decided on domestic issues,

46:01 - especially domestic economic issues,

46:04 - which makes me think, gentlemen, of Social Security

46:07 - and I know you ask questions about that, and 17% of the respondents said

46:13 - that was important.

46:15 - And what kind of insights do we have as far as

46:18 - the status of Social Security today and what changes may be done?

46:24 - Help protect it.

46:24 - Everybody, of course, is concerned that their Social Security, they want

46:28 - to be there when they retire.

46:33 - Absolutely.

46:33 - I mean,

46:35 - so not only does Social Security show up high on this sort of

46:40 - large laundry list of issues, and it does, you know,

46:43 - especially among black voters, 60 plus really stands out.

46:47 - It's their number one issue.

46:50 - But when we ask people

46:51 - about Social Security and say, you know, hey, is this an important issue

46:57 - to deciding your vote, you know, we have 92% saying

47:02 - it's at least very important and 64% saying it's extremely important.

47:07 - So voters 50 plus are absolutely zeroed in on Social Security.

47:13 - We ask it from the context of is this something if a candidate,

47:18 - you know, supported, like making sure workers get Social

47:21 - Security, they paid into and earned through the lifetime of hard work,

47:24 - would you be more or less likely to vote for that candidate?

47:27 - 96% said they would be more likely, 83%, much more likely.

47:33 - It doesn't matter if you're a Republican.

47:35 - It doesn't matter if you're a Democrat.

47:38 - The issue of Social

47:39 - Security among voters 50 plus is huge.

47:42 - If you're campaign and you're not talking about this,

47:45 - you're missing an opportunity, especially if your opponent is.

47:49 - And I think I think the other piece of that, as well as on the ground, you're

47:53 - you're seeing, you know, people concerned, whether they're in their forties,

47:57 - in their fifties. Will Social Security be here for me?

48:00 - I know some people go, it's not going to be there for me.

48:02 - Well, I find that interesting when right now, 30, almost 35% of individuals

48:07 - in Pennsylvania only have Social Security as their source of income.

48:12 - They don't have a pension. They don't have savings.

48:14 - They just are living off of Social Security.

48:17 - And I don't think that number is going to change with those coming up

48:20 - the pipe here from the 40 and 50 year olds when they reach retirement age.

48:25 - So it is definitely an issue

48:27 - that is important to everyone to make sure that they have that,

48:31 - you know, part of the three legged stool to be able to retire on.

48:36 - Earlier, we talked about.

48:37 - Go ahead, Jeff. You had something to.

48:40 - I would just add, Social Security

48:42 - is not an abstract issue for voters over age 50.

48:46 - If you ask Pennsylvanians over age 50

48:49 - how important Social Security will be as a source of their income in retirement,

48:54 - 63% say it will be a major source of their income.

48:59 - So, again, it's it's not abstract and it's not a luxury sort

49:03 - of supplemental income.

49:05 - Pennsylvanians over 50 are thinking of this

49:07 - as is a major primary source of their income in retirement,

49:11 - which is why it's such a voting issue for them.

49:12 - And yet it's only one leg on the stool, as I think Bill was pointing out here.

49:16 - That is correct.

49:17 - Yeah, It's you know, and that's another thing at AARP, we kind of do.

49:20 - It's the education aspect of it,

49:21 - letting people know how important it is to have some type of savings,

49:25 - have a have a41k, have a pension plan, you know, a regular

49:30 - defined benefit pension plan, which there are hardly any of those out there.

49:33 - But making sure that people start looking at an earlier age in their twenties,

49:37 - when they start, when they first start to go to work

49:40 - to make sure that they're putting money aside.

49:42 - And I know people are like, hey, I have to put food on the table.

49:45 - I have to be able to, you know, take care of my children.

49:48 - I don't have time to be worrying about this,

49:50 - but it's you know, you're just putting it and kicking the can down the road

49:53 - if you don't start thinking about it in your early twenties and thirties.

49:56 - And, you know, by the time you're 50, it's too late.

49:59 - Bill, earlier we talked about health care, so let's make it even more specific

50:03 - and I'd like you to get us going On the topic of prescription drugs,

50:07 - because that can have a serious impact on the household budget.

50:12 - That's that's exactly right.

50:13 - And again, I think I think it's really when you look at

50:17 - the 50 plus, it's the 50 to 64

50:20 - year olds that are really more concerned because

50:23 - because they're taking more medications, they're taking more medications.

50:26 - They're still in the workforce.

50:27 - Their plan may not have a prescription plan around it.

50:29 - It's going to cost them out of pocket

50:31 - where people that are 65 plus are on Medicare.

50:34 - There is Part D that they can they can back on.

50:38 - So but it's still a

50:39 - concern because you're taking more and more prescriptions.

50:42 - It's more dollars that are coming out of your pocket.

50:46 - And it has always been a key issue for poll

50:49 - after poll, survey after survey when we're asking the question.

50:52 - So, Jeff, did prescription drugs figure into your poll specifically?

50:58 - We didn't look as much

51:00 - at prescription drug prices in this survey as in some others.

51:04 - But I think that we I'm sorry.

51:05 - And Bob Bob, I know Will, we'll follow up.

51:08 - But we did ask, I think, about prescription drug prices

51:12 - as a as an issue that would

51:16 - as an issue that would would motivate people to to vote for a candidate.

51:20 - Right.

51:21 - And I would also say that I think you're absolutely going to see prescription drugs

51:26 - prominently in advertisements from Democrats and Republicans this cycle.

51:32 - Well, let's go back to we.

51:33 - Go ahead, Bob. Sorry, Go ahead.

51:35 - I was just going to say we did ask the question, you know,

51:39 - how important is the cost of prescription drugs

51:42 - in influencing vote?

51:46 - 67% said it's at least very important.

51:50 - And it's you know, it's a big issue.

51:54 - Black voters, 50 plus that 67% rises to 86%.

51:59 - So it's a huge issue in older black voters.

52:03 - Thoughts about how they're going to vote.

52:06 - So it's still an issue out there that people have a real concern about.

52:11 - That's right.

52:11 - And then we also asked people what their biggest financial concern is.

52:15 - And among people over 50, I think 44% said that

52:19 - that health care and prescription drugs were one of their top two cost concerns.

52:24 - Let's go back to that list

52:25 - of most important issues that would determine an older voters vote.

52:29 - And if you remember, it started with

52:34 - it started

52:34 - with personal economic issues and that was 56%.

52:38 - And then at the list, at least at the bottom

52:41 - of the list of ten or 20 concerns came Medicare.

52:45 - And I was just given the population.

52:48 - Of course, we're concerned with on this program.

52:50 - I was surprised that they only clocked in

52:52 - at 5%, thought that was a very important issue.

52:57 - Bob, can you explain

52:58 - why that result happened?

53:01 - Sure.

53:02 - So I think a couple of reasons why.

53:05 - And we talked about one of these earlier, which is, you know,

53:09 - there are a lot of issues on this list and what are the things

53:12 - that are defining the election right now?

53:16 - Fortunately, Medicare isn't one of those issues that's defining the election.

53:19 - Right.

53:19 - People who have it, it's working for them, but it is important to them.

53:26 - Okay.

53:26 - So we asked the question separate from the long list

53:30 - of how important is Medicare

53:33 - on your vote?

53:34 - And we have 73% saying it's at least very important,

53:38 - 39% saying it's extremely important.

53:41 - So when you ask them, it is a big issue,

53:44 - but it's not something that is,

53:48 - you know, top of mind importance

53:50 - that would say is defining what this election is about this year.

53:56 - Bill, we have a few minutes left in our program.

53:58 - So reflecting on a lot of these things we've talked about today.

54:01 - What stands out to you as most interesting and maybe even surprising?

54:06 - Well, I think I think that the most interesting pieces

54:09 - that I've seen are not surprising at all is the economic piece.

54:12 - As we mentioned earlier, you know, you know,

54:16 - table top issues, you know, are issues that they're going to talk about

54:20 - that are impacting them on on a daily basis,

54:22 - and that is putting food on the table, the prices of food that's been going up,

54:26 - utilities with regards

54:27 - to foreign utilities, with the heating, the electricity, the water rates.

54:32 - We're right now we're we're involved in fighting back on

54:36 - a water rate increase that's going to be happening.

54:39 - They asked for one last year.

54:41 - It's covering most of the state and it's going to be happening.

54:43 - They asked for another additional 80% increase, which is huge.

54:47 - So these are just things that are top of mind right now.

54:49 - They're on every Pennsylvanians desk every single day.

54:51 - That's exactly right. It's really on top of mind on that.

54:54 - And then Social Security, you know, Social Security and caregiving, again,

54:58 - as was mentioned earlier, there's a large segment of the sandwich generation

55:03 - that are being impacted on caregiving on tell us what the sandwich generation

55:07 - is just one more time.

55:08 - Sure.

55:08 - It's where it's where you're at an age where you still have young children

55:12 - you're taking care of, and then you have an elderly parent or relative

55:16 - that you're also taking care of.

55:18 - Caregivers in the middle of that, they're sandwiched right in the middle of that.

55:21 - So the bottom line there is that it's impacting them.

55:25 - They'd like to see what supports are out there for caregivers.

55:29 - They want to remind people that they are caregivers.

55:31 - So they're working full time jobs, taking care of their families,

55:35 - taking care of a loved one.

55:36 - And they're really just caught in that cycle.

55:39 - And so there's issues being concerned about that, about

55:42 - what is either state government, local government,

55:45 - how are they helping those individuals, whether they be, you know,

55:49 - tax credit issues for them that they could they could do.

55:53 - They're being able to allow them to have some time away from their families.

55:58 - Is there anything that they can do there to to have that refresher?

56:01 - Because if they if they get sick themselves,

56:03 - everyone else is going to be impacted.

56:05 - Sometimes they call that respite or respite respite care.

56:07 - That's exactly right. Yeah.

56:09 - So there's those those issues.

56:10 - And then again, the economic with Social Security and issues,

56:14 - you know, making sure that Social Security is there, it's viable, it's

56:17 - safe into the future so that that they are able to be able

56:21 - to participate and get those dollars down.

56:24 - Gentlemen, we have just a couple minutes left in our show.

56:26 - Bob, let's start with you for for you,

56:28 - what is the major takeaway from this poll you just did for AARP?

56:34 - Well, just to pick up on what

56:35 - Bill was saying, I mean, I think Social Security is a big issue.

56:38 - You've heard talk in Congress about, you know,

56:41 - using Social Security to do a variety of things.

56:45 - One of the questions we asked in this poll is, you know,

56:49 - would you be more or less likely to vote for Kennedy protected Social Security

56:53 - from cuts that would be used to reduce the nation's debt.

56:57 - 78% said they'd be more likely to vote for the candidate

57:00 - who protected Social Security from those cuts.

57:02 - And guess what?

57:03 - And I'll say this to my fellow Republicans out there,

57:06 - it doesn't matter if you're a Republican, independent or Democrat.

57:10 - All Pennsylvania voters over 50,

57:13 - not all, but, you know, the vast majority of them would be more likely

57:16 - to support that candidate.

57:17 - 71% of Republicans, 50 plus would support the candidate

57:21 - who would protect Social Security from those cuts.

57:24 - So that's a big takeaway from my side of the aisle.

57:27 - How about you, Jeff? Try to tell us in about 30 seconds.

57:30 - Yes, I think for

57:31 - me, it's definitely the strong percentage, over 80% who said that they would be

57:36 - more likely to vote for a candidate who provides support to family caregivers.

57:40 - I can remember during the battle over passing the ACA that was the most popular

57:44 - thing that ended up on the cutting room floor.

57:45 - But a lot of seniors are concerned with being able to age in place.

57:49 - Our guests have been Bob Ward, Fabrizio Ward, Jeff List from Impact

57:55 - Research, and Bill Johnston Walsh, the state director of AARP Pennsylvania.

58:01 - Thanks, everyone.

58:03 - That's it for Focus on Aging Adults.

58:06 - I'm Larry Kasper.

58:07 - Thanks for watching.

58:29 - And Focus on Aging

58:37 - adults is sponsored in part by AARP.