Why baby boomers could be the generation that decides this election

In the battle for the White House, voters like Teresa Smith, a retiree in rural Georgia, could hold significant sway over the outcome of the election as the political leanings of older Americans show signs of shifting.

Smith, 72, voted for Donald Trump in the last two elections and was likely to do so a third time when President Joe Biden was the Democratic nominee. But with Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, she says she’s now undecided on whom to vote for — or even whether to vote at all.

With Trump, “I just wish he’d shut up sometimes and talk about things that matter,” she said. “He’s just not a moral person, I don’t feel.” But when it comes to Harris, “I agree with her on birth control and abortion, but that honestly is the only thing I agree with her on.”

Once a reliable group for Republicans, senior voters have been trending toward the left as the baby boomer generation, which came of age during the 1960s and ’70s, now comprise a majority of the voting bloc. (Harris, 59, is herself among the youngest baby boomers, born in 1964, the last year that’s considered part of the generation.) In 2020, Trump beat Biden among seniors by 5 percentage points, a drop from the 12-point lead for Republicans in 2012, when Mitt Romney did better among older voters than then-President Barack Obama.

“These voters, as a group, became politically aware during the civil rights movement, women’s rights and Watergate,” said Bob Ward, a pollster with Fabrizio Ward who has been polling older voters for the AARP. “Their politics were defined in an era that collectively can be seen as a little bit more center-left.”

While these older voters say they are motivated by some of the same issues driving younger voters, they also