By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Three groups representing older Americans on Wednesday endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for a second term as president, as the Biden campaign works to build on existing support among seniors and help offset weaker support among Blacks and Latino voters.
The National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare (NCPSSM), which defied a 38-year tradition of avoiding endorsements of Biden in 2020, Social Security Works PAC and the bipartisan National United Committee to Protect Pensions all said they would support Biden in 2024 would support. .
The endorsements, which were not previously reported, follow Biden’s January endorsement by the Alliance for Retired Americans, which has 4.4 million members.
The committee said Biden had worked to protect seniors’ earned benefits.
The campaign on Tuesday launched Seniors for Biden-Harris, a grassroots program to energize voters 65 and older with more than a dozen events, from bingo nights to pickleball tournaments and appearances by top government officials.
Older Americans could play a key role in the election, as they vote at a higher level than any other group and represent nearly 10 million voters in key electoral battleground states including Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
Seniors generally vote Republican by a majority, but their growing support for Biden, 81, the oldest person to serve as president, could be good news for the Democrat, whose approval rating fell to the lowest level in nearly two years in May .
Americans age 65 and older numbered nearly 56 million in the 2020 census, or just under 17% of the U.S. population. Trump won voters of that age by 7 percentage points in 2016, but Biden closed the gap to 5 points in 2020 and now has a narrow lead, according to an April NBC News poll.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
