President Trump prepares for US midterm elections, touts economic performance
President Donald Trump is campaigning for his party in the run-up to November’s midterm elections, and this year’s battle for control of Congress is at stake.
Fox – Seattle
With midterm elections approaching, older women voters are worried about the economy.
That’s the message from AARP’s new survey of American voters, focusing on women over 50. It comes in the run-up to the crucial midterm elections in November.
According to the survey, half of female voters aged 50 and over expect the economy to worsen next year. Only 31% expected it to improve.
Research shows that half of older women feel more financially insecure now than they did a year ago, compared to just one-third of men of the same age.
Both parties have the potential to win older women’s votes.
Candidates from both major parties are planning ads and speeches to reach older women, who could vote either way in 2026, pollsters said.
Young women tend to vote Democratic. Older men lean more Republican. But Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson, who conducted the AARP survey with Democratic pollster Margie Omero, said older women are “not a monolith.”
That’s why AARP chose to focus on them in a poll released on February 10th.
“The reality is that women over 50 are one of the largest voting groups and one of the most visible groups,” Anderson said.
Older women are a group that “has the potential to appeal to both sides of the aisle with the right focus and the right message,” she said.
According to both women and men who responded to an AARP survey, the biggest issue facing America today is the cost of living.
Women aged 50 to 64 are worried about the economy
However, across the survey, women in the 50 to 64 age group expressed greater concern about the economy than older women and men.
For example, women between the ages of 50 and 64 are less confident about whether they will have enough money to live a comfortable retirement. The breakdown of voters who answered “not very confident” or “not at all confident” about a comfortable retirement is as follows.
- 55% of women aged 50-64
- 45% of women over 65
- 43% of men aged 50-64
- 27% of men over 65
The survey was conducted in December 2025 among 2,593 voters, including 1,188 women aged 50 and over.
Women aged 50 to 64, a mix of older Gen Xers and younger “Beatlemaniac” baby boomers, face unique financial pressures.
“Many of them still support children under 18 and adult children,” Anderson said. “They are burdened because they have to look after those younger and older than them while struggling to look after themselves.”
Older women voters often feel invisible
Politically and economically, older women “often feel like they’re invisible,” Anderson said.
“They feel undervalued, not just economically undervalued, but unappreciated,” Homero said.
In the AARP survey, women ages 50 to 64 report financial insecurity across many economic sectors. Overall, only 35% of women aged 50 to 64 say the economy is working well for them personally, compared to 47% of women aged 65 and older.
Three-fifths of women aged 50 to 64 say their personal wealth is lower than expected, compared to two-fifths of women aged 65 and older.
Additionally, older female voters were shown to have lower confidence in the economy than men.
Just over half of women over 50 say they are not confident they will be financially well off in a year’s time, compared to 39% of men the same age.
Older women are more likely than older men to worry about paying their medical bills, by a difference of 44% vs. 32%.
The findings suggest that politicians are more likely to win the votes of older women if they focus on long-term economic solutions, such as protecting Social Security, containing health care costs, and improving overall affordability.
It’s all well and good to tout short-term economic improvements, Anderson said, but that alone “won’t solve the long-term economic insecurity that women face.”
Economic insecurity for women is not new.
This study reflects the persistent financial challenges faced by American women, especially as they approach retirement.
Research shows that women are more likely than men to care for relatives and friends, often putting their own health and finances at risk.
More than two-fifths of working women have worked as a caregiver for someone other than a child, according to a 2025 report from the Transamerica Retirement Research Center.
According to a Transamerica report, working women have an average of only $3,000 in emergency savings, compared to $10,000 for working men. Additionally, female workers only have an average of $56,000 in retirement savings, compared to $92,000 for men.
