“President Donald Trump has lost many of the older voters who helped propel him to victory in 2016, and Republican strategists say they think they know why: Trump is losing the ad war to Joe Biden. The Democratic nominee has outspent Trump on television and is well positioned to press that advantage in the final month of the campaign, with $119 million in reserved time to Trump’s $98 million. Biden has also been buying up additional time in recent weeks, while Trump has canceled his television ad buys amid a campaign cash crunch” Bloomberg reports.
“Older voters are the ones most exposed to political ads on broadcast and cable television, with younger viewers more often using subscription streaming services, which have little or no ads. Trump won voters older than 65 in 2016 by 7 percentage points, according to exit polls. Now, a Marist/NPR/PBS poll last week put his deficit at 8 points, a 15-point swing from four years ago. Trump’s senior citizen problem isn’t lost on Republican strategists. One who asked not to be named publicly criticizing the campaign, said there’s a direct cause-and-effect between Trump’s television time and his poor showing among senior citizens. By failing to mount an effective air war, Trump is inadvertently giving up ground in a fight for a key voting bloc, the strategist said.”