A new poll finds the state's Senate race is a dead heat, and Marylanders 50 and older are highly motivated to vote. The bipartisan poll conducted on behalf of A-A-R-P Maryland surveyed more than 12-hundred likely voters. It found the Senate race between former Governor Larry Hogan and Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks is tied at 46-percent each, with 7-percent of voters undecided. Pollster Jeff Liszt with Impact Research says at this point in the race, name recognition is big.
"There are a lot of voters in Maryland who still don't know Alsobrooks, and so part of the reason that Larry Hogan is right now doing as well as he is with a lot of Democratic-leaning constituencies is that younger voters know Larry Hogan a lot better than they know Alsobrooks."
The poll found Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump in the state by a wide margin. With Hogan polling much better than Trump, Liszt says 33-percent of voters over 50 are currently splitting their tickets between the presidential race and the Senate contest.
Top issues resonating with Maryland voters 50 and older include the economy and jobs, threats to democracy, immigration and border security along with inflation and rising prices. The poll found more than 80-percent of voters 50 and older support funding the state grant program for family caregivers to cover some out-of-pocket expenses. A-A-R-P Maryland state director Hank Greenberg says there are several hundred-thousand family caregivers in the state.
"There are over 770,000 self-identified family caregivers, their out-of-pocket expenses are about $7,200 a year, and in fact, nearly a third of them, according to the survey that was just done, they're spending over 21 hours a week doing family caregiving, and they could really use some assistance in that regard."
The new Caregiver Expense Grant Program took effect July 1st and offers up to 25-hundred dollars a year to help cover care related expenses.
When pollsters asked voters 50 and older about specific issues, Greenberg says they found that Social Security was the top concern.
"52% of older voters say that Social Security is going to be a major source of their income, or is a major source of their income, and that's according to this study, and that 79% of older voters say that that candidate's position on Social Security is extremely or very important. "
