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A new poll from AARP Michigan finds that 51% of likely voters support Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's re-election, while 46% of likely voters support her Republican opponent, Tudor Dixon.
Whitmer also holds a sizable lead among women voters polled, with a 17-point lead over Dixon in that demographic.
The only demographic groups where Dixon holds a lead over Whitmer is among men and among voters with no college degree. Fifty-two percent of men favor Dixon, while 45% of men favor Whitmer. And 50% of voters with no college degree favor Dixon, while 46% favor Whitmer.
AARP Michigan broke out the poll results for voters over 50 to highlight the importance of their vote across the state. In the 2018 midterms, 60% of the electorate in Michigan was made up by voters over 50, according to the group. Those older voters gave Whitmer a four-point lead in this poll, with 50% supporting Whitmer and 46% supporting Dixon.
The state could see high numbers of voters over 50 again, with 88% of voters over 50 who responded to his poll saying they are extremely motivated to vote in the upcoming midterms. That's higher than the 72% "extremely motivated" number from voters 49-years and younger.
Among all likely voters, the poll finds that 41% approve of President Joe Biden’s job in the White House, while 57% disapprove. Among voters over 50, Biden’s approval was slightly higher, with 45% of voters approving of his job.
Other notable findings from the poll are that 71% of respondents over 18 agree that the country is headed in the wrong direction and 57% of them feel that the U.S. economy is not working for them.
Additionally, 54% of voters over age 50 cite inflation as personally more important in their decision about who to vote for, versus 41% who say the overturning of Roe v. Wade is personally important in their decision about who to vote for.
The poll sampled 1,365 likely Michigan voters, including a statewide representative sample of 500 voters and an oversample of 550 likely voters over age 50. The margin of error for all likely voters was ±4.4%, while the margin of error for the sample of voters over 50 was ±3.4%.
