To Gain Ground on Trump, Harris Should Draw Contrast on Social Security
By Nancy Altman and Danielle Deiseroth
Social Security is a top issue for voters in the 2024 election. It is especially key for older Americans, who vote at higher rates than their younger counterparts. Indeed, for the 67 million current beneficiaries, their families, and the millions more working families approaching retirement age, Social Security is a bread-and-butter issue.
Donald Trump understands the politics of Social Security and the risk it poses to his campaign. He is distracting from his history of supporting benefit cuts by promising to end the taxation of benefits (along with many other phony promises of tax cuts) and lying about undocumented immigrants receiving Social Security. His campaign is flooding Pennsylvania and other swing states with pro-Trump and anti-Harris mailers, as well as TV ads, about Social Security.
The best way for the Harris campaign to counteract the Trump narrative on Social Security is by pouring resources into a narrative of its own: Kamala Harris is fighting to strengthen Social Security by requiring billionaires to contribute their fair share, while Donald Trump will slash Social Security (as he has tried to do in the past) if he returns to the White House.
Data for Progress’ polling demonstrates that Social Security should be a winning issue for Democrats, as their policies on Social Security align with the views of the overwhelming majority of Americans. Seventy-four percent of likely voters want to increase Social Security benefits, while only 2% want to cut them.
Kamala Harris agrees. According to her campaign website:
“Vice President Harris will protect Social Security and Medicare against relentless attacks from Donald Trump and his extreme allies. She will strengthen Social Security and Medicare for the long haul by making millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share in taxes. She will always fight to ensure that Americans can count on getting the benefits they earned.”
And yet, with only weeks to go before the election, most voters are unaware of where the parties stand on this crucial issue. Only 22% of voters say that they know “a lot” about the Democratic and Republican plans for Social Security, and one-third of voters know “nothing at all.”
Even when directly asked about Harris’ position, less than half of voters are aware of her support for strengthening Social Security. Just as importantly, only 44% percent of voters know that Trump has supported cutting benefits.
While these figures are alarming, they also present the Harris campaign with a massive opportunity to inform, energize, and mobilize voters by making Social Security a key election issue.
When voters are informed that Harris supports increasing Social Security benefits, while Trump supports cutting them, Harris draws in an additional 4% of likely voters in a head-to-head race against Trump.
Voters have shown that they will support the candidate who fights to protect and strengthen Social Security. During the 2022 midterms, Democrats in swing districts won by campaigning on strengthening Social Security. Data from AARP found that older voters in swing districts backed Democrats by a 3-point margin, defying the stereotype of seniors as a conservative voting bloc. This happened because Democrats hammered home their commitment to Social Security, and voters responded.
The Harris campaign is making significant progress in reaching out to seniors on drug prices, and a similar focus is needed with regards to Social Security. If the campaign can break through the noise, voters will know that Kamala Harris is the only candidate fighting for seniors.
Nancy J. Altman is the President of Social Security Works (@SSWorks).
Danielle Deiseroth (@danielledeis) is the Executive Director at Data for Progress.
Cover photo attributed to Gage Skidmore.