GOP gains ground in key Senate races thanks to older voters

The Republican Party hopes to win back the Senate in the November elections, where it will face a much more favorable map than the Democrats. Within this map, which includes "Class 1" senators, one of the most distant options was Michigan, although the trend began to change in favor of the GOP.

Michigan offers one of the few open races on the map, given that Senator Debbie Stabe announced that she will not seek a fourth consecutive term.

With the primaries now over, Elissa Slotkin will seek to keep the state blue against Republican Mike Rogers, who served 14 years as a congressman and became chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Although Slotkin took the initial lead in the polls, the gap between the two is narrowing.

"Michigan is a state where there is no clear winner"

According to the latest AARP poll, the Democrat could win the election with 47% of the vote, against 44% for the Republican. This small difference is due to the Republican's advance among older voters, a group in which both candidates are practically tied.

"Michigan is a state where there is no clear winner. We're seeing that older voters are going to play an important role here. They are more motivated to vote than younger voters," Bob Ward said. Ward is a partner at Fabrizio Ward, part of a bipartisan polling team that conducted the AARP-commissioned survey.

Paula D. Cunningham, state director of AARP Michigan, stated that the poll shows that "people are still exploring and researching" the candidates, particularly on major issues such as the economy, immigration and security.

However, she assigned particular relevance to independent voters. "We have a large number of independent voters, almost 30 percent, and they can swing an election either way," she added.

Republicans' strategy to take back the Senate

Steve Daines (R-MT), the current chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), is on a mission to get more Republicans elected to the Senate in 2024 and keep those already there. With the Senate at 51-49 in favor of Democrats, he will need to flip at least two seats. Among those targeted are Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Montana, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Unlike his predecessor, Rick Scott (R-FL), who decided not to get involved in the primary process, the Montana senator opted for a more aggressive strategy in the primary process. Daines then directly endorsed the candidates with better funding capabilities and a better chance of prevailing at the polls.

In addition to Rogers, Daines endorsed Dave McCormick, Jim Justice, Sam Brown, Tim Sheehy, Bernie Moreno and Eric Hovde in the other key states.