Biden campaign kicks off senior-citizen outreach in Michigan

State Rep. Stephanie Young (D-Detroit) addresses volunteers at Seniors for Biden-Harris campaign kickoff in Lansing. June 11, 2024. Photo by Lucy Valeski

Senior citizens, an important demographic in the campaign to the White House, gathered in Lansing Tuesday to support President Joe Biden’s re-election and pan former President Donald Trump’s policies for older Americans. 

The Michigan arm of the Seniors for Biden-Harris campaign started in Lansing and will travel to Traverse City and Grand Rapids this week. Speakers highlighted policies enacted by Biden that supported seniors, like greater access to healthcare and Social Security.

State Rep. Stephanie Young (D-Detroit), Michigan Democratic Party senior caucus chair Linda Michaels Gruber, and Lansing-area resident Maria Enriquez spoke at Tuesday’s campaign kick-off. 

“We seniors are a loud voting demographic,” Gruber said. “We know what we have to do, and we’ve done it before. We need to support Seniors for Biden-Harris to make sure that this administration continues to serve us, protecting our rights, freedoms and our democracy. 

Trump had previously won Michigan’s electoral votes in 2016, but Biden defeated the incumbent in 2020 by a narrow margin, with a rematch this fall all but inevitable. 

Biden’s age, a common criticism of the 81-year-old candidate, is an asset for the country, Gruber said. She explained Biden’s age gives him more experience and knowledge of the Constitution. Trump is 77-years-old.

“President Biden is 81-years-old and proud of it,” Gruber said. “He does not shy away from the fact, and we don’t either. We embrace it.”

All three speakers touched on Biden’s track record of keeping prices for prescription drugs and insulin low for seniors. Seniors on Medicare only have to pay $35 per month for insulin under the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, and the president has called for lower insulin costs for all people. Coming up next year, pharmaceutical drug costs will be capped at $2,000 a year for Medicare patients.

Enriquez said these policies are important for seniors because medication and healthcare can be unaffordable for people with a fixed income. 

“When people ask if I’m better off under Joe Biden, I can always say that absolutely so, not just me, but everybody else that is on Medicare and Medicaid,” Enriquez said. 

The speakers also contrasted Biden’s social service program policy with Trump’s. Trump spoke, unspecifically, about cutting entitlements for Medicare and Social Security in a CNBC interview in March.

“If Trump and MAGA Republicans get their way, Michiganders will struggle to afford medications, keep roofs over their heads and potentially even worse,” Young said. 

Biden’s administration has passed other progressive rules that expand safety and health for senior-citizens, Gruber said. Gruber explained priorities like expanding access to the Internet, improved infrastructure for water, gun reform and providing aid to Ukraine all helped seniors and their families. 

Gruber also touched on what Biden would not do, drawing him in opposition with Trump once again. Many Republicans, including Trump and his potential vice-presidential nominees, have worked to limit reproductive rights. Some people fear a nationwide abortion ban, in addition to limited access to reproductive healthcare services like IVF and birth control. 

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