Marco Rubio is running for president as the leader of a new generation. “The time has come for our generation to lead the way toward a new American century,” Rubio, who is 43, said when he announced his candidacy last month. But in spite of that rhetoric, a new survey suggests Rubio actually appeals most to the oldest voters in his party.
Researchers from Pew asked Republicans whether they have a favorable or unfavorable impression of six GOP candidates: Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Ted Cruz. Rubio came in fourth, behind Huckabee, Paul and Bush. (Overall, Huckabee is viewed favorably by 54 percent of Republicans; Paul and Bush by 52 percent, and Rubio by 51 percent.) Pew found Rubio in second place, behind Huckabee, in favorability among the most conservative Republicans.
The striking news is who, among all those Republicans, views Rubio most favorably. Broken down by age, Rubio’s favorability rating is off the scale among Republicans age 65 and older: three-quarters of them view Rubio favorably, higher than any other Republican’s rating in any age group. The full results: Rubio is viewed favorably by 39 percent among Republicans age 18 to 44; by 50 percent of those 45 to 64; and by 75 percent of those age 65 and older.
The candidate with the next highest favorability rating among 65 and older is Scott Walker, with 64 percent. Jeb Bush is at 60 percent.
Huckabee, who for years had a cable news show especially popular with an older audience, scored only 52 percent favorable among Republicans 65 and older. But Huckabee’s favorability was distributed evenly among all age groups: 55 percent among the youngest, 54 among the middle, 52 with the oldest.)
The candidates who have the lowest favorability rating among those 65 and older are Ted Cruz, at 38 percent, and Rand Paul, at 42 percent.
As the second-youngest candidate in the GOP field (Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is actually a few days younger), Rubio has often been seen as a candidate who can appeal to young people. “For a Republican Party that skews older and whiter, and which is still struggling to attract minorities and young voters, Mr. Rubio … offers an appealingly youthful face on which to base its hopes,” wrote the New York Times when Rubio announced his candidacy. Another report in the Times noted that Rubio is “angling to become the youthful face of a party that skews older and has struggled to attract young voters, blacks and Latinos.”
But the new Pew research suggests Rubio might not be the candidate who appeals most to the young. (His 39 percent favorability rating among Republicans 18 to 44 puts him behind Huckabee, Paul, Bush, and Cruz.) Rather, Rubio, at least for now, might be the older Republican’s favorite younger Republican.
