There's something about the women ...

This is too good not to share. The New York Times' polling geek Nate Cohn responded to a reader email:

I’m 79, and women my age remember when abortion was illegal. Many of us either had a back-alley abortion, or had friends who had one. We are determined that neither our daughters nor our granddaughters have to experience this. Many of the elderly men I know still vote for Republicans. But watch out: We outlive you! — Mary Leonhardt

You may be partly joking, Mary, but this is probably a minor reason Democrats do a bit better among older voters than people might guess!

Why? American women, who tend to support Democrats, live almost six years longer on average than men. Women make up 55 percent of registered voters over age 65 — including 58 percent of those over age 80 — according to data from L2, a political data firm. In comparison, women are 52 percent of registered voters under 65.

I know all of this is a little morbid, but longevity strikes me as an underexplored dimension of electoral trends nowadays. We know higher life expectancy is correlated with socioeconomic status and tends to be higher in Democratic-leaning areas. Could this be a factor in why Democrats are performing better among older voters than usually thought? I think so.

As Cohn points out, old men too live longer in more prosperous areas where there are more Democrats. Kind of makes you suspect there's a correlation between (better) functioning social systems, sane politics, and longevity.