Which age group had the highest turnout for Trump in the 2024 election?
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Executive summary
Donald Trump’s 2024 coalition was powered disproportionately by older Americans, and the clearest evidence points to voters ages 45–64 as the age group that both turned out at high rates and gave Trump particularly strong support; multiple analyses and exit-poll summaries identify the 45–64 cohort as a crucial source of Trump votes even as citizens 65+ had the highest overall turnout rate among age bands (65+) [1] [2] [3]. This conclusion is supported by exit-poll reporting, validated-voter analyses, and turnout studies, though the available sources differ in emphasis and methodology, so the claim must be read as the best inference from compiled reporting rather than a single definitive statistic [4] [5] [6].
1. Older Americans turned out at the highest rates, but turnout alone is not the same as Trump’s strongest turnout share
Census-based turnout estimates show citizens 65 and older voted at the highest rate of any age group in 2024—about 74.7%—making them the most reliable voting bloc in raw turnout terms [2]; however, high turnout among seniors does not automatically mean they were the single age group that produced the largest share of Trump voters, because both turnout and candidate preference within the age band matter when measuring which age group “had the highest turnout for Trump” [2] [4].
2. Exit polls and media analyses single out ages 45–64 as Trump’s most supportive working-age bloc
Multiple exit-poll summaries and post-election analyses identify the 45–64 cohort as a key source of Trump votes: international reporting and state-focused exit summaries highlight that Trump “received more support among voters aged 45 to 64” and that men between 45 and 64 gave him particularly strong backing in key-state polling [1] [6]. AARP and other analyses likewise emphasize that the 45–64 group—often the second-oldest cohort—has historically had higher turnout than younger groups and leaned more to the right in 2024, helping explain why 45–64 emerges as the age group that delivered a large volume of Trump votes [3].
3. Validated-voter research shows Trump’s coalition skewed older and that adults 35+ showed turnout advantages
Pew’s validated-voter work reports that a majority of the electorate was 50 and older and that Trump’s voters skewed older in 2024, with turnout advantages among adults 35 and older, which dovetails with exit-poll findings that the middle-to-older adult cohorts were central to Trump’s win [4] [7]. Pew also documents that Trump benefited from higher turnout among his 2020 voters and stronger mobilization among older cohorts—factors that amplify why 45–64 is frequently identified as a decisive age band [5] [7].
4. Gender and subgroup detail complicate a single-age-band answer—young men and certain subgroups also moved toward Trump
While 45–64 stands out, subgroup breakdowns complicate a tidy answer: surveys show young men moved toward Trump compared with 2020 and that white youth favored Trump overall in some analyses, meaning that in absolute vote counts the GOP’s gains were multi‑dimensional [8] [9] [10]. Navigator and CAWP reporting note that men under 45 and subsets of young voters swung pro-Trump relative to 2020, but those gains did not eclipse the combined turnout and preference strength of the 45–64 cohort as reported in exit poll and validated-voter analyses [9] [10] [6].
5. Methodological caveats: exit polls, validated-voter samples, and Census turnout metrics each tell slightly different stories
Different sources use different measures—Census turnout rates by age, media exit polls in key states, and Pew’s validated-voter surveys of recorded voters—so “highest turnout for Trump” can mean either the age band with the highest turnout rate that heavily favored Trump (65+ turnout high but somewhat more mixed in preference) or the age band that delivered the largest pool of Trump votes through the combination of turnout and vote share (45–64 fits that description in multiple exit-poll and analyst accounts) [2] [1] [4] [5]. Reporting limitations prevent a single-source arithmetic confirmation in this dataset; the best-supported interpretation across the provided sources is that ages 45–64 were the most consequential age group for Trump’s vote total even as 65+ had the single highest turnout percentage [2] [1] [3].
6. Bottom line and alternative readings
Synthesis of exit polls, validated-voter studies, and turnout analyses indicates that ages 45–64 were the age group that most strongly delivered votes for Trump in 2024—recognized across outlets and analyses—while citizens 65+ exhibited the highest raw turnout rate overall, which made them crucial to the result but not necessarily the single age band with the largest pro‑Trump vote share when compared to 45–64 [1] [2] [4]. Alternative readings are possible depending on whether one prioritizes raw turnout percentages (65+) or the combined effect of turnout plus vote share (45–64); the sources provided support both claims in different senses, with most exit‑poll and demographic breakdowns emphasizing 45–64 as Trump’s strongest working-age bloc [6] [7].