Florida Trends: Key Counties

[Linus Van Pelt]

Seminole County: An old person Oasis, thanks to The Villages. It has become extremely Republican through the years. A good microcosm of the white senior citizen vote.

I think you mean Sumter here; that's where The Villages is.

Also, while white seniors certainly are a conservative demographic, the sort of people who move to The Villages are not really a representative sample of seniors overall.

[Linus Van Pelt]

Seminole County: An old person Oasis, thanks to The Villages. It has become extremely Republican through the years. A good microcosm of the white senior citizen vote.

I think you mean Sumter here; that's where The Villages is.

Also, while white seniors certainly are a conservative demographic, the sort of people who move to The Villages are not really a representative sample of seniors overall.

Corrected, thanks! So what kind of people tend to move into The Villages? I've only drove through it, never met anybody who lives there.

Oh I'm sure you know the place better than I do. I've never even been to Florida at all and the one person I know in the state lives in Miami. I just mean that in general, seniors who move to suburban retirement communities in the sunbelt are likely to be somewhat more Republican than typical seniors, partly for economic reasons and partly for cultural reasons. In the CNN exit polls, whites 65+ nationwide were 58-40 McCain and 61-39 Romney; it's a fairly Republican demographic but less so than these places.