Title: AARP Is Officially Nonpartisan but Group Officials’ Money Mostly Goes to Dems
Headings: AARP Is Officially Nonpartisan but Group Officials’ Money Mostly Goes to Dems
Politics
AARP Is Officially Nonpartisan but Group Officials’ Money Mostly Goes to Dems

Content: AARP Is Officially Nonpartisan but Group Officials’ Money Mostly Goes to Dems
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at the AARP and The Des Moines Register Iowa Presidential Candidate Forum in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on July 20, 2019. ( Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Politics
AARP Is Officially Nonpartisan but Group Officials’ Money Mostly Goes to Dems
By Mark Tapscott
July 23, 2019 Updated: July 24, 2019
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Seventeen of the Democratic presidential primary contenders appeared in Iowa last week for candidate forums hosted by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), with most of them backing a Medicare for All system that would end private health care insurance, or a public option that would compete with it. While the organization doesn’t endorse candidates for the White House or Congress, Democrats and liberal advocacy groups are far and away the choice of more than 330 individuals who listed “AARP” in the title of their employer, according to The Epoch Times’ analysis of Federal Election Commission data for the 2016 and 2018 election cycles. The individuals made a total of 3,210 contributions to federal candidates, party and political action committees (PACs), and advocacy groups. Seven of the AARP employees made 61 contributions, which averaged $277 each and were worth a total of $16,871, to Republican candidates, including President Donald Trump and one conservative advocacy group. By contrast, the more than 320 remaining AARP employees made 3,149 discrete contributions worth a total of $183,868 to Democratic candidates, party and ideological advocacy committees, and PACs. In other words, a mere 1.9 percent of the contributions went to Republicans, with the remaining 98.1 percent going to Democrats and allied groups. By far, the favorite recipient of contributions from AARP members was Act Blue, the liberal Democratic PAC.