Trump Pollster, AARP to Talk Caregiver Tax Credit With Lawmakers

President Donald Trump’s campaign pollster, Tony Fabrizio, is scheduled to meet with congressional Republicans on Tuesday to share new AARP survey data that found a proposed tax credit for family caregivers the most popular proposal in the current tax debate among registered voters nationally—and in 28 of the most competitive House districts for 2026.

Strong overall support for the proposal crossed all party lines with 87% of Democrats, 84% of Republicans, and 82% of independents in favor of the measure, according to an AARP-commissioned national survey of 3,000 registered voters and another survey of 1,000 registered voters in the 28 House districts.

“My main message is going to be this is one of those issues that people don’t pay a lot of attention to, but they should because it affects a lot of voters,” many of whom “could potentially be shifted” by a lawmakers’ support for this issue, Fabrizio said Monday in a Zoom interview with Bloomberg Law.

The plan Tuesday is to have Fabrizio meet with GOP lawmakers, while a representative of Democratic polling firm Impact Research is expected to meet with Democratic members, said Nancy LeaMond, AARP’s chief advocacy and engagement officer.

Fabrizio’s Republican polling firm, Fabrizio Ward, and Impact Research conducted the surveys via SMS-to-web, phone, and online panel interviews between Jan. 27 and Feb.1, 2025. The 28 House districts included 15 GOP-held districts won by less than 5% of the vote in 2024, and 13 Democratic-held districts won by Trump.

Convincing Arguments

The bipartisan Credit for Caring Act, (H.R. 7165), introduced in 2024 by Reps. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Mike Carey (R-Ohio), would have provided a nonrefundable tax credit of up to $5,000 to cover 30% of qualified long-term care expenses that exceed $2,000 in a taxable year. Eligible caregivers under the proposal would have required income greater than $7,500, and care expenses for a spouse or dependent relative with long-term care needs. A Senate proposal (S. 3702) was introduced by Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).

AARP is pushing to have the measure reintroduced and attached to a larger funding or tax measure in 2025.

“This tax credit puts money back in the pockets of Americans who are hard-working family caregivers,” LeaMond said of the estimated 48 million people who provide unpaid assistance to family members or loved ones with everyday living activities like eating, bathing, and getting dressed. AARP estimates their efforts amount to roughly $600 billion in uncompensated labor.

Seventy-six percent of survey respondents said it was a “very” or ”somewhat” convincing argument that “before Congress extends any tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations, it should support working Americans with a tax credit to help cover the expenses of taking care of a loved one.”

The same percentage of respondents also said it was a convincing argument that “unpaid family caregiving is a major challenge for caregivers’ finances” and that unpaid caregivers “spend about $7,200 a year out of their own pockets to care for their older family members—making it harder for them to afford groceries, and pay bills.”

History of GOP, Trump Support

In July 2024, the Republican Party Platform said the GOP would “support unpaid Family Caregivers through Tax Credits and reduced red tape.” And Trump offered his support for the policy at an October 2024 campaign rally in New York City.

Overall, 84% of survey participants nationally and in the competitive districts “strongly” or “somewhat” supported passing a caregiver tax credit. That’s in comparison with 78% who supported eliminating income taxes on Social Security and 64% who backed scrapping income taxes on overtime pay.

That 84% support far outpaced the overall 51% support for continuing the 2017 Trump tax cuts, although among Trump voters, support for both measures was 84%, the survey found.

The surveys also showed about 25% of voters define themselves as “current caregivers,” with over 60% who said they have been or expect to be caregivers in the future, Fabrizio said.

“And half of people who are caregivers, spend 10 or more hours a week doing it,” Fabrizio added. “So it’s like having a part-time job for many of these people. They recognize the sacrifice that goes into this,” and it “cuts across, pretty much, all demographic groups.”

Fabrizio said he plans to share the polling data with Trump. He said the survey found that Republicans who support the proposal would get more of a net gain with registered voters than Democrats who do the same.

The margin of error for the national survey is plus or minus 1.8%, and plus-or-minus 3.1% for the congressional districts survey.