Barbara Roth, 69, said all of those things were important to her. “I know everyone thinks that all seniors care about is Social Security,” she said. “But I have grandchildren and want the world to be safe for them.”

But they also spoke of a connection that went beyond policy. In Mrs. Clinton, who is 68, some said they saw a reflection of themselves — less liberal and eager for revolution than they were in their youth, perhaps, but still drawn to the same causes.

Ellen Shelton, a 69-year-old resident of the Bellaggio retirement community here, said social issues and abortion rights, in particular, were motivating her to support Mrs. Clinton. She said that she believed that Mrs. Clinton had the best chance of beating the Republican nominee in November and that the young people supporting Mr. Sanders did not realize how hard her generation had fought for women’s rights.

“I see everything we worked so hard for being eroded,” she said. “It makes me feel ancient, but I hear my mother saying, ‘You don’t know what it was like!’ ”

Jon Bauman, a Clinton supporter and a founder of Senior Votes Count, an advocacy group, said older Democrats valued experience and knew better than to dismiss Mrs. Clinton because of her ties to Wall Street, her vote for the Iraq war or other issues that Mr. Sanders has faulted her for.

“We disavowed one of the greatest Democratic presidents of all time, L.B.J., because of his foreign policy, and we ended up with Richard Nixon,” Mr. Bauman, 68, said during a break from campaigning for Mrs. Clinton in Youngstown, Ohio. “Young people don’t recognize the consequences.”