Senior citizens are driving Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonHillicon Valley: FBI chief says Russia is trying to interfere in election to undermine Biden | Treasury Dept. sanctions Iranian government-backed hackers The Hill's Campaign Report: Arizona shifts towards Biden | Biden prepares for drive-in town hall | New Biden ad targets Latino voters FBI chief says Russia is trying to interfere in election to undermine Biden MORE to the Democratic presidential nomination.

Throughout the party’s primaries, Clinton has regularly won the votes of people over 65 by double-digit margins, even in states that she has lost to Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersMcConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security The Hill's Campaign Report: Arizona shifts towards Biden | Biden prepares for drive-in town hall | New Biden ad targets Latino voters Why Democrats must confront extreme left wing incitement to violence MORE (I-Vt.).

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African-American seniors have also been a significant part of Clinton’s support in the South, where she is sweeping Sanders. In some states, Clinton has won as much as 85 percent of voters over 65 years old, according to CNN exit polls.

The support from seniors has helped her make up for losses to Sanders among people under 30. That demographic — including a surprising number of young women — has come out in droves for the Vermont Independent.

While Clinton has pledged in recent weeks to make inroads with young voters, much of her focus as been on capturing and locking down the older set.

She rolled out a plan to stop Alzheimer’s disease, and the campaign has broadcast countless ads on the need to lower prescription drug prices. She also has blasted Republicans for attempting to gut Social Security and Medicare.

“I care a lot about making sure everyone gets a fair benefit, but I’m really concerned about what’s happening to older women,” Clinton said earlier this year while stumping in Iowa.

While Clinton will want to make up ground with millennials in the general election, outsiders argue her strategy of targeting seniors has been a smart one in first stages of the race.

“Seniors vote at about three times the rate of young people, so courting seniors is the electoral equivalent of hunting where the ducks are,” said Cal Jillson, a professor of political science at Southern Methodist University.

“This seems like one of those strategic calculations that a smart campaign would make, because that’s the highest turnout group in the electorate,” Jillson added. “Seniors turn out in large numbers, and Clinton’s been around the track a few times and gets that.”

A Clinton campaign aide added that the Democratic front-runner is “proud of the support she has across age groups, especially the trust her agenda has from seniors.”

“There’s no question she’s working hard to earn their support,” the aide added.

The support from seniors eluded President Obama in his 2008 and 2012 campaigns.

In 2008, Obama won 45 percent of the voters 65 years old and over, compared to 53 percent for Republican nominee John McCain John Sidney McCainThe electoral reality that the media ignores Kelly's lead widens to 10 points in Arizona Senate race: poll COVID response shows a way forward on private gun sale checks MORE.

It was the only age group that Obama lost in the election, according to Cornell University’s Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. Seniors made up 16 percent of the electorate.

In 2012, Democrats tried to cut into Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s advantage by highlighting the positions of his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanAt indoor rally, Pence says election runs through Wisconsin Juan Williams: Breaking down the debates Peterson faces fight of his career in deep-red Minnesota district MORE (R-Wis.), who is now the House Speaker. As the House Budget Committee Chairman, Ryan backed blueprints that Democrats argued would lead to cuts to Medicare.

It didn’t work. Seniors ended up backing the Romney-Ryan ticket with 56 percent of the vote, compared to 44 percent for Obama. Seniors were again 16 percent of the electorate.

Jillson argued that Clinton might have a better chance of winning over seniors in the general election that Obama.

“In 2008, there was a great deal of excitement around young people and a candidate who was young and energetic and different, but all of those things struck 50- and 60-year-olds — whites in particular — as something that needed to be puzzled over,” Jillson said.

With Clinton, Jillson said, “many of these same people have a different reaction.”

Older African-Americans are a particular source of strength for Clinton.

Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons said that while he once detected some reluctance among some African-American supporters, that seems to have long faded. And now, “a major part of Hillary’s coalition is with older African-American voters, and they have an excellent turnout record,” added Katherine Jellison, a professor of women’s history at Ohio University. “You can take that group of voters to the bank.”

Jellison added that older African-Americans feel as though they have a long-term relationship with the Clintons.

When Bill Clinton William (Bill) Jefferson ClintonD-Day for Trump: September 29 Trump job approval locked at 42 percent: Gallup If Trump doesn't know why he should be president again, how can voters? MORE won the White House in 1992, senior citizens supported him by a 17-point margin.

Clinton, however, also won support from young voters, a demographic his wife has yet to capture in her 2016 campaign.

For now, observers say Hillary Clinton seems resigned to move ahead and capture the nomination without millennials.

“She is willing to move ahead without them as long as she is winning, with the assumption that most will come to her in the general election,” Jillson said.

“I’m sure she’s surprised to not have more of the youth vote, particularly with younger women,” Jillson said. “But you’ve got to do what you’re good at and what you’re comfortable with.”