Although women voted for President Barack Obama 56% to 43% for Sen. John McCain in the 2008 election, according to exit polls, older women voters, especially those who are middle- and working-class, tend to be swing voters, political analysts say.

Older women vote in midterm elections in much larger numbers than their male counterparts and younger voters who are less inclined to follow politics in a non-presidential election year, says Susan Carroll, a senior scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. They rarely watch the Sunday morning news shows.

“Because [politics] is a vital part of the conversation at home, it’s a vital conversation on the show,” says Anne Sweeney, president of Disney-ABC Television Group, which classifies the show as entertainment.