In 2016 Election, Communities With Poor Public Health Tended To Shift Vote To Trump
Some experts warn not to read too much into the study, which could be a result of too much data dredging. But the authors say it makes sense.
Stat:
In Sicker Communities, Trump Got More Votes. Is That Why He Won?
The worse a community’s health the more strongly its voters backed Donald Trump in the 2016 election compared to their support for Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, researchers reported on Monday. The findings suggest that public health “might influence” how people vote, said Dr. Jason Wasfy of Massachusetts General Hospital, who led the study, which looked at factors such as death rates, diabetes prevalence, and teen pregnancy. “The communities that shifted from Romney to Trump in general have worse public health.” (Begley, 10/2)
Bloomberg:
Study Finds Poor Health Tied To Votes For Trump In 2016 Election
Everybody has a theory about how Donald Trump defied the polls and won the U.S. presidential election. The latest: health. There is a “substantial association” between measures of poor public health and shifts toward Trump in last November’s balloting, from voting patterns in the 2012 election, according to a paper from researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Political Science, published Monday in the journal PLOS ONE. (Shanker, 10/2)
