Posted on 09/22/2019 3:33:35 PM PDT by MarvinStinson
Conservative leaders are circulating data to White House staff that claims adults who vape will turn on President Trump if he follows through with his planned ban on flavored e-cigarettes, Axios has learned.
Between the lines: The data (shown below) reveals that the number of adult vapers in key battleground states greatly outweighs the margins by which Trump won those states in 2016 — and they argue it could cost him reelection.
What we're hearing: "While parents may be concerned about e-cigarettes, the people who genuinely care about vaping as a voting issue so far outweighs the number of people Trump needs to win in 2020 that they are royally screwing themselves by doing this," Paul Blair, the director of strategic initiatives at Americans for Tax Reform, tells me.
Suburban moms concerned about vaping "don't have the same voter intensity on this as adult vapers do," an industry lobbyist said. Florida, which Trump won by 113,000 voters, had about 873,000 adult vapers in 2016. They reason that if 1 in 8 vapers turn against Trump in 2020 because he foreclosed their vaping options, it could jeopardize the election. Why it matters: If the FDA backs away from Trump's proposed enforcement policy, it would be the second time in recent weeks that political concerns prompted him to dial back government regulations.
Trump's openness this summer to expanded background checks cooled after the gun lobby and campaign advisers warned about bad internal polling. Our thought bubble: There are four unsubstantiated assumptions about adult vapers in the case being presented to Trump:
They start out as Trump voters. They wouldn't vape anymore if they couldn't get the flavors. They are single-issue voters around vaping rights. The eventual Democratic nominee would be more vape-friendly. Still, the math can't be totally ignored, especially in places like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin where Trump's 2016 win margins were so narrow and the number of adult vapers is relatively high.
By the numbers: More than 4 million people in swing states regularly used e-cigarettes in 2016, according to FDA-funded survey data published last year in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Industry experts say that number has increased significantly in recent years.
Data: Mirboulouk, et. al, 2016, "Prevalence and Distribution of E-Cigarette Use Among U.S. Adults: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2016", Census Bureau, Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios Behind the scenes: The White House scheduled a listening session with conservative groups last Thursday after receiving intense backlash from GOP leaders and industry execs following the announcement of the ban.
Among the invitees: The Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Goldwater Institute, AFT and the Vapor Technology Association. But roughly 24 hours after invitations went out, the meeting was canceled. "They’re in chaos mode on this stuff because the backlash has been so resoundingly overpowering," one invitee said. A White House official says the meeting is expected to be rescheduled. The bottom line: The political pressure points regarding the ban have gotten Trump's attention.
Shortly after the proposed ban was announced, Trump tweeted that he still likes vaping as an alternative to cigarettes. Trump's 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale also hit back at a Trump follower who tweeted that banning vaping products is "not on brand with MAGA." One administration official said the tweets were prompted by a flood of criticism from conservative leaders.
The same GOP Allies that think Mitt Romney is the future for Republicans.
As far as I know, every person who has died or become seriously ill was trying to smoke liquefied illegal drugs.
If someone has been harmed by smoking over the counter liquefied nicotine, I have not read about it.
It’s way too early to ban all vaping products. As another poster says, who knows what’s in some of the vaping products? I can see some substances deemed unsafe to suck into your lungs.
I still view vaping as a valuable alternative to smoking cigarettes.
They are still warning POTUS.
How many warnings is this now?
It’s not a ban. It’s a ban on certain flavors that were claimed to be exceptionally toxic.
Sounds like the title of Chapter One of A Liberal’s Handbook.
Really... the GOP is pushing back in the vape pen ban because, like, liberty and rights and stuff but happily support him banning guns and red flag les?
F the gop.
I want a new party.
(And no - the vape pen ban won’t change my vote but the gun ban or red flag laws will)
There will be some people angry about a ban. Not sure how many are Trump supporters, but we should consider it.
1) The FDA could require warnings immediately.
2) They could put together a list of ingredients and the current suspected risk level. You could rank ingredients (Moderate, Moderate High, High, and Very High). The current suspects Vitamin E Aspartate and the other one I can’t remember could get Very High).
3) They could ban just 4 or 5 ingredients that are strongly suspected to be harmful and issue warnings on the rest.
4) They could start requiring clinical trials for ingredients. And ban them if the trials aren’t completed within x time frame.
You are correct.
Online gambling SHOULD be banned, IMO. It's evil and is predatory on the lowest IQ people. Not fair.
I remember when before NYS exempted itself from gambling laws to create the NYS Lottery. The money was supposed to go to education. Yeah, right.
While I'm at it, blue laws should be brought back. No stores or businesses (factories)open on Sundays, so families can get together again.
Yes, but it kept them off of Medicaid! (Got lots of dead friends from smoking.) Hope I’m next! :)
Wow! Seriously, we can't have a dialog without you going bananas like AOC. Were you a vacuous bartender hoping to run for Congress? I think you need to chill out a bit.
Freepers used to logically debate issues and allow data from various sources in order to form opinions. Your opinion is formed without a scintilla of data. You needed vaping to quit smoking tobacco. Really? I quit smoking 40 years ago, all by myself, using willpower. I used to smoke half a pack a day, I just went cold-turkey and quit. Are you lacking willpower? My dad smoked a pack a day, until he died from heart attacks while I was a teen. In my early 20's I decided I wanted to live longer than he did, and quit. Along with quitting marijuana and hash. I'm better off for quitting.
Quitting also allowed me to focus better on my career moves. I recommend you quit, or cut back on drugs of any type, or they'll catch up to you and ruin your prospects for living long and healthy.
As for the remarks I posted that led to your misplaced diatribe, vaping does present unhealthy risks to young people. I only mentioned one, the use of propylene glycol as a misting agent. You do know that it's used to make antifreeze coolant for cars, and is highly toxic if ingested. Do you really want to risk your heart, liver, lungs and nervous system to a little-tested product like e-cigarettes? Go ahead, kill yourself, I don't care - but other people might want to hear opposing viewpoints.
All of the vaping people I’ve seen would definitely be Warren voters. They would even refuse to vote for Biden. Most of them are young. Every one of them are rumored to have been on illegal benzos (Xanax, etc.), pot, ecstasy, meth and the like. They rant and rave at work against President Trump.
That’s excessive, but it is unwise policy. Vaping helps people quit smoking, and the real problem is that government depends on the tobacco tax revenues.
The Chinese are reproducing the packaging that Colorado weed stores use to sell their products. Shady suppliers are buying synthetic THC cartridges and packaging them in the fake boxes which are sold online.
So, the buyer thinks they’re buying the real deal from Colorado and they’re getting potential poison from China.
Therein lay the danger in vaping, not fruit flavors.
After smoking for 30 years I quit due to E-cigs I don’t really give a damn what the hell anyone says E-cigs are far better for you than cigarettes, I feel so much better, no tar, no chemicals, no smell, no yellow film on everything around you!! If you have NEVER been a smoker giving a smoker advice on what is good for them is ridiculous you have no first hand knowledge to be speaking on the subject!!!
Bull. While I disagree with the amount who'll not vote for Trump will exceed margins, there's not a single anti-vaper who'll vote for Trump when they know they can get 10 times the nanny state nonsense you support out of liberals.
Why would Trump want to prevent adults from vaping? We don’t need any more nanny-state nonsense.
If it makes a federal bureaucrat feel good to put a mandatory warning on the label of the vaping product, fine. Then let the citizen decide whether he wants to proceed to use the product despite the warning.
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