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.
Says the person who supposedly read my post and responded with an accusation that I never smoked even though I remarked that I smoked a half a pack a day and quit cold turkey, just shows that some people may be in a foggy state of mind due to ingesting toxic chemicals. READ the post and analyze the words before you respond. Sheesh! Some girls are too emotional to think straight!
Sorry.... I don’t need nanny staters on any level telling me what I can and cannot do....jail Hillary first...put up the wall... but don’t tell me what I can or cannot do
Correct! Trump needs to just stay out of it.
And that's exactly what President Trump should say. Support the science.
Supporting H1B isn’t going to do it, and depending on the type of “gun control” that won’t do it either (bump stock ban, case in point - his current approval rating according to Rasmussen is 52%, and we all know it’s probably higher). He’s not going to do anything with regard to “gun control”...it’s all geared to make the Dems come out of the shadows and say more things like Beto...and ultimately, the Dems won’t go for it because it will look like it gives Trump a win....and Trump can say, we’ll, I tried, but I’m not going for anything that infringes on 2A.
No one should shrug this off as “a crock”. Republicans ignore this advice at our own risk. Him pushing this regulation would be a huge mistake.
I almost think it is a head fake. Lets see what actually happens. It sure doesn’t seem like it would be a winner with a lot of his base. This is Bloomberg/nanny autocrat crappola stuff, they hate all that dog squeeze.
Freegards
Don’t expect any rational behavior from addicts. Nicotine has them by their balls, and they will deliver claptrap BS arguing for free access to their drug. The people “vaping” tend to be the people who do so many other unsociable things: bad language, aggressive driving, pushy attitude — they’re generally not pleasant to be around.
I’m not a vaper, smoker, doper or anything else but damn, stop trying to meddle in people’s personal lives. There’s plenty of other stuff to do in dealing with deep state globalists and all. Leave the nanny state crap to the democrats, people vote republican under the (many times mistaken) impression that they’ll meddle less in their lives than the communist ninnie side of the aisle. How about we just stop telling people how to live their lives and stick to important stuff like appointing judges, cutting BS regulations, and lowering taxes?
Sounds like the vaping folks are spending money to get folks to back their product so the addiction cycle is unbroken....
I'd not go this far; but he does not need to get in the 'fight' at all.
Let all the CHOICE proponents CHOOSE whichever way they want to die!
So; you are STILL hooked on nicotine.
Like the guy above?
Really??
And he is STILL hooked on nicotine!
Yes, I am. And caffeine, too.
The last time I checked, both were legal substances.
Does my caffeine / nicotine addiction annoy you?
If so, why? You may want to think about this one.
There are 50 million people who vape currently. Mostly Millennials.
I think this article is spot on.
There are 50+ million people who vape currently. Mostly Millennials.
I don’t think this article should be ignored.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.