A new national poll from McLaughlin & Associates shows just how strong, and how passionate, the Vapor Vote is. The poll asks a large number of vapers in key battleground states, what they think of some of the policies Trump and his FDA have proposed. The numbers paint a very clear picture. I want to take some of the points out of the recent poll to discuss them.
What is your age?
We’re starting out this poll with a very interesting data point. The mean age of this poll is 46 years old. Now, I don’t want to sound ageist, but 46 years old isn’t very young! We’re not talking about 18-22 year old millennials in this poll. We’re talking about vapers who WILL go out and vote, and most likely already have nailed down their political alignment.
How Many Years Did You or Have You Been Smoking?
I’m also very pleased to see that this poll is taking into account LONG time smokers. Over half of the respondents have smoked longer than 20 years. These are ex-smokers who haven’t seen success with other FDA approved methods like patches or gums. These are also ex-smokers who will be very passionate towards the technology that has helped them quit.
Banning Flavors in All Nicotine Vapor Products
This isn’t very surprising, but it is the most important data point in here. Almost 99% of those polled, STRONGLY disagree with banning flavors in vapor products. This is mainly because – of those 20 year ex-smokers, who are near the age of 46 – flavored vapor was the only thing to help them quit.
Banning Open-System, Refillable Nicotine Vapor Products
Banning Closed-system, Non-refillable Nicotine Vapor Products
I found this data point to be VERY interesting. As you can see, the difference in vapers who strong oppose banning open-system devices, versus closed-system devices, is very clear. This means, of those polled, almost all of them use, or have used, open-system vapor devices. Not Juul’s. This means, at the mean age of 46, open-system is a FAR more popular option for ex-smokers. As a critic of Juul, this is very vindicating.
Would You Be More Likely or Less Likely to Vote For a Candidate Who Supports These Types of Taxes and Government Regulations on Nicotine Vapor Products?
Would You Be More Likely or Less Likely to Vote for a Candidate Who Opposes and Is Against These Types of Taxes and Government Regulations on Nicotine Vapor Products?
This isn’t too surprising, but it is important. These vapers are voters, and they WILL go out and vote. This data, to me, means that these voters are looking for a candidate to throw their support behind. Anyone who doesn’t have a good standing on Vapor, will be actively voted against. Remember, this is in key battleground states – where every single vote counts. Missing a potential few million votes in these areas, will almost certainly result in a loss.
If You Were to Label Yourself, Would You Say You are a Liberal, A Moderate, or a Conservative in Your Political Beliefs?
The last data point I want to touch on is political alignment. I always seen vapor with a heavy conservative, or libertarian leaning. This data does not support this. There seems to be a good mix between liberals and conservatives. What this means is that the Vapor Vote contains a VERY good mix of people who may vote for Trump if his policy on vapor is agreeable – as well as a good mix of people who will actively vote against Trump if its bad. These are truly swing voters who’s votes count much more than they think.
If I were Trump, it would make NO sense to enact any policy that would threaten the vapor industry. The reason he was initially considering it is because he thought it would help him poll better with upper/middle class Suburban Moms. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t realize the amount of passionate KEY voters he’d be losing by doing so. That group of Suburban Moms is also less likely to EVER vote for him. The economics just doesn’t make sense. Why create potentially millions of opposing voters, for a slim chance to slightly poll better with upper/middle class suburban moms? And now we certainly have the data to prove this. I just hope this message doesn’t fall onto deaf ears. Trump may be our only hope in saving this industry, if there are NO other pro-vape potential candidates. I’m also very curious to see how this upcoming rally affects his outlook on this issue.
