American Vapers Favour Democrats
American Vapers Favour Democrats: Most support Hillary according to a survey run by a vaping company.
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by Dave Cross
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While such a survey results might be seen as frippery in the United Kingdom, online vapers have found themselves increasingly politicised by events at home over the last two years. Many on the Planet of the Vapes forum have expressed an opinion that the development of the Tobacco Products Directive and a failed push to restrict vaping in Wales has influenced their voting intentions for the upcoming EU referendum.
V2 say their findings show a majority of those surveyed plan on voting for the Democratic candidates with less than a quarter intending on supporting the leading Republic figure. A report in the Washington Times says: “Those who favour electronic cigarettes lean Democratic, according to V2, which sells the devices and commissioned a study of 600 adult “vapers” to determine their political affiliations. The findings: 38 percent are Democrats, followed by independents (27 percent), Republicans (24 percent), Libertarians (6 percent) and Greens (5 percent).”
Thirty-one percent of the vapers intend on supporting Hillary Clinton and twenty-two percent anticipated supporting Bernard Sanders. The forty-one percent of Republicans broke down as follows: 23 percent plan on giving their X to Donald Trump with just twelve percent opting for Ted Cruz and only six percent thinking John Kasich was the best option.
V2’s spokesperson, Adam Kustin, said: “Similar to our data, previous research has found that most smokers are Democrats. It only makes sense that the political group most likely to smoke is also the most likely to vape.”
Previously, Duncan Hunter, a Republican politician, made a point during a debate by using his device – earning him the nickname of the “vaping congressman”. He has argued that the thing vaping needs is fewer not more controls being placed on it. “The reason I vape is simple: It’s so I don’t smoke cigarettes,” he said. “I vape knowing that I’m not inhaling tobacco. Most importantly, I vape because I believe it could save my life. There are millions of Americans like me, who are choosing e-cigarettes over their traditional counterpart.”
“It’s hard to imagine images from past, of soldiers storming beachheads with vaping pens in their mouths, men in workshops and factories billowing clouds of vaporized smoke, or men and women in bars and social gatherings talking to each other as they vape. But this is 2015—and surely, had the technology been around then, we’re sure to see much of what we see today: Americans turning to a product that reduces their urge to put a cigarette to their lips and keeps tobacco out of their mouths and lungs. The FDA should wise up. And if their true goal is to reduce cigarette use, then imposing a prohibition of sorts on e-cigarettes is senseless. Then again, maybe the FDA is counting on a surge in lighter sales to account for the cost—personal and financial—of their ill-conceived regulation.”
Duncan believes that the only reason 24% of vapers are prepared to vote for Trump comes down to his avowed intention of reducing government regulations and see this as benefitting vaping. With almost three million vapers of voting age in the UK, maybe it’s time that British politicians told us what remaining or leaving the EU would mean for us?
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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