Congratulations to UC Merced Political Science Assistant Professor Anil Menon and coauthor Nolan Kavanagh on their publication "The Impact of Experiences with COVID-19 on the 2020 Presidential Election and Support for Health Reform" in the Public Opinion Quarterly.
Abstract: Health shocks may drive the public to support policies and candidates that protect health and well-being. Did the COVID-19 pandemic, as one such shock, shift preferences for health reform in the United States? Using nationally representative surveys of over 70,000 US adults between 2019 and 2020, we find that experiences with COVID-19—measured at both the individual and community levels—increased support for Medicare for All by multiple percentage points. Consistent with partisan entrenchment on health issues, independents and weak partisans drove the association at the individual level; these subgroup differences were not observed for community-level experiences. To reduce concerns about confounding, we use data from multiple points in time to establish the expected temporal relationship between experiences with COVID-19 and support for health reform. Finally, consistent with the importance of health issues in the 2020 presidential race, we find that changes in support for health reform were mirrored by a comparable shift in support away from the incumbent, President Trump, in the weeks leading up to the election. Even if short lived, these shifts may have influenced both the discourse and outcome of the election.
Read the article HERE.
