Did the Opioid Epidemic Help Republicans Win?

About this episode

This episode explores the connection between the opioid epidemic and the Republican party's increasing vote share.

Over less than 25 years, the opioid epidemic killed over 800,000 Americans. These deaths and the resulting economic and political ramifications were unequally distributed across the country. Some places were ravaged, others barely noticed what was happening. In this episode, host Jerusalem Demsas is joined by economist Carolina Arteaga to unpack new research linking the opioid crisis to increasing vote share for the Republican party. They dig into how a public-health catastrophe came to...

People in this episode

Host: Jerusalem Demsas

Guest: Carolina Arteaga

Topics covered

• opioid epidemic
• politics
• Republican party
• public health
• voting behavior

Keywords

• opioid epidemic
• Republican party
• voting share
• public health crisis
• economic impact

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Republican party

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