Political Polarization, State Color, and Your Health

Abstract

ABSTRACT Political polarization in the United States is not a recent phenomenon. States are now often described as “red” or “blue” based on how voters predominately voted in the Presidential and other statewide elections. These differences now seem to have generated into values considerations oriented around social characteristics and beliefs about the size and role of government in society, with corresponding relationships to health behaviors. At no time perhaps was this more apparent than during the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on earlier research that ranked states on how hazardous or health promoting they are to the health of the citizenry, the authors attempted to further determine if any relationship might exist between these variables and how each state voted in the 2020 Presidential election. Of those states that ranked in the top 25 in earlier research on the multiple variables related to the actual causes of death, 5 are red states (voting Republican) and 20 are blue states (voting Democrat). While the authors acknowledge that clearly multiple factors are involved that center on differing values, this examination suggests that blue states ranked better on these measures.