Local-Level Awareness of the Opioid Epidemic and Political Consequences

• In Event: Poster Session: Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics & Health Politics and Health Policy
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Health Politics & Policy: Opioid Politics in the United States

Abstract

Increases in addiction, overdose, and fatalities associated with opioids undoubtedly constitute a major national public health crisis for the United States, but it is an unevenly distributed crisis. Some communities are especially hard hit by the epidemic, and this may be politically consequential. Other researchers have demonstrated that drug-related mortality is associated with elected officials’ drug-related legislative response (see, e.g., Kim, Morgan, and Nyhan 2019). Other research at the ecological level has suggested that communities with particularly severe drug and mental health crises were especially likely to support President Donald Trump in the 2016 election (see, e.g., Bor 2017; Goodwin et al. 2018). Understanding the political consequences of the opioid epidemic with more nuance requires examining individual-level data. How well do Americans actually understand the impact of opioids on their communities? And to what extent do these perceptions explain political beliefs and behavior? To investigate these questions, we leverage original survey data from the 2018 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (N=882) on individuals’ beliefs about the level of opioid deaths in their communities. We link these data using respondent’s county of residence to statistics on the actual incidence of drug overdose fatalities in the year preceding the survey (2017). The goal of these analyses is to explore what Americans know about the crisis in their communities, the factors that contribute to such awareness, and the impact of these perceptions on their political beliefs and behavior.

Authors

• Jake Haselswerdt, University of Missouri

• Sarah E. Gollust, University of Minnesota