How your drink of choice is linked to who you're voting for in 2020

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How your drink of choice is linked to who you're voting for in 2020
Cartons of White Claw, a flavored alcoholic fizz in a can are on display at the Round The Clock Deli September 11, 2019 in New York CityTIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
  • In a series of polls conducted from August through October, we asked people about their consumption habits in addition to how they plan to vote.
  • Respondents who abstain from alcohol are 6 percentage points more likely to vote for President Donald Trump, himself a teetotaler.
  • Beer ended up being the most bipartisan drink of choice, with just a 2 percentage point skew toward Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
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In a campaign between two teetotalers, Americans' preference of alcoholic beverages can say something about their choice for president.

A series of Insider polls conducted from August through October found some political splits in alcohol consumption, as well as among those like Democratic nominee Joe Biden and President Donald Trump who abstain.

Here's a breakdown of the numbers, which come from an aggregation of nine polls taken between August 8 and October 12. All told, the polls combined to 10,077 respondents, 8,623 of whom indicated they were registered to vote and 8,321 of whom said they would likely do so. Respondents were asked about their intentions of who they would vote for in November as well as a number of other questions.

This chart shows the difference between the margin of support for Trump or Biden among the given subset of respondents and the overall margin of support among likely voters as a whole:

  • Non-drinkers are 6 percentage points more likely than the average respondent to say they plan on voting for Trump.
  • Beer is the most evenly split beverage of choice, with just a 2 percentage point lean toward Biden.
  • Liquor drinkers are the most likely to vote for Biden.
  • Wine drinkers are right behind at 8 percentage points more than the average respondent to say they'll back Biden.

We also polled a bunch of other consumer preferences, including:

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SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weight its sample based on race or income. Polling data collected 1,150 respondents August 7, 1,106 respondents on August 11, 1,128 respondents August 21-22, 1,073 respondents August 29, 1,161 respondents September 4, 1,107 respondents September 15, 1,017 respondents September 18, 1,122 respondents September 28, 1,176 respondents October 5, and 1,130 respondents on October 12. All polls carried approximately a 3 percentage point margin of error individually.

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