Thesis
Public health and voting trends in U.S. Presidential elections, 2008-2016
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2019
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/100754
Abstract
This study adds to a nascent research niche that uses public health to explain voting trends by examining this association over the past three U.S. presidential elections. I first conceptualize why public health and voting trends would be associated. I hypothesize that not only are public health and voting associated, but that they were more associated in the 2016 election than 2008 and 2012. County-level data were drawn from the Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections as well as the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps project. I perform a principal component analysis on indicators of public health to reveal an Unhealthy County Index, which is used as an index of public health in subsequent regression analyses. Findings from Ordinary Least Squares regression indicate that the Unhealthy County Index associates with counties' Republican vote percentage in each election. Sicker counties have a higher Republican vote percentage than healthy counties, and this association was strongest in 2016.
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Details
- Title
- Public health and voting trends in U.S. Presidential elections, 2008-2016
- Creators
- Rivers Ryan Isaacson
- Contributors
- Justin T. Denney (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Sociology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525396001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis