New Poll: Voters Overwhelmingly Support Trump Administration’s Plan to Take Flavored E-Cigarettes off the Market

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Voters across the political spectrum overwhelmingly support the Trump Administration’s plan to take flavored e-cigarettes off the market, with nearly three-quarters of all likely voters expressing support, according to a new national poll released today by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

The survey, conducted after the Trump Administration’s recent announcement that the FDA will take flavored e-cigarettes off the market in response to the epidemic of youth e-cigarette use, assessed support for prohibiting the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, including all fruit, candy, menthol and mint e-cigarettes.

By a 73% to 22% margin, voters support the Trump Administration plan to take flavored e-cigarettes off the market. Other key findings:

• The Administration’s plan receives broad-based support across party lines, with 77% of Democrats, 74% of Republicans and 70% of Independents in favor.
• Support is consistent across regional areas, with 73% of Northeast voters, 75% of Southern voters, 70% of Midwest voters, and 73% of West voters in favor.
• The proposal garners strong support across ideology, age and gender groups, and among voters of all income levels.
• In addition to support for the Administration’s plan, the survey found nearly identical levels of support for prohibiting the sale of flavored e-cigarettes generally (72%) as well as at the state level (73%). By a 70%-23% percent margin, voters also support Congress passing legislation to prohibit the sale of flavored e-cigarettes.

The poll results are similar to findings from a Morning Consult poll conducted September 12-15, 2019, which found strong, bipartisan support for a ban on flavored e-cigarettes, including from 77% of Trump voters.

This Friday (October 11) marks one month since the Trump Administration announced its plan to take flavored e-cigarettes off the market. The Administration announced that it would issue a final policy within weeks and enforce it a month later, but the final policy has yet to be issued.

The survey released today found that large majorities of voters are concerned about e-cigarette use among youth and aware that use among young people is increasing. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of voters believe that e-cigarette use among middle and high school students is a national epidemic or a major issue. In addition, 86% of all likely voters are concerned about vaping and e-cigarette use among young people in America today.

Newly-released data from the 2019 National Youth Tobacco Survey (2019 NYTS) shows that the youth e-cigarette epidemic has gotten even worse in the last year. E-cigarette use among high school students nationwide increased to 27.5% in 2019, up from 11.7% in 2017 and 20.8% in 2018. Altogether, 5 million middle and high school students now use e-cigarettes. The evidence is clear that flavored e-cigarettes have fueled this epidemic – 97% of youth e-cigarette users report using a flavored product in the past month, and 70% cite flavors as the reason for their use. The 2019 NYTS found that 63.9% of high school e-cigarette users use mint or menthol-flavored products, an increase from 51.2% in 2018 and 42.3% in 2017.

“This survey shows that voters across the political spectrum are united in their alarm about the youth e-cigarette epidemic and their strong support for removing the flavored products that have fueled this crisis,” said Matthew L. Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “We urge the Trump Administration and other policy makers to protect kids and remove flavored e-cigarettes from the market.”

Survey Methodology: Schoen Consulting conducted a national random sample survey of 1,000 likely U.S. voters online. The data collection period was September 20-27, 2019. The survey has an overall margin of error of +/-3% at the 95% confidence level. View a summary of the poll results and an annotated questionnaire.