Why did so many Republicans suddenly stop drinking alcohol?
Gallup has a new poll showing a big drop in Americans who say they drink alcohol, down to a record low 54%. This seems like good news and seems roughly consistent with industry sales reports.
But why this big drop now? A few theories:
Maybe the long-term trend of lower drinking among younger people is peeking out from under a short-lived pandemic-era upswing in stress drinking.
“For the first time in Gallup’s trend, a majority of Americans, 53%, say drinking in moderation, or ‘one or two drinks a day,’ is bad for one’s health.” There’s been a new medical consensus in the past couple years that no amount of alcohol is beneficial and maybe that’s been sinking in with the public.
Drinking could be dropping as GLP-1 use continues to rise— with 12% of adults having taken a GLP-1, we might be seeing some population-level downward pressure on alcohol consumption.
But the most intriguing part of the Gallup findings is that Republicans reported a huge 19% drop in drinking since 2023, going from 65% to 46%, and apparently driving the vast majority of the overall drop in Adults who report drinking. I’d generally be skeptical of a big drop within such an established cultural practice, but the data shows two consecutive years of big drops for Republicans, so maybe it’s real.
Why are Republicans in particular suddenly less likely to drink?
Is this the influence of RFK Jr. / MAHA / right-wing health influencers? The Gallup details say that Republicans are less likely to believe that drinking is bad for health, but there still could be a shift happening there from before.
New and more conservative beliefs around drinking? Trump doesn’t drink (though neither did Biden).
Less conservative GOP beliefs about cannabis? The right seems to be quickly opening up to cannabis and psychedelics. Perhaps this is driving replacement of alcohol with cannabis, though Gallup notes that overall cannabis use has been flat the past few years (after big increases in the previous decade).
Any other theories?