Medicare for All Might Be a Political Loser

Is Medicare for All a political winner for Democrats? Alan Abramowitz examines the fate of 2018 Democratic candidates in swing districts and concludes that it’s not:

Among those who supported Medicare for All, only 45 percent won. Among those who didn’t, 72 percent won.

This is not conclusive, and in any case it’s possible that support for M4A is just a proxy for how generally progressive a candidate is. Still, it’s worth taking seriously. I’m all in favor of M4A personally, but that doesn’t mean I have to ignore evidence that not everyone else is. There’s still plenty of public persuasion left before a majority of the country is with us on this.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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