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Food

Research Says If You're a Republican, You Probably Like Keystone Light and Michelob Ultra

Plus, Democrats are a bunch of white wine drunks.
Bettina Makalintal
Brooklyn, US
bottle of michelob ultra amber
Photo: pjohnson1/Getty Images

If you love crushing Michelob Ultra and Keystone Light, you don’t just have weak taste in booze, you’re probably also a Republican. If it’s cans of Natty Light that you’re cracking, however, chances are you’re a centrist Democrat who probably didn’t vote. These aren’t just mean zingers; they’re the results of actual numbers crunching, as Bloomberg Businessweek reported yesterday.

Before anyone cries “liberal bias,” this analysis was done by Will Feltus, a self-described “Republican media researcher” and senior VP at political ad-buying firm National Media Research, Planning and Placement. Feltus analyzed two years of market research data to find how Americans’ drinking preferences differ by political party and voter turnout. (In a previous study, NMRPP broke down political preferences in terms of wine and liquor.)

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Compared to Democrats, people across the Republican spectrum strongly prefer whiskey—including bourbon, Scotch, and Canadian—and those whiskey-swilling Republicans get their asses to the polls. People who skew the most Republican love their light beer: specifically, the aforementioned Michelob and Keystone, but also Busch, Coors, and Miller. Centrist Republicans with the lowest voter turnout really dig regular Busch, however.

People who skew Democrat go for wine a little more. Democrats who vote tend to swig pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc, and chardonnay, while centrist Democrats with middle-range voter turnout are really into vodka, rum, and tequila. People furthest on the Democrat spectrum go for Cognac. And while Democrats tend to be a little less focused on light beer than their Republican peers, they drink more Miller High Life, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Tecate, and Corona.

Feltus broke it down for Bloomberg a little more. Corona and Tecate are popular with Democrats who don’t have high voter turnout, for example, and that’s because they’re drinks associated mostly with younger people. Republicans tend to be older and therefore more concerned with weight, Feltus suggested, which might make light beers more appealing. Perhaps to soothe the stresses of the current political moment, Democrats, as a whole, are drinking more than Republicans.

The results are an interesting twist on French epicure Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin’s famous phrase, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” Tell me what you get trashed on, and I’ll tell you what your politics are.