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What your New Year’s drink of choice says about your politics

Posted at 11:30 AM, Jan 01, 2014
and last updated 2014-01-01 11:53:51-05

What your drink of choice says about your politics

WASHINGTON (CNN) — If you are like most Americans, you imbibed in a few (or too many) drinks to ring in 2014 on Tuesday night. But did you ever stop to consider what those drinks say about your political leanings?

The answer is a lot, according to two years of consumer data from GFK MRI that was analyzed by the right-leaning National Media Research Planning and Placement.

Here are the quick hits: Democrats like more clear liquors, think Absolut and Grey Goose vodkas and Tanqueray gin. Republicans, on the other hand, like more dark liquors like Jim Beam, Wild Turkey and Canadian Club. There were also a variety of bipartisan beverages, including Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, Malibu Coconut, Johnnie Walker Black and Segram’s 7 Crown.

Democrats, according to the analysis, drink more champagne and sparkling wine, the traditional drink to ring in the New Year.

What’s more, the researchers also looked at what likely and unlikely voters drank.

According to the data, the most likely voters drank wine – Smooking Loon, Chatuea Ste. Michelle, Kendall-Jackson and Robert Mondavi to be exact. In fact, 14 of the top 15 brands consumed by highly likely voters were wines. The exception: Tanqueray gin.

By comparison, the least likely voters were drinking harder stuff: Don Julio tequila, Jagermeister, Smirnoff Twist and Belvedere.

This analysis tracks with both stereotypes and electoral data: Older people – those who stereotypically like to enjoy a nice glass of wine – vote far more frequently than their young counterparts, those who may be mixing Jagermeister with Red Bull.

Will Feltus and a team of researchers at the Republican firm used nearly 50,000 interviews from 2012 to 2013 to complete the analysis. To Feltus, the data shows that while Democrats appear to drink a wider variety of booze – there are more and larger bubbles on the Democratic side of the index – Republicans are drinking stronger liquor.

“We added up the size of the bubbles – the blue bubbles are almost twice as large as the red bubbles,” Feltus said.

Taken with history, though, examples that don’t fall in line with the analysis abound.

Democratic President Harry Truman reportedly enjoyed drinking bourbon now and then – a particularly Republican beverage. Same story with Democratic former President Lyndon Johnson, who enjoyed drinking a Cutty Sark scotch and soda on his ranch in Texas.

Republican former presidents, too, didn’t totally stick with the analysis. Former President Gerald Ford enjoyed a gin and tonic, while former President George H.W. Bush drank vodka martinis – both drinks on the Democratic side of the spectrum.

With 2013 – a year of acrimony and little bipartisan cooperation on Capitol Hill – now in the rear view mirror, it appears a love for a certain drink could be the needed fix: Both House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi enjoy wine.

When President Barack Obama jokingly asked for a “slurpee summit” with Boehner in 2010, the speaker told ABC “I don’t know about a slurpee. How about a glass of merlot?” Pelosi, on the other hand, owns two California vineyards with her husband, according to Napa Magazine.