Cracker Barrel or Whole Foods?

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Culture often trumps politics, voting analyst says
By Kevin Robinson, December 20, 2013

One surefire way to determine whom a person will vote for is to look at where the person shops, a political analyst for the nationally renowned Cook Political Report said during a presentation Friday afternoon in Pensacola.

David Wasserman, editor in charge of House elections for the Cook Political Report, said that areas with Cracker Barrel restaurants tend to vote Republican, and that areas with Whole Food stores vote Democratic.

It’s a facet of a larger trend in which people’s voting habits are becoming less about politics and more about cultural values, he said.

“Voters vote for a candidate that they are culturally comfortable with,” he said. “It’s not so much about their record as their profile.”

Wasserman served as an analyst for the NBC Election Night Decision Desk in 2008, 2010 and 2012, and has appeared on NBC Nightly News, ABC World News, C-SPAN Washington Journal, CNN and National Public Radio. At the Cook Political Report, Wasserman handicaps and analyzes U.S. House races.

During a presentation to several dozen members of the Panhandle Tiger Bay Club at New World Landing in downtown Pensacola, Wasserman said he thought Republicans were likely to retain control of the House in the 2014 general election.

“There are 234 Republicans and 201 Democrats, so the Democrats need 17 seats to win control,” he said.

“People basically have the choice to vote for Democrats, who passed Obamacare, or Republicans, who caused the government shutdown.”

However, he said voters tend to have short memories in an election year, and while the government shutdown was receding into most people’s memories, Obamacare would be on voters’ minds well into next year.

“Elections are like a one-day clearance sale,” Wasserman said after the presentation. “They’re all about what people are talking about right now.”
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