Here's something you probably didn't know: Democrats who smoke are disproportionately likely to support Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama.
Twenty-one percent of all adult Democratic voters smoke (based on an affirmative response in thousands of Gallup Poll Daily tracking interviews to a simple question: "Do you smoke?"). Clinton beats Obama as the preferred choice for the Democratic nomination among smokers by a 49% to 47% margin. Among Democrats who are not smokers, Obama wins by a 53% to 44% margin.
What does this mean? Clinton is, after all, the candidate who has devoted a great deal of time attempting to improve healthcare for Americans. Smoking is not generally thought to improve one's health.
Furthermore, Obama is a self-confessed smoker, although, reportedly, he is attempting to quit smoking. (In the past, First Lady Laura Bush was also widely reported as being a smoker, but I've seen no recent reports on how successful her attempts to quit smoking have been.)
I'm unaware of either Clinton or Obama publicly supporting or opposing legislation or policy that would affect smokers. So there's no obvious direct reason for the difference in support between smokers and non-smokers for the two Democratic presidential candidates.
But there is an indirect reason. Further sleuthing through the data shows that it's probably socioeconomic status that explains a good deal of the difference in support for Clinton or Obama between smokers and non-smokers.
As you may know, smoking is significantly related to socioeconomic status. The likelihood of smoking generally increases as annual income and education level decreases. Clinton's support skews downscale. So the explanation seems to be in large part that the type of person who is most likely to support Clinton is also the type of person who is most likely to be a smoker.
By the way, smoking doesn't seem to be stunting the growth of Clinton's supporters. The average height of a Democratic man who supports Obama is 5 feet 10.5 inches tall. The average height of a Democratic man who supports Clinton is 5 feet 9.8 inches. Not a lot of difference. The average height of a Democratic woman who supports Obama is 5 feet 4.7 inches, while Democratic women supporting Clinton are 5 feet 4.2 inches on average. Again, little difference.
