By Dave Mason
The Center Square

Republican congressional candidates are more likely to win competitive districts if they support the war on Alzheimer’s, according to a new poll in California, Arizona, Colorado, Washington, Alaska and other states.

GOP pollsters Tony Fabrizio and Bob Ward conducted the poll for Plymouth Union Public Research. The survey looked at competitive races in U.S. House districts, including the 9th, 13th and 41st districts in California; the 1st and 6th districts in Arizona; the 3rd and 8th districts in Colorado; and the 3rd district in Washington.

The survey found voters like candidates who support Alzheimer’s tests and treatments.

“I think the poll shows you can take a district that leans left and move it right just by supporting this single issue,” Charles Sauer, president of the Market Institute, told The Center Square this week. The Market Institute is a think tank based in Alexandria, Va.

Sauer noted respondents in the poll included not only seniors but caregivers and people with family members who have Alzheimer’s.

“Yes, we have an aging population,” Sauer said. “But we also have an educated population that understand the effects and hardships caused by Alzheimer’s.”

Sauer said support for improving federal Alzheimer’s policies was seen across all age groups, 18 and older, in the poll.

The poll was conducted Aug. 24-27 of 1,200 registered voters in what the pollsters called the 28 most competitive House districts in the nation. Besides the western states, the survey included Indiana, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Voters expressed frustration with “an outdated Medicare system that has not prioritized the war on Alzheimer’s,” according to the Plymouth Union Public Research survey.

The poll found:

“Eighty percent of voters argue prevention and early detection of Alzheimer’s can save taxpayers and Medicare programs billions of dollars.”Thirty-eight percent of voters in battleground congressional districts said they’ve had family members or friends affected by Alzheimers.Ninety-two percent of voters support changing Medicare rules to make it easier for doctors to prescribe FDA-approved treatments to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.“Eighty-seven percent of voters would credit President Donald Trump with a major achievement if he orders Medicare to cover detection tests for Alzheimer’s.”If Republicans say they support Medicare covering FDA-approved tests and making it easier for doctors to prescribe FDA-approved treatments, they can go from a 3-point deficit in a congressional race to a 19-point lead over Democrats.

The poll’s figures are big enough to grab a candidate’s attention, Sauer said, noting voters want improvements in Alzheimer’s treatments.

The Biden administration made it more difficult to get access to Alzheimer’s drugs, the Market Institute president said.

Under President Joe Biden, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services restricted coverage for monoclonal antibodies, which had the same effect as rejecting Alzheimer’s drugs that were approved by the FDA.

In 2023, the Alzheimer’s Association said it was “appalled” by the Biden administration’s “unjust decision to deny access to FDA-approved treatments for people living with Alzheimer’s – a fatal disease.”

When asked about the new poll, California economist Wayne Winegarden told The Center Square there’s a realization that the federal government needs to streamline its approval process for drugs, bring down costs on the regulatory side and allow Alzheimer’s medicine to reach the market.

The federal government should limit itself to basic research, Winegarden, the director of Pasadena-based Pacific Research Institute’s Center of Medical Economics and Innovation, said this week.

“The private sector is better at commercializing and developing and marketing it,” Winegarden said about the medicine.