April 9, 2025 — Congressional Republicans have proposed making deep cuts to Medicaid, the joint federal and state program that provides health insurance and other benefits to low-income Americans.
The cuts, which could result in millions of Americans across the country losing health coverage, may appear politically palatable to those who subscribe to deeply-held stereotypes about Medicaid recipients (and all recipients of state-administered “welfare” programs): they are mostly Black and generally live largely in urban centers. “Our” (red-state) dollars go to fund “their” (blue-state) needs.
However, as the data visualization below shows, significant numbers of Medicaid enrollees live in red states, and many of those are White, non-Hispanic: the demographic basis of Trump’s coalition.
In fact, when taken together, nearly 50 percent of all Medicaid recipients in states Trump won in 2024 are White, non-Hispanic. In deep-red West Virginia, in which 70 percent of the vote was cast for Trump, 86 percent of Medicaid recipients are White.
To explore the data, select the state or states you’d like to view in the top filter. You can select one, some, or all states Trump won in 2024. (To clear the state filter, select “All.”) Then select the race/ethnicity you’d like to view. “All other non-Hispanic” includes respondents of more than one race. Note that Tableau when viewed on a tablet is currently experiencing an issue that causes a screen refresh each time a user makes a selection, even, for example, if the user is not finished selecting states to view.
Data Sources:
Medicaid enrollment data are from the American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, 2023.
2024 Presidential voting figures are from The American Presidency Project of the University of California Santa Barbara.
