Vaping advocate warns Dem crackdown on 'common sense' tobacco alternatives could backfire in swing states

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Vaping industry advocate warns Democrat crackdown on smoking alternatives could hurt them in November

Tony Abboud, Executive Director of the Vapor Technology Association, spoke to Fox News Digital about 'single issue' voters that use smoking alternatives.

A leading vaping industry advocate tells Fox News Digital that Democratic positions cracking down on vaping and using nicotine pouches could backfire as many Americans across the country are single-issue voters on that issue.

Tony Abboud, Executive Director of the Vapor Technology Association, told Fox News Digital that the Biden administration has "made it clear" that they have "no desire to have less harmful nicotine products on the market."

"I don't know how to explain that except to say special interest groups in this country that are often funded by the likes of [philanthropist] Mike Bloomberg, who has made it clear that he wants to rid the marketplace of flavored e-cigarettes," Abboud said. "That is what is at issue here, it is an ideological fight. It has nothing to do with science, and it certainly doesn't have anything to do with what the FDA is legally required to do."

Abboud’s trade association represents companies in the independent vaping industry throughout the entire supply distribution chain, from manufacturers to mom-and-pop retailers and consumers.

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Vaping industry expert Tony Abboud, left, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. (Getty Images)

"Those consumers are the ones that are using the variety of flavored vaping products that are available to help them quit smoking, because this is the first thing that has helped them — so many smokers who have tried to quit over many years, it’s the first thing that's really helped them succeed, and so that is at the core. I think one of the reasons why this product is so important to people, and we cannot forget that in everything that we're doing, we're talking about a product that has changed people's lives," he said.

Democrats across the country, from Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who supported heavy taxes on Zyn in Minnesota, have stood up in opposition to flavored vapes and nicotine pouches, which Abboud says could motivate voters in the upcoming election.

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Democrats across the country, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have pushed for a federal crackdown on nicotine pouches. (Fox News)

"So we looked at this issue back in 2019, and we looked at it again this year, and what's very clear from the numbers is that vaping voters can be single-issue voters, because as I noted at the outset, this is an incredibly important product to them," Abboud told Fox News Digital. "And the notion that the government is going to take away their freedom to vape, their freedom to make choices over what they use and don't use, affects them greatly."

"The same is true with our small business owners. They have built businesses that support their families, that create jobs. Tens of thousands of jobs in various states, over 100,000 jobs across the United States," he continued. "This is a real industry with real people, and the calls by mostly Democrats to rid the market of these products is a call to shut down these small businesses. We fought hard for those in 2019, and President Trump did the right thing. He said, I'm not going to ban flavors. I'm going to raise the age to 21 to address the youth vaping epidemic at the time, and it's effectively been solved. The youth vaping rate is now 71% lower than it was at the time that that law was changed."

Abboud told Fox News Digital that voters who are concerned about being able to easily access tobacco alternatives are going to be more likely to support former President Trump.

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Various vapes and nicotine products are seen at Sultans' Smoke in Arvada, Colorado, on May 21. (Reuters/Kevin Mohatt/ File Photo)

"I think voters really just have an option, right?" Abboud said. "They have an option of a president who has in the past supported their freedom to vape, has defended their small businesses, has ensured that they had access to safer, low, safer nicotine alternatives to smoking cigarettes versus what they've had in the last three and a half years, which is an administration which has done everything in its power to eliminate these products from the market, while at the same time, by the way, authorizing, like I noted, hundreds of new cigarettes.

"We know where President Trump stood in 2019, and if you think about the common sense approach that he took, it changed everything in this country as it relates to youth vaping and so, yeah, we are hopeful that that thinking will continue and that common sense regulations will replace this mess that this current administration's FDA has created."

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A woman buys refills for her Juul at a smoke shop in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

"We've already seen in our data that significant majorities of swing-state voters agree that we should not be banning vaping products or banning flavored vaping products, but instead the FDA should focus on harm reduction and doing everything in its power to fill the marketplace with these new technologies. And if you look at the states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, the majorities I'm talking about are 60%, 59% and 58%, and what that tells you is Americans are smart, voters are smart, and they know when government is not acting in their interests," he said.

Abboud also pointed out that crackdowns on smoking alternatives often hit minority communities the hardest.

"The people that smoke and suffer from smoking-related disease and death are predominantly people in lower-income communities," he said. "The people in lower-income communities today are already getting just hurt so badly by the high cost of groceries, the high cost of housing."

"So for politicians like Governor Walz to impose a 95% tax, it is a regressive tax, and it is a regressive tax on people who need relief," Abboud said. "In this case, he's making it harder and more expensive to use the safest and safer form of nicotine available on the market."

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign for comment but did not receive a response.