Rand Paul and Chris Christie made controversial remarks about vaccines this week, but it's important to remember that vaccination isn't a partisan issue. Support for vaccination is strong among voters and politicians in both major parties.
7 Republicans who love vaccines
Andrew Prokop is a senior politics correspondent at Vox, covering the White House, elections, and political scandals and investigations. He’s worked at Vox since the site’s launch in 2014, and before that, he worked as a research assistant at the New Yorker’s Washington, DC, bureau.
Indeed, Paul and Christie have already changed their emphasis to more clearly recommend that all children be vaccinated. And several other prominent Republicans have come out with strong statements making their support for and advocacy of vaccinations clear. Here are 7 of them.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
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“As a victim of polio myself I’m a big fan of vaccinations and if I were a parent who had a child ... being subject to getting any particular disease I would come down on the side of vaccinations.” (Time)
House Speaker John Boehner
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“I don’t know that we need another law, but I do believe that all children ought to be vaccinated.” (TPM)
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)
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“Absolutely, all children in America should be vaccinated... Unless their immune (system is) suppressed, obviously, for medical exceptions... There is absolutely no medical science or data whatsoever that links those vaccinations to onset of autism.” (BuzzFeed, CNN)
Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA)
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“I have no reservations about whether or not it is a good idea and desirable for all children to be vaccinating. There is a lot of fear mongering out there on this. I think it is irresponsible for leaders to undermine the public’s confidence in vaccinations that have been tested and proven to protect public health. Science supports them and they keep our children safe from potentially deadly but preventable diseases... I urge every parent to get them. Every one.” (WSJ)
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)
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“Vaccines have had tremendous public health benefits in terms of eradicating diseases and limiting the impact of other diseases. Most states include an exception clause for good faith religious convictions, and that’s an appropriate judgment for the states to make. But on the question of whether kids should be vaccinated, the answer is obvious, and there’s widespread agreement: Of course they should.” (BuzzFeed)
Dr. Ben Carson
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“Certain communicable diseases have been largely eradicated by immunization policies in this country and we should not allow those diseases to return by foregoing safe immunization programs, for philosophical, religious, or other reasons when we have the means to eradicate them.” (BuzzFeed)
Gov. Mike Pence (R-IN)
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“Vaccines protect all our children from illnesses, and our administration strongly urges Hoosier families to have their children vaccinated.” (Washington Post)
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