Understanding the politics of public health through an analysis of governors' 2007 state of the state addresses

State legislatures are important arenas for public health policy. For example, in the past ten years, state legislatures have worked aggressively to enact legislation to expand access to health care, improve quality of care, and control health care costs. Governors play an important role in generating public support for state policy due to their political clout and because local media cover what governors do and say. Because state of the state speeches are important chances for governors to lay out their priorities for the upcoming year and generate support for new policies, analyzing how public health issues are covered in these addresses can provide valuable tools for national organizations like APHA with an interest in a diverse range of state-level policies.

In order to better understand which public health issues are drawing political traction across the country, this analysis of 2007 state of the state speeches describes the most frequently-mentioned public health issues across all states and how those issues are framed in a way to generate public support.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to 1.) articulate the significance of gubernatorial support of a policy issue in an advocacy campaign; 2.) describe the most politically feasible public health policies across the country according to this analysis; and 3.) list at least three tactics used by governors to develop messages designed to generate support for public health policies.