Here’s every candidate with a personal story about drug abuse
The opioid epidemic has factored heavily into politician’s platforms this election cycle.
Amid the point-scoring and crosstalk of an early Republican presidential debate in September, Carly Fiorina abruptly decided to get personal.
“I buried a child to drug addiction,’’ the former Hewlett Packard CEO said.
It was an early sense of what was to come in this presidential race. Several candidates have presented their personal connections to drug abuse as a means of showing empathy with families who have suffered from the opioid epidemic currently ravaging the U.S.
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Tales of drug abuse have been particularly relevant in New Hampshire, where more than 350 people died of opioid-related or opioid-suspected deaths in 2015. Last fall, 25 percent of Granite State adults polled by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center said drug abuse was the most important issue facing the state — even more important than the economy.
And because New Hampshire hosts the nation’s second presidential primary on Feb. 9, drug abuse has become an unexpected campaign topic for politicians campaigning in the state.
Here’s a rundown of the candidates telling stories of drug abuse and recovery this election season.
Carly Fiorina
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Fiorina has repeatedly spoken about her step-daughter, Lori Ann Fiorina, who died at the age of 35 in 2009 after a struggle with drugs and alcohol.
“My husband Frank and I buried a child to drug addiction,’’ she said during the September GOP debate. “Drug addiction is an epidemic, and it is taking too many of our young people. I know this, sadly, from personal experience.’’
Fiorina detailed her daughter’s struggle in her recent book, Rising to the Challenge,as Politico noted. The book opens with two police officers in Fiorina’s living room informing her of Lori’s death.
“Virtually every minute of every day after those two police officers stood in our living room, Frank and I wondered what signs we had missed, what we could have done differently to help Lori overcome her demons,’’ Fiorina wrote. “It is in the torture of second-guessing that every parent who has lost a child to addiction goes through. What breaks my heart the most, though, is the look that grew in Lori’s eyes as her addictions overcame her.’’
Jeb Bush
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Bush has spoken often of his experience as the father of someone suffering from drug addiction.
His daughter, Noelle Bush, struggled with drugs back when he was governor of Florida. She was arrested for filling out a false prescription in 2002 and spent 10 days in prison for bringing crack cocaine into a drug rehab center, according to a CNN report.
“I have personal experience in this as a dad,’’ Bush says in an ad put out by the campaign. “My daughter Noelle was addicted to drugs.’’
“It was tough. It was really hard,’’ he says. “I can look in people’s eyes and know that they went through the same thing Columba and I have.’’
In a Medium post in early January, Bush detailed how his daughter’s struggles impacted those around her.
“I never expected to see my precious daughter in jail. It wasn’t easy, and it became very public when I was Governor of Florida, making things even more difficult for Noelle,’’ he wrote. “She went through hell, so did her mom, and so did I.’’
Chris Christie
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In a compelling, widely shared video, Christie told the story of a law school colleague’s addictive struggle with prescription pain pills.
The friend had everything, but drugs brought him down, Christie said. That friend died at just 52 years old from pills and alcohol, he said.
“When I sat there as the governor of New Jersey at his funeral and looked across the pew at his three daughters sobbing because their dad is gone—There but for the grace of God go I,’’ he said. “It can happen to anyone. So we need to start treating people in this country, not jailing them.’’
Ted Cruz
In an interview on CNN (starting at 1:35 of the video below), Cruz talked about the tragic path of his half-sister Miriam Cruz and her struggle with drugs.
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“It’s a horrible disease,’’ he said. “When I was in my mid-20s, things got really bad for Miriam. She was living in a crack house.’’
Cruz said that he and his father went to the crack house to get her out, and decided to leave their valuables at home in case they were robbed or attacked.
“We pulled her out and went to a Denny’s and spent about four hours trying to talk to her, saying ‘Miriam, What are you doing?’’’ Cruz said. “With an addict, you can’t make them change.’’
Miriam Cruz died of a drug overdose in 2011.
“It was heartbreaking,’’ the senator from Texas wrote in his book, A Time for Truth. “I loved my sister, and she spent much of her life trapped by the demons of addiction and anger.’’
Donald Trump
Though Trump doesn’t speak about it often on the campaign trail, his brother died at age 43 after struggles with alcohol abuse.
Fred Trump Jr.’s death had a “profound’’ effect on Trump, who now refrains from cigarettes, alcohol, or any drugs, he told People magazine in October.
“He was a great guy, a handsome person. He was the life of the party. He was a fantastic guy, but he got stuck on alcohol,’’ Trump said. “And it had a profound impact and ultimately [he] became an alcoholic and died of alcoholism. He would tell me, ‘Don’t drink ever’ … He understood the problem that he had and that it was a very hard problem.’’
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