Epic's huge expansion in recent years could shift the 2024 presidential election, Bloomberg reported Jan. 12
The EHR vendor hired 3,000 new employees at its Verona, Wis., headquarters in 2023 and has expanded staffing there by 47% over the past five years, up to 12,750 — many of them young, college-educated voters that lean Democrat, according to the story. That could make a difference in the battleground state that President Joe Biden won by just 20,682 votes in 2020.
"I call it the Epic effect," David Egan-Robertson, a demographer at University of Wisconsin-Madison, told the news outlet. The median age of its employees is 26, and many are recent college graduates, he said.
The EHR company also encourages its employees to engage in politics, the news outlet reported. Founder and CEO Judy Faulkner has been a big donor to the Democratic party.
"I think that's an important thing. My family was always politically active," Ms. Faulkner told Bloomberg. "It's important to do your duty and vote."
Brandon Maly, chair of the Republican Party of Dane County, told the news outlet he has trouble recruiting at local social events. "Everybody under 35 that raises their hand, they work at Epic," he said. "I don't know what we'd target them on at this point in time. Because they're economically well-off. They don't care about crime. I'm not sure what to get those individuals on."