Soda Lobby Denies Paying Influencers to Oppose SNAP Restrictions

The war over soda and food stamps just got a lot more heated.

Amid a wave of conservative efforts to cut sugary drinks from SNAP purchases, the American Beverage Association (ABA) is under fire for allegedly paying influencers on X (formerly Twitter) to oppose the crackdown. But the soda lobby is pushing back hard emphatically denying any involvement in the viral campaign defending soda access for SNAP recipients.

“There’s been some misinformation… that American Beverage paid influencers to post about SNAP restrictions, and I can tell you clearly and emphatically that’s false,” said ABA senior VP Merideth Potter during a press conference. “We did not authorize or coordinate any such campaign.”

Yet the posts tell a curious story: dozens of conservative-leaning influencers shared eerily similar takes over the past week, calling soda bans “government overreach,” “elitist micromanagement,” and even invoking President Donald Trump’s well-known love of Diet Coke.

The talking points mirrored the ABA’s own arguments and that raised eyebrows.

ABA President Kevin Keane, however, says the group did a full internal investigation and found “zero involvement.” He also blasted those making the accusations, calling the claims a “reckless disregard for the truth.”

Still, the real story may be less about who paid who and more about what’s really at stake.

“SNAP restrictions don’t reduce SNAP benefits or who is eligible for the program – they merely enable government to dictate what can and cannot be bought,” Keane said.

That’s the heart of the issue. Roughly 1 in 8 Americans receive SNAP, and the #1 item purchased is soda. In fact, 10% of all SNAP spending about $4 billion annually goes toward soda and sugary drinks. Another 10% goes to other junk food.

And the numbers are getting worse:

• Low-income adults drink an average of two sugary beverages per day.

• Obesity has risen 37% in the last 20 years.

• Medicaid costs have soared 300%, according to federal data.

So while the ABA defends soda purchases as a matter of personal choice, others see taxpayer-funded sugar addiction as a serious national crisis.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins have both floated federal limits on SNAP-eligible junk food. Numerous states Arkansas, Texas, Indiana, Idaho, Wyoming, and others have requested waivers or introduced legislation to allow food stamp soda bans.

Meanwhile, West Virginia just signed a first-of-its-kind law banning artificial dyes commonly found in soda and candy, set to impact both school programs and commercial sales by 2028.

ABA’s response? They’re not backing down.

Keane says soda isn’t the villain and cutting it won’t fix the problem “Over the past two decades… full-calorie soft drink sales have fallen nearly 33%. If beverages were a key driver of obesity and healthcare costs, these trends should be moving in the same direction. They’re not.”

Whether the soda industry funded the influencer push or not, it’s clear they’re in a fight to defend their turf. And it’s just as clear that Republicans across the country are finally taking action to restore sanity to what SNAP is actually supposed to be: a safety net, not a soda subsidy.

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