For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been watching focus groups. Two of those groups included independent-leaning voters who don’t align themselves strongly with either party. One other group was comprised of so-called Democratic “surge” voters; people who vote infrequently or only in presidential elections. In other words, these are […] Read more »
New Democratic focus groups find many voters aren’t sure what the party stands for
New focus groups conducted by a prominent Democratic pollster warn that many voters “have trouble describing a clear positive vision of what the Democratic Party stands for.” The study of swing voters and liberal “surge” voters in competitive districts, led by Celinda Lake of Lake Research Partners and requested by […] Read more »
The coronavirus vaccine skeptics who changed their minds
… Simmons, Bergner and Greenaway are among the growing number of vaccine skeptics turned vaccinated Americans, a sign of hope amid the slowing pace of vaccinations nationwide. Almost half of all adults have yet to receive a first shot although they are now eligible, and the rolling rate of new […] Read more »
The Elephant in the Zoom
The whole thing started with this public health institute in Maryland called the de Beaumont Foundation. They’d been noticing with alarm that not only were Trump voters reluctant to get the vaccine, they were stubbornly so. Other hesitant groups seemed to be coming around to getting the vaccine, but not […] Read more »
Existential Threat — Or Politics As Usual?
In Washington — and in many state capitols — legislators and activists have cast voting legislation in apocalyptic terms, claiming that any change in voter law represents an existential threat to democracy as we know it. New rules on obtaining a ballot are decried as suppression, while anything that opens […] Read more »
What will Trump loyalists’ sensed powerlessness mean for politics?
… Trump’s base is angry about government restrictions on their freedom and believe they are fighting to save the “American way of life” from cancel culture and Black Lives Matter’s violent attacks on police and white people. We conducted focus groups in March with Trump Loyalists in Georgia and Wisconsin […] Read more »