… Eric’s Cantor’s shock defeat Tuesday is being blamed on any number of reasons. But among the seasoned Republican campaign operatives, the biggest internal culprit is seen as the majority leader’s longtime pollster, John McLaughlin, whose own survey of the Virginia race showed Cantor leading his opponent by 34 points. […] Read more »
The Challenges Behind Accurate Opinion Polls
This week’s stunning defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor came after his internal polls showed him winning — instead he lost by double digits. Mara Liasson, NPR Read more »
National GOP: Don’t use Cantor’s pollster
National Republicans are warning candidates to stay away from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) pollster, who predicted just weeks before Cantor’s loss that he was up by a huge margin. CONT. Cameron Joseph, The Hill Read more »
Why Polling Fails
Eric Cantor wasn’t the only person at a loss for words on Tuesday night. His pollster, McLaughlin & Associates, found itself trying to explain the impossible — how a projected 34 percent lead for the House majority leader 12 days before the election could end up an 11-point loss on […] Read more »
Beware ‘internal polling’
The defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary on Tuesday night came as a surprise to probably everyone outside of the Cantor campaign — and perhaps them, too. … But if we take only one polling-related lesson away from this surprise, it is this: Internal polls […] Read more »
Eric Cantor’s Pollster Tries to Explain Why His Survey Showed Cantor Up 34 Points
Eric Cantor’s pollster whiffed. Less than a week before voters dumped the House majority leader, an internal poll for Cantor’s campaign, trumpeted to the Washington Post, showed Cantor cruising to a 34-point victory in his primary. Instead, Cantor got crushed, losing by 10 percentage points. How did Cantor’s pollster, veteran […] Read more »