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WPA Intelligence Releases Bonfire

In God we trust. All others must bring data.

Data is complicated; we know. When your organization has hit the ground running and time is of the essence, you cannot afford to wait on anyone else. That’s why we created Bonfire.

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Interactive features allow you to pull and manipulate data, see available segments, explore new models and segments from WPAi’s extensive, award-winning and industry-leading Data Dictionary, and export your data to use for custom audiences on your time.

In real time, you can download any of our three billion data points into your Arsenal using your credit card.

The data you need, right when you need it.

“It is more important than ever for organizations to quickly access their data in order to make real-time decisions, whether at 3 pm or 3 am. Powered by some of the most detailed and sophisticated voter modeling and audience-creation algorithms in the industry, Bonfire puts you in control, allowing you to update your data, enrich your intelligence, and make more effective decisions. Simply put, Bonfire delivers unrivaled intelligence that provides your cause or effort the edge it needs to succeed.” – Chris Wilson, CEO

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BONFIRE, OR TO GET STARTED, CLICK HERE.

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As NFL reopens amid altered landscape, Trump resumes attacks on players who demonstrate for racial justice – Published 09/09/2020

As NFL reopens amid altered landscape, Trump resumes attacks on players who demonstrate for racial justice
By David Nakamura
The Washington Post, Published September 9, 2020

President Trump’s attempt to show that the nation is recovering from the economic damage of the coronavirus pandemic will clash head-on Thursday with his denunciations of social justice demonstrations when the National Football League kicks off its season in prime time.

Trump has lobbied heavily for sports leagues to restart despite the threat of the virus, but his demands have been incongruous when it comes to the NFL, an $8.8 billion juggernaut whose television ratings dwarf all competitors’.

Ahead of the season opener between the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans, the president and his allies have resumed their long-standing bashing of NFL players for kneeling during the national anthem to call attention to police brutality affecting communities of color.

Four years after Trump first denounced quarterback Colin Kaepernick for his silent demonstration, shocking scenes this summer of police violently subduing and, at times, killing or severely injuring African Americans have ignited mass demonstrations — shifting public opinion in favor of protesters, according to polls, and prompting sports league executives to take stronger action in support of the social movement.

Yet Trump and his allies have continued to eviscerate the NFL, as the president attempts to tie his criticism of the players to his broader law-and-order reelection message against the protests, which have been violent in some cities. In an interview with sports talk host Clay Travis last month, Trump said he hopes the league does not restart games if the players aren’t standing during the anthem.

“Football is officially dead — so much for ‘America’s sport.’ Goodbye NFL . . . I’m gone,” Eric Trump, the president’s son, wrote in a tweet on Monday, responding to a report that a Dallas Cowboys player said the team’s ownership had given the “green light” to protests.

Their posture contrasts with a widespread sense around the NFL, and among Democratic strategists, that the president is in a weakened position compared with four years ago, and that his efforts to drag the league into another debate in the culture wars could backfire politically with less than two months to go before the election.

“President Trump stands with our brave soldiers and patriots who proudly stand for our national anthem and great flag, not those who choose to disrespect it by kneeling or elect to needlessly cover this demonstration — and the American people agree with him,” said White House spokesman Judd Deere. The NFL declined to comment on the issue.

The mass social justice demonstrations after the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed in police custody in Minneapolis in late May, have resulted in a pronounced shift in public opinion in support of the protests and the players who are speaking out.

An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll in July found that 52 percent of registered voters nationally said it was appropriate for an athlete to kneel during the national anthem to protest racial inequality, while 45 percent said it was not appropriate. That compared with 43 percent in 2018 who said kneeling was appropriate and 54 percent who said it was not.

Trump is in “some ways less relevant,” said Joe Lockhart, who served as press secretary under President Bill Clinton and worked as executive vice president for communications at the NFL from 2016 to 2018. “The country and the conversation have moved from where the president is, and I don’t know if anyone [at the NFL] will be sitting and monitoring his Twitter feed.”

If the NFL’s television ratings are strong despite Trump’s admonitions, Lockhart said, “it’s a sign of weakness rather than strength for him. If he’s saying, ‘Do not watch the NFL,’ and the NFL sets a record, are people going to say, ‘Trump has lost his mojo’?”

Republican strategists countered that the president’s message on the NFL is consistent with his argument that the violent elements of the social justice demonstrations have escalated dangerously in major cities. Siding with law enforcement, Trump has promoted scenes of violence on his Twitter account and fanned racial grievances. Recent clashes between his supporters and protesters in Kenosha, Wis., and Portland, Ore., turned deadly.

Republican pollster Chris Wilson, chief executive of WPA Intelligence, said Trump’s stand against the NFL protests motivates the GOP base and appeals to suburban and older voters who have “grown increasingly concerned that initially legitimate protests have now turned into an excuse for . . . widespread rioting, violence and destruction.”

Trump ally Robert Jeffress, pastor of a megachurch in Dallas, acknowledged that “there is more tolerance for the protests today than four years ago.” But he added: “I still think the president speaks for millions of Americans when he says the flag and the anthem ought to be honored.”

The NFL struggled over how to address the protests and Trump’s criticism in 2016 and 2017. Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers after the 2016 season and was not signed by another team. He has accused league owners of blackballing him over his political views.

After Floyd’s death in May, however, the NFL quickly pledged $250 million over a decade to address social issues. Other leagues also have acted. Players in Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League have demonstrated during the anthem as their seasons have resumed, and the National Basketball Association has prominently embraced the Black Lives Matter movement. NASCAR, which Trump has courted because of its conservative-leaning fan base, banned the Confederate flag at its races.

Speaking to reporters last week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell noted the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha and offered his “heartfelt prayers” to victims of “police violence, systemic racism and persistent inequality.” He said the league would play “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” commonly known as the Black national anthem, before each game.

“I’d much rather be the NFL after George Floyd than before George Floyd,” said Vada Manager, a former Nike executive and founder of Manager Global Consulting Group. The league’s unity on the issue, and the public’s pent-up desire for televised sports amid the pandemic, he said, “is a pretty strong bulwark against the president having an impact to say the games shouldn’t be played because of the protests.”

The shift in public perception over the NFL protests was made clear during Trump’s interview at the White House last month with Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports, who told Trump that he initially had been critical of Kaepernick.

But Portnoy suggested that his thinking had changed because “we don’t want them looting and doing all the stuff they’re doing. To me, that’s a silent protest that is far better than going out on the streets and creating crime.”

Trump responded that people could run for public office instead.

“You get groups together and there can be very friendly ways of doing it,” Trump said. He then shifted to blaming violence at protests in Portland on the city’s “radical left” mayor.

Trump’s conservative allies have continued to echo his message. Travis, the sports talk host, this week praised the NFL’s virus safety protocols but said he is “concerned they’re going to blow it with social justice issues and way overdoing it.”

Travis also pointed to the makers of the popular Madden NFL video game decision to include Kaepernick in its 2020 edition, as though he were still an active player.

“This is an example of trying to make the woke community happy,” Travis said. “This is madness. And this, by the way, is one reason I think Donald Trump is starting to surge” in some swing-state polls against Biden.

Biden’s campaign has argued that Trump’s mishandling of the virus, which has killed more than 187,000 Americans, has deprived fans of the ability to attend games safely or even watch them on television, in cases where games were canceled.

State Rep. Joe Tate of Michigan, a Biden surrogate and former NFL practice squad player, said the public is souring on the president’s attacks on the players.

“I believe that they’re understanding and seeing some underlying reasons as to why you’re having protests and having these conversations around race, around issues of police brutality,” Tate said. “People are saying, ‘Hey, they have a point. They should be heard.’ 

This article was originally published here.

Trump attacks take a toll on Black Lives Matter support – Published 09/02/2020

Trump attacks take a toll on Black Lives Matter support
By Laura Barrón-López
Politico, Published September 2, 2020

President Donald Trump has spent weeks attacking the Black Lives Matter movement, and it’s moving the polls — though not necessarily in a way that boosts his electoral chances.

Voters’ favorable views of the Black Lives Matter movement has dropped by 9 percentage points since June, including a 13-point dip among Republicans, according to new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. The shift comes after the recent police shooting of another Black man: Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., last week.

Trump’s recent emphasis on the protests in cities like Kenosha and Portland, Ore., isn’t exactly to his political benefit. Despite Trump’s attempts to cast himself as the law-and-order candidate since George Floyd’s killing in May, the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows more voters trust former Vice President Joe Biden over Trump to handle public safety, 47 percent to 39 percent.

Voters also prefer Biden on race relations by a 19-point margin. Though a narrow majority of voters still view the Black Lives Matter movement favorably, bipartisan support has eroded over the past two months, as Trump has encouraged police violence against protesters, called the Black Lives Matter movement a “symbol of hate,” “discriminatory,” “Marxist” and “bad for Black people.” This week, Trump has tried to pin blame on Biden for violence in American cities.

The dip in support for Black Lives Matter, reflected across multiple polls in recent weeks, doesn’t come as a surprise to activists nor Democratic pollsters who expected Republican backlash to the movement’s newfound support. Favorability for Black Lives Matter dropped from 61 percent support in June to 52 percent now, according to the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll conducted Friday through Sunday.

“This is the direct effect of the strategy of Donald Trump and Fox News,” said veteran Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher. “The movement to a certain extent, over the last month or so, had been losing ground in controlling the narrative.”

The protests were “resoundingly successful” in creating an “inflection point” around racism, Belcher said. But the drop in favorability, he continued, comes as Trump increasingly describes the protests as “violence” and “anarchy,” rather than about police brutality and racial injustice.

“That is a huge problem for Donald Trump — if he’s in fact trying to be the safety and law and order candidate, and he’s losing in the public mind on that front,” Belcher said.

Since Blake was shot seven times in the back by police last month, protests have continued in the state, and riots have resulted in businesses burned to the ground or vandalized. Last week, a white teenager, Kyle Rittenhouse, allegedly shot three protesters, killing two, during the third night of demonstrations in Kenosha. Trump has not condemned Rittenhouse — who on social media promoted “Blue Lives Matter” and support for the president — despite the criminal charges against him, and the president has largely remained silent on the shooting of Blake. During his visit to Kenosha on Tuesday, Trump did not meet with Blake’s family but held a roundtable with local law enforcement.

Republicans are betting Trump’s “law and order” playbook — which echoes 1960s-era GOP strategies on racial divisions for which the party later apologized prior to Trump’s ascendance — will benefit him electorally, energizing his predominately white base and appealing to the white women Republicans lost in 2018. As unrest in Kenosha unfolded last week, departing White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said that increased “chaos” and “anarchy” would boost Trump’s reelection prospects. But there’s been little evidence to date, including in the new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, that Trump’s bet is swaying voters.

“As President Donald Trump continues to drive his ‘law and order’ message amid a new wave of civil unrest following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden maintains a comfortable trust advantage over the incumbent when it comes to who voters trust to handle public safety,” said Kyle Dropp, co-founder and chief research officer at Morning Consult.

Republican pollster Chris Wilson asserted the shift in support for Black Lives Matter “does put Biden at risk” as unrest continues in Democratically-run cities. But Wilson, CEO of WPA Intelligence, said the data shows “that the protests are more an opportunity than automatic win for Trump.”

“[Trump] has to navigate both a rhetorical and policy obstacle course to show the right amount of strength and engagement in protecting Americans and their property, without veering into ignoring the underlying issues that Americans believe exist and justified the protests before they turned violent,” Wilson said. “But this is the first issue in months that has the real possibility of shaking up the election and giving Trump the ability to make big gains.”

Overall, the new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows Trump with a 42 percent approval rating, unchanged from last week, before the Republican convention. The poll surveyed 1,988 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Biden addressed Trump’s attacks and the racial reckoning across the country on Monday. “Does anyone believe there will be less violence in America if Donald Trump is reelected?” Biden said in a speech in Pennsylvania. “We need justice in America. And we need safety in America.”

Morning Consult’s latest presidential tracking poll shows Biden 8 points ahead of Trump, equal to his lead before both conventions last month. Some other public surveys do show a slight tightening in the Biden-Trump race, though there is still a lack of direct data tying the protests or shootings of civilians in Kenosha and Portland to Biden or Trump’s standing electorally.

Cliff Albright, co-founder of the voter engagement group Black Voters Matter, which is one of hundreds of organizations engaged in the movement, considered the dip in support for Black Lives Matter “predictable” and said it could provide a needed gut check on “overconfidence” among Democrats.

“We don’t want to underestimate Trump,” he said. “But also [we’re] not getting carried away by some of the messaging and some of the poll variation that we’ve seen.”

Democratic pollster Terrance Woodbury said a recent statewide poll in Georgia conducted by his firm, HIT Strategies, found 79 percent of voters in the burgeoning battleground state believe racial and ethnic discrimination is a problem in the country.

“The problem is that safety and security and crime are not at the top of white women, suburban women’s priority list. Covid-19, economy and racism remain at the top of their priority list,” said Woodbury. “One reason why reduction in support for BLM doesn’t necessarily equate to reduction of support for Biden is that Biden isn’t running to be president of BLM voters.”

Activists dismiss much of the polling on Black Lives Matter, pointing to the low public support in the 1950s and 1960s for integration, the March on Washington and sit-in demonstrations during the civil rights movement.

And another poll released Wednesday by Grinnell College found that when the issue of racial inequality was framed around victims of police violence, respondents’ views of the current state of racial equality changed. When those surveyed were reminded of Floyd’s death, those who said the country is “very close,” “pretty close” or “already there” on full equality for African Americans dropped from 50 percent to 31 percent.

The Grinnell College poll also shows Biden leading Trump by 8 percentage points among likely voters, 49 percent to 41 percent, matching his margin in Morning Consult’s latest polling.

“[Trump] probably should be running against Joe Biden, instead of the movement, if he wants to win in November,” said Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party and a leader with the Movement for Black Lives coalition. “Movements do not exist on electoral timelines. This is the tension, and the movement for Black lives is much longer and will have much more of a deeper impact than in one president and one election cycle.”

This article was originally published here.

The Icosahedron #12 ft. Trevor Smith, Ph.D., and Chris Wilson on the Riots’ Impact on 2020

It seems many Democrat cheerleaders and candidates are finally realizing the dramatic impact the riots are having on 2020.

Don Lemon (8/25/2020): “The rioting has to stop. It’s showing up in the polling. It’s showing up in focus groups. It is the only thing right now that is sticking.

After George Floyd’s murder on May 25th, there was righteous anger across the political spectrum and not very many answers. The Left attributed the problem to systemic racism and many in both the middle and the Right agreed the problem must be addressed.

Witness the CNN poll (June 2–5, 2020) of adults released just two weeks after Floyd’s murder:

How big of a problem is racism in our society today? Is it a big problem, somewhat of a problem, a small problem, or not a problem at all?

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Very few Americans believed that racism wasn’t a problem at all when this poll was completed, even Republicans.

For context, in October of 2015, 49% of the country said racism was a big problem and in November 2011, 28% of the country said it was a big problem. In fact, 67% of the country saying racism is a big problem is the highest it has ever been on this measure.

To that end, a majority of the country (84%) and a majority of Republicans (79%) believed the peaceful protests were justified:

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What Americans did not justify, however, are the violent protests that occurred in this short timeframe after Floyd’s murder. Again, this poll was taken in early June and that is important context for this entire article.

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There was also strong favorable attitudes toward the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement according to Quinnipiac (6/11–6/15) of the movement.

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Regardless, the issue of race and racism was brought to the forefront of minds across the United States, and positions on the matter generally swayed toward support and recognition of the issue.

So, what has happened since we came together as a country and recognized the problem?

Nationally, according to Civiqs, support for BLM is down four points since it reached its peak in early June. The reason for the drop can be found at looking at Independents and Republicans.

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Of course, nationally, the data do not matter, what matters is what’s happening in the states critical for the Electoral College and U.S. Senate.

The peak data represent when support for the Black Lives Matter movement was at its highest in each state and among Independents/Republicans.

What is clear is that opposition to BLM has more than doubled in its increase compared to the decrease in support. This increase in opposition is directly linked to the riots.

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A Heritage Action Battleground survey, which looked at Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, asked specifically about racial injustice versus violent protests. Sometimes, these questions can be positioned in such a way to get the desired result, but this time, the question inserts an equal amount of bias which is appropriate here:

Now thinking about the protests happening in many of our big cities, which of the following statements best represents your opinion.

These protests are a result of years of injustice and inequality suffered by Americans who are minorities as a result of systemic racism in our police departments and government in general.

…or…

These protests have stopped being about racial injustice and have become violent riots by people who hate America and want to tear down our government and radically change American culture.

In the four states a plurality of respondents (49%) chose the “violent riots” position while 42% chose the “racial injustice” position.

And, when breaking the responses down by state (n=400 per state), the results are very similar:

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The spread in Wisconsin is instructive as voters there were closest to the riots at the time of the study (and, of course, are now experiencing them).

To close, I want to acknowledge the brilliant mind of Dr. Charles Franklin of Marquette University in Wisconsin.

The shift in Wisconsin in just a few months has been remarkable. In the table below, the approval of Black Lives Matter protests is compared across two surveys he conducted. What he found is a drastic shift in approval overall (from +25 to 0), among Republicans (-24% to -62%), and Independents (+30% to +1%). Even among Democrats, the shift down in approval is notable as approval of the protests dropped nine points, while disapproval increased four points.

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So, will these riots have an impact on the election? Right now, the data are suggesting it will, as Independents have steadily moved away from supporting the movement.

I’ll leave you with a note that got a fellow political consultant from across the aisle, David Shor, fired for a simple statement of fact (how’s that for tolerance and respect for science???).

“Post-MLK-assassination race riots reduced Democratic vote share in surrounding counties by 2%, which was enough to tip the 1968 election to Nixon.” He was citing a perfectly rational study by Omar Wasow which can be found here.
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The violence we’ve seen since early summer is absolutely tipping the electoral scales toward Republican candidates. Democrats and their friends in the MSM fail to speak out on these riots (or worse, call them “peaceful protests”; see: Cillizza, Chris) at their own peril.

Researched and co-authored by Trevor Smith, PhD (@SmithWPAi) — Director of Research at WPA Intelligence
Co-authored and edited by Chris Wilson (@WilsonWPA) — CEO at WPA Intelligence

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WPA Releases New Poll on 2024 General Election

Trump’s biggest roadblock to reelection is COVID-19 – Published 08/24/2020

Trump’s biggest roadblock to reelection is COVID-19
By Jonathan Easley
The Hill, Published August 24, 2020

President Trump’s biggest obstacle to winning a second term in office is the coronavirus pandemic, which has dramatically altered the course of the presidential race and raised serious questions about his leadership.

Trump and his campaign have sought to contend with criticism by arguing that China is to blame for the global spread of the virus and that the U.S. government has done everything in its power to steer resources to states.

The president has repeatedly highlighted his decision to cut off travel from China and Europe, noting it was criticized at the time but was then followed by other countries.

Republicans believe Trump will have a compelling and optimistic story to tell at the national convention this week about the extreme measures he’s taken in pursuit of a vaccine, but there are real questions about whether the Trump administration took the virus seriously when it first arrived in the U.S., and polls reflect voter disappointment with the White House.

More than 170,000 people in the United States have died from COVID-19, more than in any other country. The nation has had 5.5 million cases and counting. Beyond the terrible death toll, the pandemic has wrecked the economy and interrupted life, preventing children from going to school and curtailing everything from summer evenings at the ballpark to date night at the weekend movie blockbuster.

The federal government has struggled to get up to speed on testing. Trump has publicly battled with his own medical experts and government agencies. And his messaging about the virus has been all over the place.

A majority of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the pandemic and most voters say they trust Democratic nominee Joe Biden to lead on the matter.

“Trump looked at this through a political lens, and when you do that on a matter as serious as public health, you expose yourself to a downside you cannot control,” said former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele. “That’s where Trump finds himself now. It doesn’t matter the narrative he tries to spin or what his surrogates go out and say. There are more than 172,000 dead Americans and more than 5 million people have been infected.”

Experts say the federal government failed to recognize the potential for a pandemic when the first U.S. case was identified in January.

The Food and Drug Administration did not approve a coronavirus test until weeks later and the government has been slow to get up to speed on testing and contact tracing ever since.

Experts say social distancing, travel bans and quarantines needed to be broader and implemented earlier.

Biden and Democrats have pointed to those failures to argue that the virus hit the U.S. much harder than it should have because of Trump’s leadership.

Not all of the failures fall on Trump.

The coronavirus is new, highly contagious and still a mystery to immunologists. The virus spread quickly from Wuhan, China, with little warning or transparency from Chinese officials.

There was confusion early on, even among medical experts and the news media, about the seriousness of the virus and the effectiveness of masks.

The states have overseen their own slow and fragmented responses. The virus exposed long entrenched problems in the U.S. medical system and supply chain.

But Trump exacerbated confusion around the pandemic by publicly clashing with his own experts and only recently embracing masks.

Early on, the president spoke about how the virus would go away on its own and he talked down the seriousness of it.

Trump promoted unproven therapeutics and his rhetoric has contributed to the politicization of the virus, with Republicans less likely to wear masks or to view the virus as a serious health threat.

The sum total has been to drag Trump down in the polls, where he faces a wide gap against Biden among independents and moderate suburban voters.

The latest CNN survey found disapproval over Trump’s handling of the pandemic at a new high of 58 percent. The poll found Biden leading by 4 points in a head-to-head match-up with Trump but leading by 9 points on the coronavirus.

A recent NBC News-Wall Street Journal survey found that 53 percent of voters believe Trump did not take the coronavirus seriously from the start, up from 45 percent in April. Sixty-one percent in that poll described the U.S. response as unsuccessful.

Governors, even in hard-hit states, have better coronavirus approval ratings than Trump.

“I think any president facing a serious pandemic would see their ratings slip,” said Chris Wilson, a Republican pollster. “We’re not a particularly patient or cooperative country and unfortunately there are things that just don’t have policy solutions – like pandemics. But people have been so trained to think the president can do anything they hold him responsible.”

This article was originally published here.

The Icosahedron #11 ft. Trevor Smith, Ph.D., on National Data/Methodology

The meltdowns seen on Twitter over CNN’s August poll were pretty hilarious and the reassurances to trust the polling average from professionals even more so. But it is really strange to have such massive changes in results.

Biden leads this year, on CNN alone, are:

  • March: +10
  • April: +11
  • May: +5
  • June: +14
  • August: +4

So, naturally we’re curious. Besides the tired, old mistake of calling adults and screening down to registered voters, what in the world is going on here?

After looking at their crosstabs, the answer was pretty simple: CNN is having a horrible time controlling their Independents in the sample, likely due to screen down methods and buckshot sample framing.

At WPAi, we use the 2016 Presidential Vote to help control these types of inflections among Independents, but who knows what CNN uses… if anything at all.

What we do find very interesting is the 65+ portion of their samples as in every single poll since March but for June, Biden has led by double-digits. Let us reiterate this point again: voters aged 65+ are not a monolith and while they have been friendly to Republicans over the past decade, they have been hit very hard by the pandemic and the economy.

The Democrats are seeing this in their numbers and are using the blatant lie about Social Security checks going out through the mail (President Obama ended this practice) to enhance this whole USPS issue that is occurring. Be that as it may, again, in your campaigns you need to identify how to shore up and, in many cases, bring these voters back.

Enthusiasm (pre-Harris VP choice)

We wanted to update our enthusiasm measure to capture any pre-Harris enthusiasm that might exist. As we did a few weeks ago, we’re looking at the net enthusiasm both overall and two specific groups of voters using all Economist/YouGov polls since June .


President Trump Enthusiasm

  • Enthusiasm for President Trump overall has increased a bit since June, 1%.
  • Overall, people are slightly more upset since June (45 to 46%), but overall enthusiasm for his campaign has increased 2%
  • Both Trump and Biden voters’ enthusiasm for Trump has remained relatively the same: 0% change in net enthusiasm among Trump voters and <1% change in net enthusiasm among Biden voters.

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Biden Enthusiasm

  • Biden, on the other hand, has increased his net enthusiasm 23% among his current voters.
  • At this same time, Trump voters are starting to solidify against Biden with a net negative change of 11%.

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Moving closer to the election might be naturally producing these results, but we’ll be curious to see in the next couple of polls if the Harris VP nod has any effect on enthusiasm.

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WPA Releases New Poll on 2024 General Election

WPA Intelligence Announces the Promotion of Conor Maguire

Conor Maguire Promoted to Principal and Managing Director
By Chris Wilson, Partner and CEO
August 17, 2020

Today, WPA Intelligence, a national leader in survey research, predictive analytics and data science, is pleased to announce the promotion of Conor Maguire to the role of Principal and Managing Director. His years of experience in leading client strategy as well as research and data science teams will continue to serve our clients at WPAi.

In 2017, Maguire joined WPAi after three election cycles in the Republican National Committee’s Data Division. Maguire served the RNC as the Director of External Support, working to directly implement the GOP’s state-of-the-art data program across the country and within major campaigns up and down the ballot. Maguire also served as the data liaison to the Trump for President campaign, facilitating the flow of information and deployment of critical resources, contributing significantly to a banner election year which saw the Republican Party win the White House while maintaining majorities in both chambers of Congress.

In addition to Maguire’s tenure at the national party committee, he has worked on competitive campaigns across the country, lending him the critical experience of on-the-ground campaigning coupled with the implementation of data-driven programs at all levels of politics.

Conor Maguire has earned the right to be a Principal of our firm, and Managing Director of our DC office. He has quickly become a leader of our team”, said Chris Wilson, WPAi’s CEO. “Our continued commitment to serving our clients with the most sophisticated polling, data analytics and technology solutions, paired with unrivaled strategic guidance, is bolstered by Conor’s work. Conor’s years at WPAi and extensive experience with the RNC provide him with exceptional credentials that will continue to be invaluable for our clients in the political, public affairs, and corporate space.

Maguire added, “Having worked on critical races up and down the ticket, I know what it takes to win. WPAi brings to the table a unique and succinct approach to traditional polling by incorporating an intelligent use of data. I am eager to continue to deliver unparalleled insights and to lead our clients to victory.”

See the announcement in Politico here.

The Icosahedron #10 ft. Matt Knee on the Vote-by-Mail Surge & Predicting the Unpredictable

The traditional method for modeling voter turnout is looking at historical voting patterns, supplemented with enthusiasm measures. When election rules or voting dynamics change, however, information on who voted in the past becomes a lot less useful. To ensure quality turnout models for our clients, we have analyzed this year’s primary elections in which voting rules changed; this has allowed us to apply those patterns and lessons to future turnout models.

While adjusting turnout of occasional voters for a more enthusiastic electorate is rather straightforward, the main challenge comes from voters who are voting in primaries for the first time. While some of these voters are just young people getting in the habit of voting, many are not, and are instead general election voters newly voting in primaries or are new to voting altogether.

Between white-hot political enthusiasm, the effects of COVID-19, and some jurisdictions mailing absentee ballot requests (or actual ballots) to every voter – or otherwise increasing convenience voting – there is a lot to sort out.

The sending of absentee ballot requests or ballots to every voter is especially disruptive. We analyzed the vote history available for the Georgia primary election data as part of our efforts to update our turnout modeling process.

Here are some of our findings and solutions.

Findings

  1. In 2016, 20,103 mail-in votes were cast in Georgia, where or 3.5% of the total vote. In 2020, 485,894 mail-in votes were cast, or 49% of the total vote.
  2. 69% of primary voters were first-time primary voters. In 2016, it was 17%.
  3. While 55% of new primary voters had voted in general elections, 45% were entirely new.
  4. 32% of new voters in the 2020 primary were under 45. Only 12% of overall voters were. However, there were also plenty of older new voters: 32% were 65 or older.
  5. While Georgia does not have party registration, our party models suggest these new voters were disproportionately Democratic.

Solutions

  1. We built models of new voters in Georgia to adjust turnout in other areas that specifically mailed absentee requests to their voters. By examining the patterns of what type of voter is likely to begin voting when offered an absentee ballot, we can apply this to other areas that have made this offer.
  2. We built new voter models based on historical and 2020 new voters, so as to adjust new voters independent of rules changes.
  3. By combining historical models, rule-change models, new voter models, enthusiasm models, and political judgement, we can better predict voter turnout in these unprecedented times. So far, we have deployed these methods in Oklahoma and Alabama primary races, and accurately predicted turnout within a percentage point each time.
  4. We will continue to build models, as data becomes available, to find and apply the patterns and effects of voting rule changes.

If you’re interested in what turnout looks like in your district, contact us.

WPA Releases New Poll on 2024 General Election

President Trump Refocuses Campaign Strategy – Published 07/31/2020

Key Takeaways from Trump’s Evolving Campaign Strategy
By Patsy Widakuswara
VOA, Published July 31, 2020

WASHINGTON – With several polls showing Democratic presumptive nominee Joe Biden leading the U.S. presidential race nationally, in battleground states and among key demographics, President Donald Trump’s campaign is seeking a more effective strategy to win over voters.

After spending weeks pushing to reopen the economy, the president now appears to be acknowledging the coronavirus pandemic will continue to drive news cycles through the final 100 days of the campaign.

Here are a few key takeaways from Trump’s evolving re-election strategy.

Refocus on pandemic

Polls indicate that public approval for the president’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic is falling to a new low — with just around one third of Americans supporting his approach which emphasizes reopening.

In the past two weeks, the president has returned to making regular appearances before journalists, putting himself forward as spokesperson for his administration’s response to the pandemic.

The president has canceled the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, Florida, because of the growing COVID-19 outbreak there. He also acknowledged that some schools may need to delay their reopening, and has recommended Americans wear masks in public.

Republican strategists say it’s an admission that the president has few options but to refocus his attention on the pandemic.

“It’s really difficult as a campaign to focus on a message when there’s nothing else you can talk about than what is on the minds of really of everybody in America,” said Chris Wilson, CEO of WPA Intelligence in an interview.

Staying “on message” is how politicians traditionally have helped build support for their causes, but Trump has long had a more freewheeling political style. On Monday this week he returned to his emphasis on ending the lockdowns in some states.

“I really do believe a lot of the governors should be opening up states that are not opening,” Trump said during a visit to a vaccine development facility in North Carolina. “We’ll see what happens with them.”

By Thursday, he again appeared to have reversed himself on the severity of the pandemic.

He suggested that the November elections should be delayed to ensure people can safely vote in person, even though the Constitution allows only Congress to schedule elections. Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders rejected the suggestion and vowed the election will be held as scheduled.

Renew push on vaccines and therapeutics

Both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence visited vaccine development facilities this week as the White House pressed its message that the nation is close to defeating COVID-19.

During a coronavirus press briefing on Wednesday, Trump said the U.S. is on track to “rapidly produce” 100 million doses as soon as a vaccine is approved “which could be very, very soon.” He said 500 million doses will be available “shortly thereafter.”

There are currently more than 100 scientific groups around the world trying to make vaccines, including Pfizer and BioNTech which have started large-scale trials in the United States. But most experts agree that having a safe and reliable vaccine available before the November election is unlikely.

“There is progress on a number of fronts,” said William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “We’re optimistic, but everything has to go well in vaccine development.”

While a vaccine is under development, the president is still pushing other treatments aimed at reducing the severity of COVID-19. This week he again championed hydroxychloroquine — an anti-malaria drug that Trump and his allies have been pushing as a COVID-19 treatment.

So far there is no evidence that hydroxychloroquine helps to prevent COVID-19 infection, said former Food and Drug Associate Commissioner and co-founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, Peter Pitts. However Pitts told VOA recent studies have shown that it may help shorten hospital time for patients who suffer from serious manifestations of the virus.

Analysts say that Trump advisers see messaging on vaccines and therapeutics as the quickest way to restore confidence in the president.

“The plan is to present certain drugs that are unproven as useful therapeutics until they have a vaccine,” said Larry Sabato from the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics to VOA.

Sabato said the lack of scientific data to support the claim is immaterial. “For Trump supporters, he is their source of information.”

Continue “law and order” approach to US protests

With Black Lives Matter rallies and protests continuing in many cities across the United States, the vast majority of them peaceful, the president has also sharpened his attacks on what he has called “radical left anarchists” and the danger they allegedly pose to the country.

“This bloodshed must end, this bloodshed will end,” Trump said.

In Portland, local officials blamed the presence of federal law enforcement officers for worsening conflicts with protesters. After days of clashes, the city struck an agreement for the federal troops to withdraw.

But analysts see the larger standoff continuing, with the Trump campaign arguing that cities with regular protests are in fact in chaos and need a “law and order” commander in chief, said Omar Wasow, a professor of race and ethnic politics at Princeton University.

“Trump is working in a tradition that we’ve seen internationally, of using conflict as a way to try and mobilize your side,” Wasow told VOA, pointing to Trump campaign advertisements using footage of the protests to portray Biden as soft on crime.

“Clearly, they think it’s a good campaign issue for them,” Wasow said.

Settle on a Biden Strategy

Traditionally, presidential campaigns kick into high gear and intensify attacks on their opponents after the Republican and Democratic conventions in August, and as the candidates meet on the debate stage.

“Biden has his share of controversies and he’s been around a long time, but he is not a clear image in the minds of most voters,” said Larry Sabato. “Trump’s goal in the debates and in his advertising, is to dirty up Biden, to make him appear as unsavory as Donald Trump appears to be unsavory to millions of people.”

So far there are two main attack themes; that “Sleepy Joe” Biden is mentally unfit to be president and that he won’t keep Americans safe against crime and lawlessness.

A recent poll finds that 52% of voters are somewhat confident that Biden has the mental and physical stamina to carry out the job of president compared to 45% for Trump. However, more are likely to say they feel very confident about Trump (33%) than Biden (23%).

“Biden hasn’t developed the kind of adulation among his base that Trump can count on from his supporters. This seems to be a fairly common trend in the campaign so far and is at least partly due to the Democrat being out of the public eye during the pandemic,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.

But the strategy of a 74-year-old incumbent attacking his 77-year-old challenger is risky particularly among seniors, a key demographic group of Trump supporters. Biden leads Trump among voters 65 and older in several national polls.

At the same time, Trump seeks to link Biden to more liberal elements of the Democratic Party such as the “defund the police” movement. Biden has said he supports redirecting some police funding to address mental health or to change the prison system.

The gambit is part of Trump’s larger “culture war” against what he describes as a push by American political liberals to wage a “merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.”

Another attack line likely to pick up steam closer to the election is to raise fears about what a “Biden, Pelosi, Schumer America will look like,” said Arizona-based Republican strategist Chuck Coughlin to VOA, referring to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“The European style of democracy has historically been unpopular across the U.S. and I believe he will begin to compare how a Biden presidency will change America for the worse forever, and that he is the only man left to defend American-style capitalism,” Coughlin said.

Campaigning on “us vs them” to a nation highly polarized around party ideology can be a very powerful way to mobilize your base, said Omar Wasow of Princeton. But while Trump is masterful at harnessing identity politics, stoking both fear and national pride, his political base in 2020 may not be large enough to carry him to victory. “If he doesn’t do some outreach to some of the moderate swing voters, there’s a reasonable chance he’ll lose,” Wasow said.

The past three months of national turmoil have shown much can happen between now and the election.

“An October vaccine discovery would be the ultimate October surprise,” said Wilson, referring to the possibility that a last-minute development will sway the early November election. “If unemployment dips back into single digits, if you have the Dow above 30,000 — all those things would create and completely change the scenario of what we’d be looking at in the fall.”

Wilson said that any of those scenarios can happen, and it would probably take a combination of them to ensure a Trump victory. “But that’s historically the case with any presidential election.”

This article was originally published here.

100 Days Out – Published 07/26/2020

Trump has 100 days to turn things around
By Jonathan Easley
The Hill, Published 07/26/2020

“If the election were today, Democrats would be in a pretty strong position to sweep most, if not all of the critical elections. The problem is the election is not today,” said Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis. “There’s too much uncertainty to credibly believe this election is somehow in the bag.”

Still, Trump has seen his support erode in recent months among the groups that powered his 2016 run.

“The polling is challenging right now, but this is a terrible environment with COVID-19 and the economy suffering from the effects of shutdowns,” said Chris Wilson, a GOP pollster and president of WPA Intelligence. “Polls are always a snapshot in time, but I think you really need to think about where the environment will be in October in interpreting the polls today. If there’s a marked improvement in the pandemic, then today’s polling may not mean a lot in two or three months.”

Read the full article here.