Political Climate

Whit Ayres, March 31

April 1, 2020 by North Star

Whit Ayres’ comments in The New York Times regarding the durability of President Trump’s uptick in approval ratings:

“President Trump has broken through the narrow range of 42 to 46 percent approval where he’s been for the last two years and indeed for much of his presidency,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster. “It’s an open question whether those people who are changing now would actually vote in a different way in November. Some of the independents may. I doubt that many of the Democrats will.”

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Filed Under: Blog, Coronavirus, Featured, In the News Sidebar, News Clips, Political Climate, Trump

Whit Ayres, March 28

March 28, 2020 by North Star

Whit Ayres’ comments to The Washington Post regarding the lessons of past executives in handling crises:

“The way public officials handle crises can be make or break moments for political careers,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster who is not affiliated with the Trump campaign. “The way public officials perform, their competence and their ability to help their constituents recover from a crisis overshadows almost anything else that they do.”

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Filed Under: Blog, Coronavirus, Featured, In the News Sidebar, News Clips, Political Climate, Trump

Whit Ayres, March 11

March 11, 2020 by North Star

Whit Ayres’ comments to Time on the potential political effects of COVID-19:

What’s clear is that a President who has been in permanent campaign mode since the first day of his term is keenly aware of the stakes. “What we know is from natural disasters is the way a political leader handles a disaster can make or break a campaign,” says Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster at North Star Opinion Research. “Focus on the performance and the poll numbers will take care of themselves.” Trump’s performance is still unfolding, but one thing he knows for certain is that voters are watching.

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Filed Under: Blog, Featured, Health Care, In the News Sidebar, News Clips, Political Climate, Presidential Contest, Trump

Whit Ayres, March 6

March 6, 2020 by North Star

Whit Ayres’ comments to McClatchy on demographic changes in Texas:

“The mix of voters in Texas is going exactly the way that demographic trends have predicted, and as long as Republicans continue to perform poorly with nonwhite voters, it appears it will continue,” said Whit Ayres, a veteran pollster and analyst for Republican candidates across Florida and the South. “I think we’re still a cycle or two away from Texas flipping – but it does reinforce the imperative of Republicans to do a better job reaching out to nonwhite voters.”

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Filed Under: Blog, Demographics, Featured, Hispanic Voters, In the News Sidebar, News Clips, Political Climate, Presidential Contest, Presidential Primaries, Republicans

Whit Ayres, February 28

February 28, 2020 by North Star

Whit Ayres’ comments to the Associated Press on the competitiveness of Georgia elections:

Republican presidential candidates have carried Georgia since 1996. Even so, the state’s suburbs, echoing the rest of the nation’s, have turned increasingly blue, which along with growing populations of Hispanics and other minorities have made Democrats more competitive and Republicans nervous.
“It’s no secret that Republicans have been hurting among college-educated women in suburban communities across the nation, and Atlanta is filled with college-educated suburban women voters,” said GOP pollster Whit Ayres.

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Filed Under: Blog, Demographics, Featured, In the News Sidebar, News Clips, Political Climate, Republicans

Whit Ayres, January 28

January 31, 2020 by North Star

Whit Ayres’ comments in The New York Times on the U.S. Senate race in Georgia:

“Republican primaries these days have become contests about who loves President Trump more,” said Whit Ayres, a veteran Republican political consultant. “Mr. Collins has been one of the president’s most vociferous defenders. That puts Senator Loeffler in a position of vocally demonstrating that she has the president’s back in the impeachment debate.”

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Filed Under: Blog, Featured, In the News Sidebar, News Clips, Political Climate, Republicans

Whit Ayres, December 3

December 13, 2019 by North Star

Whit Ayres’ comments to CNN regarding impeachment and views of President Trump:

“The whole impeachment debate has intensified preexisting feelings about the President,” says Republican pollster Whit Ayres. “Most people who like him do so with their eyes wide open. … They understand his strengths and his weaknesses and they prefer him to the alternatives as they see it. On the other hand, people who dislike him will be even more appalled because what they are seeing reinforces their existing views.”
…
Ayres, the Republican pollster, says Trump’s unbending response to impeachment underlines the pugnacious take-no-prisoners posture that thrills his core supporters.
“Supporters take away he’s a fighter, that he’s never backs down, that he never gives in to the carping critics and that he will stand his ground no matter what the situation and hold his head high in the face of unrelenting criticism,” he said.

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Filed Under: Blog, Featured, Impeachment, In the News Sidebar, News Clips, Political Climate, Trump

Whit Ayres, November 30

December 13, 2019 by North Star

Whit Ayres’ comments to the Associated Press regarding impeachment:

“It will be part of the mosaic, but hardly the overriding issue,” GOP pollster Whit Ayres predicted about impeachment’s impact next November. “It will have faded by then and it will also have simply reinforced the preexisting attitudes and made them more intense.”

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Filed Under: Blog, Featured, Impeachment, In the News Sidebar, News Clips, Political Climate

Whit Ayres’ WSJ Opinion Piece, November 18

November 18, 2019 by North Star

From Whit Ayres’ op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on November 18:

As the nation tumbles toward the 2020 presidential elections, it seems also on course for its second presidential impeachment in a little more than two decades. It all looks like so much chaos, but our likely path forward is illuminated by polls about the Bill Clinton impeachment in the 1990s and predictions from one of America’s most prolific Founding Fathers.
While the Clinton and Trump impeachment efforts differ dramatically on the politics and allegations involved, one similarity offers tantalizing parallels that could predict how the public reacts to the current investigation. Unlike the Nixon impeachment inquiry in 1973-74, the Clinton and Trump impeachment drives evoked an overwhelmingly strong partisan reaction. In both instances, stalwart party members on either side defended behavior they would roundly condemn in a president of the other party.

To read the full column, please click here.

Filed Under: Blog, Featured, Impeachment, In the News Sidebar, News Clips, Political Climate, Presidential Contest

Whit Ayres, November 14

November 14, 2019 by North Star

Whit Ayres’ comments in The New York Times regarding potential handling of the Supreme Court ruling on DACA:

“Presumably, there will be discretion about how aggressively various laws are enforced,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, “but it does create a political challenge because, consistently, 80 percent of Americans have supported allowing the DACA kids to stay.”
…
“What’s so frustrating is that 80 percent of Americans also support a secure border, and Congress has thus far seemed unable to put those two 80 percent issues together in a very limited immigration bill,” Mr. Ayres said.

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Filed Under: Blog, Featured, Immigration and Border Security, In the News Sidebar, News Clips, Political Climate