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Whit Ayres, July 31

July 31, 2023 by

Whit Ayres’ comments to The Guardian regarding the challenges still facing President Joe Biden:

Whit Ayres, a political consultant and pollster, said of the policy areas: “They may be moving in the right direction but they still are major problems from the perspective of Republican voters as well as a number of independents. We are a long way from having the border under control.

“We’re a long way from having inflation back at the rate we became used to for quite a while. And crime remains a very significant problem in lots of American cities. So while each of those may not be quite as bad as they were, they are still very significant problems and likely to remain so through the election.”

To read the full article, please click here.

Filed Under: Featured, Immigration and Border Security, Inflation, Joe Biden, Presidential Contest

Whit Ayres, June 7

June 7, 2023 by

Whit Ayres’ comments in The Washington Post about the potential impeachment hearing of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas:

GOP pollster Whit Ayres, who has long urged his party to moderate on immigration, says it remains unclear whether Republicans can produce evidence of impeachable offenses. If not, Ayres suggests, impeachment will backfire.

“If they’ve got no hard evidence,” Ayres told me, “it will just drive an image of the Republican Party that is very much at odds with the kind of party that can win elections in swing states or win a majority of the electorate in a presidential campaign.”

To read the full article, please click here.

Filed Under: Blog, Featured, Immigration and Border Security, Impeachment, In the News Sidebar, News Clips, Republicans

Whit Ayres, October 27

October 27, 2020 by

Whit Ayres’ comments to The Wall Street Journal regarding immigration as a salient election issue:

“Immigration was a significant issue primarily for Republicans in 2016 and 2018 because of the president’s promotion of the issue,” said Whit Ayres, a GOP pollster. “Given how much the pandemic has overwhelmed our country and disrupted almost every aspect of our lives, it makes sense that immigration and other issues would fade into the background.”

To read the full article, please click here.

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

Whit Ayres, November 20

November 21, 2019 by

Whit Ayres’ comments in The New York Times on the electability of Elizabeth Warren:

Whit Ayres, president of North Star Opinion Research, was outspoken: “Elizabeth Warren is God’s gift to Donald Trump and Republican candidates.”

“Well-educated suburban voters, especially women,” Ayres continued, “are uncomfortable with President Trump,” but, he added, “they are not going to vote for a candidate who wants to take away their private health insurance, decriminalize the border, increase government spending by 50 percent, and ban fracking, especially in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Colorado.”

To read the full article, please click here.

Filed Under: Blog, Energy and Environment, Featured, Immigration and Border Security, In the News Sidebar, News Clips, Presidential Contest, Trump

Whit Ayres, November 14

November 14, 2019 by

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.

To read the full article, please click here.

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

Whit Ayres, CSIS Podcast

July 11, 2019 by

Whit Ayres joined Dan Runde on his CSIS Building the Future podcast to discuss demographic change, the future of the Republican party, and issues for the 2020 election.

You can listen to part one here.

You can listen to part two here.

Filed Under: Blog, Demographics, Featured, Hispanic Voters, Immigration and Border Security, In the News Sidebar, News Clips, Presidential Contest, Republicans, Trump, Uncategorized

Whit Ayres, February 27

February 27, 2019 by

Whit Ayres’ comments in The Christian Science Monitor on congressional votes to stop President Trump’s emergency declaration:

“There’s a real tension here,” says Whit Ayres, a longtime GOP pollster, whose clients include Sens. Marco Rubio (R) of Florida and Lamar Alexander (R) of Tennessee. “We’ve never had, to my knowledge, a president ask Congress to appropriate money for something, Congress has refused, and the president has declared an emergency to get around a decision of Congress.”

…

When Trump declared victory over the Islamic State and ordered the withdrawal of troops in Syria and Afghanistan, the Senate passed a bill strongly opposing the move.

Mr. Ayres, the pollster, says those unusual rebukes were only possible because the president’s position was so far off from most of his party’s. The national emergency declaration, on the other hand, highlights competing priorities within the Republican Party: enhancing border security, and upholding the Constitution and the separation of powers.

…

“This is a vote that will be remembered because of its constitutional implications and its separation of powers implications,” says Ayres. “You’re not just voting for the next election, you’re voting in many ways for your historical record.”

To read the full article, please click here.

Filed Under: Blog, Featured, Immigration and Border Security, In the News Sidebar, News Clips, Republicans, Trump

Whit Ayres, February 7

February 7, 2019 by

Whit Ayres’ comments to Time regarding President Trump and border security:

On the issue of the moment, the Feb. 15 spending deadline, one way out would be for Trump to accept a deal that boosts border-security spending without funding a wall. “If he can get a bill enacted that truly does strengthen the border, then he will be able to sell that to his base without having an actual 2,000-mile-long physical wall,” says Whit Ayres, a GOP consultant at North Star Opinion Research. “The key is making the border more secure.”

To read the full article, please click here.

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