Opinion Research and Strategic Guidance for Political, Corporate, and Nonprofit Clients Nationwide
Whit Ayres’s comments in the Los Angeles Times regarding President Trump’s approach on trade:
Republican pollster Whit Ayres said trade and trade agreements were significant factors for voters who switched from backing President Obama in 2012 to Trump in 2016, especially in the upper Midwest.
“He has certainly elevated the importance of the issue,” Ayres said of China. “Time will tell whether Americans support his proposed solutions.”
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Whit Ayres’ comments in The Washington Post on Nancy Pelosi’s dismissal of tax reform benefits:
Even many Democrats cringed privately at her “crumbs” comment, which they worry distracts from their larger argument over the fairness of GOP economic policies. And of course, any metaphor that involves baked goods easily lends itself to the Marie Antoinette caricature that Republicans have drawn of Pelosi.
“It sounds like something a wealthy woman from San Francisco would say,” said Republican pollster Whit Ayres.
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Jon McHenry’s comments in The Hill on the importance of White House leadership in the tax reform effort:
“You have to have a White House that’s engaged in the issue and is able to show with facts and figures that no, this is actually going to help the middle class,” said Jon McHenry, vice president at North Star Opinion Research, a Republican polling firm.
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The middle-class messaging could also pressure vulnerable Democratic senators, such as Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), to back a GOP tax bill, McHenry said.The White House needs to “make the case in a way that the Joe Manchins and Heidi Heitkamps of the world can support the plan,” he said.
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Jon McHenry’s comments in The Hill regarding tax reform messaging:
GOP lawmakers and the Trump administration often spend a considerable amount of time discussing how tax reform will boost economic growth and business competitiveness.
Strategists suggested that it’s important for Republicans to explain how more economic growth directly affects them, and some argued that lawmakers should cut to the chase and lead their tax-reform pitches with arguments about more jobs and more take-home income.
“The most important thing is to keep it on the day-to-day things that people are focused on, which in this case is jobs,” said Jon McHenry, vice president of the GOP polling firm North Star Opinion Research.
To read the full article, please click here.
Whit Ayres’ column in US News on the challenges facing Republicans:
Providence has provided Republicans with an unexpected opportunity to accomplish goals many have wanted for years, by delivering control of both the presidency and Congress to the GOP. But our 2016 success should not blind us to the long-term challenges facing the party.
President-elect Donald Trump’s loss to Hillary Clinton in the popular vote means that Republicans have lost the popular vote for six of the last seven presidential elections. Trump won by threading a needle in the Electoral College, carrying four large states by one percentage point or less: Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, a total of 75 electoral votes.
To read the full column, please click here.
Whit Ayres was cited in the New York Times regarding the 2016 presidential contest and the need to appeal to Hispanic voters:
Mr. Bush’s calculus is based in part on the 2012 election: Mitt Romney received 17 percent of the nonwhite vote, meaning that if the next Republican nominee does no better, he or she will have to receive 65 percent of the white vote to win, said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster.
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More significant, their approaches to the primary campaign could also be instructive about how each would attempt to win a general election, and the risks they choose to take.
“One is a populist strategy that doubles down on turning out disaffected white men,” Mr. Lewis said. (An adviser to Mr. Walker did not directly dispute this assessment, suggesting that Mr. Walker would perform well with middle-class voters, whose support for Democratic candidates has dwindled in the last few presidential campaigns and who have strongly supported Mr. Walker in his gubernatorial races.)
“The other is a gamble that conservatism can win in the free market of ideas amongst a diverse and changing 21st-century America,” Mr. Lewis said of Mr. Bush’s approach.
Of course, Republicans may not be strictly bound to an either-or proposition.
Winning back the Great Lakes states could prove as decisive as reclaiming the increasingly diverse states that Mr. Bush is focused on, said Mr. Ayres, the pollster. He said that was an argument for a hybrid candidate who could do both — like Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, whom Mr. Ayres expects to work for if he runs for president.
Republicans may ultimately choose such a third way. But if it comes down to Mr. Bush and Mr. Walker, the choice will prove revealing.
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Whit Ayres’ comments in the Atlanta Journal-Constititution regarding opinion on “income inequality”:
Veteran Republican pollster Whit Ayres has tested extensively whether Americans respond more to cries to do something about income inequality or to increase middle class opportunity. The latter is a key part of the platform of Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, whose nascent presidential campaign Ayres is advising.
“Defining the problem as the difference between the rich and the poor is fundamentally not resonating with the vast majority of Americans — that is a more European definition,” Ayres said. “Most Americans don’t believe inequality is the problem. They want to make sure there are avenues of success for their children.”
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Whit Ayres’s quote for the National Journal “Against the Grain” column, on the anxieties of the middle class:
“We’re going to have to see sustained growth in the number of middle-class jobs and an increase in median income before we really see attitudes about the economy turn around,” said Republican pollster Whit Ayres, who is advising potential presidential candidate Marco Rubio. “Debates on how to get the economy going to get more well-paying middle-class jobs will remain one of the very top issues in the next presidential campaign. The depth of middle-class anxiety is so widespread.”
To read the full article, please click here.
Dr. Whit Ayres, president of North Star Opinion Research, co-founded Resurgent Republic with former RNC Chair Ed Gillespie. Read More...
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