Analysis on public sentiment, regulatory trends, persuasion, and campaigns.
Scientific Campaign Strategy: Outperforming Gut Feelings TL;DR Scientific Campaign Strategy leverages data over intuition for superior public affairs outcomes. Formulate precise hypotheses regarding audience behavior and message impact. Implement rigorous measurement...
Motivated Action: Beyond Awareness in Public Opinion TL;DR Motivated action drives real-world change, far exceeding simple awareness. Awareness means knowing an issue exists; salience means deeming it personally important. Intensity measures the emotional charge and...
TL;DR Political polarization has two drivers that dwarf everything else: first-past-the-post elections and extreme gerrymandering. Every other cause, from social media algorithms to geographic self-sorting, operates on top of that foundation. The only fix with large,...
Electoral Politics and RepresentationMy interest here is not in helping the Democratic Party rebuild itself in Florida, but to have a difficult conversation. My first paid campaign experience was in 1992. I took a summer off school and worked as a finance director...
Misinterpreting Public Will: Advocacy's Fatal Flaw TL;DR Misinterpreting Public Will derails advocacy campaigns, leading to wasted resources. Public opinion reflects surface-level sentiment, often polled data. Public will signifies deeper, values-based commitment,...
TL;DR: In reviewing academic research, efforts to fix political polarization by making partisans dislike each other less are failing, because the problem is not about individual feelings. The real issue is a political structure that incentivizes conflict and...
Data-Driven Coalition Building: Maximize Impact TL;DR Data-Driven Coalition Building moves beyond intuition for superior advocacy. Traditional approaches often validate existing alliances, limiting reach. Polling data identifies untapped stakeholders, maximizing...
Strategic Community Consent: Bridging the Clean Energy Divide TL;DR Strategic Community Consent effectively reduces local opposition to clean energy projects. Local concerns often contrast with broad national support for renewable initiatives. Early, transparent...
TL;DR Forget traditional political persuasion. True, lasting belief change is incredibly rare because our brains fiercely defend beliefs tied to our identity. The science reveals only two consistent paths to fundamentally alter political beliefs: A "Shock to the...
