This fall, the Marist Poll team tracked public opinion in the most hotly contested Senate and gubernatorial races across the country, and the results were spot-on! The Marist Poll accurately measured the winners in each of the called U.S. Senate and gubernatorial contests polled this election cycle. The Marist Poll’s success this year is the result of the implementation of new, scientific polling methodologies aimed at addressing the broader challenges confronting the polling community.
Always innovators in the field of survey research and academia, the Marist Poll rigorously tested these methodologies during the year prior to the 2022 midterms, and the effort proved fruitful. The Marist Poll looks forward to sharing the insights from its election polls with the broader survey community as well as the hundreds of student workers, interns, and researchers who are at the fore of the Marist Poll Survey Center every semester.
With an eye on the key issues driving the electorate, the Marist Poll also tracked the 2022 midterm elections with its national polling partners, NPR and PBS NewsHour. The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll measured public opinion on President Joe Biden’s job performance, the economy, the labor force, and much more.
In total, the Marist Poll conducted 12 public battleground state polls and 2 national surveys since Sept. 1, generating an estimated ad value equivalency of more than $300 million, according to the media monitoring service Meltwater.
Also last fall, it was the Marist Poll’s distinguished pleasure to participate in the Office of College Advancement’s October event for the Washington, DC, alumni chapter. These two action-packed days began with an informal dinner with Marist President Kevin Weinman and distinguished political journalists with whom the Marist Poll has worked over the decades. The Marist Poll also hosted a luncheon where Marist Poll alumni had the chance to get to know President Weinman. The culmination of the trip was the broader gathering of Marist’s DC alumni chapter during which Dr. Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, had the distinct honor of leading the discussion between Weinman and Marist’s best and brightest.
From Marist students past to the present, undergraduates in Miringoff’s Political Communication and Politics course have, once again, experienced an insider’s view of the field. On-campus and virtual guest speakers this semester have included Congressman Jamie Raskin, author of Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy and who served as the lead impeachment manager in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump; Lisa Desjardins, PBS NewsHour correspondent; Steve Thomma, executive director of the White House Correspondents Association; David Lightman, chief congressional correspondent for McClatchy; and Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.
The Marist Poll would also like to take a moment to thank Marist alumni, staff, and friends of the College who contributed to the Marist Poll’s GiveCampus campaign. Those generous donations funded two student fellowship positions. The Marist Poll Summer Fellow for Distinguished Service in Media was awarded to Greta Stuckey ’23 who demonstrated outstanding journalistic integrity, exemplary writing and research skills, a passion for the media industry, and proven leadership ability. Sarah Knauss ’23 was named the Marist Poll Summer Fellow for Distinguished Service in Data Science which is awarded to a Marist College student who demonstrates exceptional analytical writing and research skills, exhibits a strong interest in the field of survey research and/or data analysis, and is a proven leader.
For those who might have missed it, the Marist Poll, in conjunction with the Marist Center for Sports Communication, surveyed Americans about Title IX, 50 years after the passage of this groundbreaking legislation. To commemorate the anniversary of Title IX in June, the Marist Poll and the Marist Center for Sports Communication hosted a virtual panel featuring female luminaries in sports, broadcasting, and policy. Marist Poll Director of Data Science and Technology Stephanie Calvano ’04 moderated the panel which included Margaret Dunkle, architect of Title IX; Aditi Kinkhabwala, former national reporter for the NFL Network; Rebecca Lobo, WNBA and women’s college basketball analyst and reporter for ESPN and former WNBA All-Star; Jane McManus, executive director of Seton Hall’s Center for Sports Media; and Julianne Viani ’08, basketball analyst in sports broadcasting for ESPN, CBS Sports Network, NBC Sports, and YES Network, as well as other networks.