HISTORY OF GQR
GQR is a 100% woman-owned business that has provided precise, penetrating opinion research and sophisticated, data-driven strategies for candidates, parties, government leaders, corporations and advocacy groups across the United States and around the world for more than four decades. From Seattle to Chicago to Dallas to Miami, and across over 90 countries on six continents, we provide the polling, focus groups, communications plans, digital strategies and data analytics our clients need to thrive, grow, compete and win.
GQR has been at the center of many of the hardest and most important progressive victories in modern history. The election of Bill Clinton in 1992. Nelson Mandela’s electoral victory in 1994. The Nobel-prize winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines. The election and re-election of Rep. Gabby Giffords in Arizona – and the establishment of her influential gun safety organization after she was shot in 2011. Providing the polling and strategic advice that helped to flip 9 of the 40 seats that changed control of the House of Representatives in 2018 – more than any other firm. As of 2024, GQR has won 25 of 28 Senate races when we served on the candidate’s team, including tough races in states as diverse as New Hampshire, Michigan, and Arizona.
The firm was founded in 1980 by Stanley Greenberg – working out of his basement – a former Yale political scientist whose 1985 study of Reagan Democrats in Macomb County, Michigan became a classic of political strategy. That analysis provided the basis for the reform of the Democratic Party in the 1980s and the election of President Bill Clinton in 1992, with Greenberg serving as Clinton’s pollster and strategist. Greenberg and GQR went on to be polling advisers for world leaders including Nelson Mandela, Tony Blair and Ehud Barak. In 1989, Partner Al Quinlan joined the firm after working in Democratic and city politics for 10 years. He is the go-to pollster in U.S. Senate races – winning 21 of 22 races over the past 18 years – and for the DSCC.
GQR is now led by Senior Partners Anna Greenberg, Elizabeth Sena and Lindsey Reynolds. Academically trained, Greenberg has 30 years of experience in public opinion research and has been electing Democrats up and down the ballot for over 20 years. In 2014, she was named Pollster of the Year by the AAPC. Sena has nearly two decades of polling experience in the political, public affairs and strategic communications sector. In 2022 Elizabeth served as Governor Katie Hobbs’ pollster in her close election victory. Reynolds is a veteran political strategist, known for her shrewd judgement and ability to get things done. For 20 years she has been a leader in state and national Democratic Party organizations and continues that work here helping elect Democrats.