2 US SENATE PICK UPS – UNITE THE COUNTRY – HELD 8 FRONTLINE US HOUSE SEATS – COUNTERING DISINFORMAITON
In an historic year that brought an end to the Trump presidency and elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as America’s next president and vice president, GQR extended its winning streak – building on 2018, when GQR partnered with nearly half of the seats that flipped to take control of the House of Representatives – and now in 2020 helping our clients win, up and down the ballot, with an integrated combination of strategy, polling, digital, analytics, and communications advice.
We are excited that GQR was the Pollster of Record for BOTH US Senate pickups last week.
We took on two Republican incumbents and flipped those seats from red to blue – Mark Kelly, who outperformed Joe Biden in Arizona and John Hickenlooper in Colorado are headed to the United States Senate.
We also successfully helped hold THREE incumbent Senate seats.
We saw long-time client Sen. Jeanne Shaheen win a resounding victory in the Granite State. For the second time in two years we helped Sen. Tina Smith cross the finish line in Minnesota beating her opponent this time by 5 points. And when the pundits said Sen. Gary Peters wouldn’t win his reelection, our team helped craft a message that spoke to Michiganders – sending Sen. Peters back for another term.
Congratulations to Unite the Country, the pro-Biden Super PAC, on Biden’s victory. GQR is proud to have played a role helping Unite the Country secure Biden victories in the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
We are proud to have worked with our House of Representatives candidates. We held EIGHT Frontline seats (Reps. Lizzie Fletcher TX-07, Dean Phillips MN-03, Donald Norcross NJ-01, Tom Malinowski NJ-07, Chris Pappas NH-01, Elissa Slotkin MI-08, Andy Kim NJ -03, and Kim Schrier WA-08) with TWO races still too close to call. Our team’s insights and actions lead to the pick-up of WA-10 where Marilyn Strickland won with 58% of the vote.
Our strategic insights and advice helped our clients fight and win in tough primaries and in general elections across the country. But polling was just one of the tools in our winning toolkit. GQR Digital, alongside a broad coalition of the industry’s top research and investigative partners, led a first-of-its-kind effort to educate and advise the entire Democratic and Progressive advocacy ecosystem on strategies to counter disinformation. Our work included full-time social listening and threat monitoring, executing strong digital and field programs, smarter “rapid response” communication and extensive education for more than 4,000 people working with campaigns and advocacy organizations.
GQR Digital partnered with the Democratic National Committee, DSCC and DCCC to counter online attacks and execute effective offensive campaign strategy to inoculate against their impact. Together, the team advised more than 150 Democratic campaigns up and down the ballot, including successful Senate battlegrounds and 100+ Congressional campaigns. GQR Digital and our research partners also advised more than 135 progressive organizations across the country including Fair Fight, Common Cause, Ultraviolet, NEA, Emily’s List, Planned Parenthood, NAACP, EquisLabs, dozens of state specific election efforts, and many more in partnership with the Strategic Victory Fund.
GQR partnered with SEIU to surpass the 60% needed in the Sunshine State to pass Florida Amendment 2: Raise Minimum Wage. We are proud of our friends in the Labor Movement who are out there every day standing up for hard-working people.
We worked to pass two ballot measures in Detroit & Wayne County; Prop N which will rehab homes in Detroit and the Wayne County RESA Renewal which will continue funding for public education.
We worked with state legislative caucuses to pick up 2 seats in the Washington State House, 1 seat in the Minnesota State Senate and 2 seats in the Connecticut State House, solidifying their supermajority this cycle. We look forward to continuing our work state legislatures across the country as they continue to grow stronger.
While many races across the country are still waiting to be called, one thing is for certain: GQR continues to lead in messaging, campaign strategy and digital innovation. Congratulations to all of our candidates for running hard-fought campaigns.
The work is not over; we look forward to working with our partners over the next two months to deliver TWO US Senate seats from Georgia.