David Walker

Senior Vice President

David Walker headshot

David Walker advises issue campaigns and domestic political campaigns for GQR and 2018 marked his 30th year as a public opinion researcher.  Walker has helped elect some of the leading Democrats of our time, including Governor’s Mark Dayton and Tom Wolf, Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.  Walker has also fought for equality issues with the Human Rights Campaign, helped lead the firm’s efforts to modernize the nation’s marijuana laws, advocated gun violence prevention with Giffords (formerly Americans for Responsible Solutions) and other state groups and leads the firm’s work for the Small Business Majority.  In 2018, Walker worked with the DCCC independent expenditure campaign to help win Democratic control of the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Walker began his career as a junior analyst at Cooper & Secrest Associates, a national political polling firm, and quickly worked up to the top staff position in that firm. Key wins include Governor of Nebraska Ben Nelson, 1990 gubernatorial challenger winner, Georgia’s Zell Miller, open-seat gubernatorial winner in 1990, incumbent winner in 1994, Alabama’s Don Siegelman, gubernatorial challenger winner, 1994, North Carolina’s Mike Easley, gubernatorial open-seat winner, 2000 and Tom Suozzi, Nassau County Executive open-seat winner, 2001. 

In 1998, he was named a Rising Political Star by Campaigns and Elections magazine and has been published in a variety of public opinion and trade journals, including Campaigns & Elections magazine, Polling Report and Bill Shipp’s Georgia. David Walker also provided election night coverage for national cable station in 1994.

David Walker graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in history.