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Biden’s Pollster Bares All

joe biden
Photo: Oliver Douliery/Getty Images
Tara Palmeri
September 5, 2022

John Anzalone, one of the top pollsters for frontline Democrats, is one of the most influential insiders in town: he was Joe Biden’s chief pollster on the 2020 campaign, and polls for both the Democratic National Committee and Build Back Together, the vehicle that promotes the president’s policies. This cycle, Anzalone is working on the reelection campaigns for Governors Gretchen Whitmer, in Michigan, and Steve Sisolak, in Nevada, as well as Rep. Dina Titus, also in Nevada. His firm Impact Research polls for the Senate campaigns of Tim Ryan in Ohio and Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin, among others. He has also conducted polls for Southern Democrats like North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards. So he has his finger on the pulse of the electorate, and understands the issues underlying the recent political wind-shift. 

In our recent 30-minute conversation, he said I’d “exhausted” him with questions about Biden’s future and the left’s chances in 2022 and beyond. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.