Harper Polling

Harper Polling is an American polling and media company.

Overview

The organization was founded after the 2012 presidential election, with the goal of giving Republicans high-volume, inexpensive "robo-polling."

The firm plans to do this by using Interactive Voice Response (IVR), that is, automated survey techniques, in combination with live caller polls. ^[1]

The organization was founded by Brock McCleary, who had served as the polling director of the NRCC in the 2012 cycle.^[2]

The organization was founded with the goal of emulating PPP, a left-leaning polling organization.^[3]

Harper Polling has received some backlash for not being able to call cellphones.^[4] But McCleary remains confident in the results he can achieve through IVR polling. Because of the relatively low costs of conducting an automated poll, McCleary says he can use larger sample sizes than live-caller polls, particularly in individual House districts.” ^[5]

The firm is named after McCleary’s young daughter. ^[6]

Polling topics

Harper Polling correctly polled the 2013 Senate special election in Massachusetts. Harper predicted the outcome of the New Jersey Senate special election to the exact margin of 11%. ^[7]

Harper has also polled the 2014 Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor race and the 2014 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election.^[8][9] Harper was the only Pennsylvania pollster to predict the size of Tom Wolf's landslide Democratic primary victory for Governor. ^[10]

In addition to polling elections, Harper Polling also polls for issues. Harper Polling partnered with PPP to conduct polling across 29 states to test support for the Gang of Eight's immigration reform bill.^[11] Harper also collaborated with PPP to conduct a bipartisan poll for Politico which gauged the impact of the government shutdown on the Virginia governor’s race. ^[12]

Harper has conducted Pennsylvania statewide surveys including such topics as football teams and convenience stores. ^{[13] [14]} The latter developed into a New York Times Sunday edition article. ^[15]

The firm has done polls on behalf of campaigns as well as political action committees, including American Action Network, <^[16]> Partnership for a New American Economy, <^[17]> the National Republican Congressional Committee, <^[18]> and American Crossroads. <^[19]>

Methodology

Harper Polling utilizes both Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and live operator survey methodologies. <^[20]>

The firm also offers mixed-mode or hybrid sampling, wherein “cell phone interviews are conducted “exclusively through the use of live operators and land line interviews are conducted using the IVR automated system.” <^[21]>

President

Brock McCleary is the founder and President of Harper Polling. He was the polling director and deputy executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee during the 2012 cycle. ^[22]

“After college, during which he was elected chairman of the Pennsylvania College Republicans, he spent a year and a half with the Republican consulting firm Revolution Agency, where he focused on challenging the party’s status quo with outsider candidates…After a stint as communications director for Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), McCleary joined the NRCC in late 2009.” ^[23]

McCleary was the Northeast political director for the NRCC during the 2010 election cycle, during which the states he oversaw gained fourteen new Republican representatives in the United States House of Representatives. ^[24]

Republican strategist Brad Todd, a top NRCC consultant at the media and polling firm OnMessage Inc., said “Brock has the expertise and the comfort with the details of House districts to bring something totally new to the market.” ^[25]

McCleary attended Elizabethtown College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. ^[26]

References

External links

• Harper Polling website