On July 6th, a Twitter user named @we_want_gore asked the Democratic-leaning pollster Public Policy Polling to do a poll of the 2020 Alaska senate race. Despite being a solidly red state, Alaska has been known to occasionally elect Democrats and Independents on a statewide level (like Democrat Mark Begich’s election to the senate in 2008 or Independent Bill Walker’s election to the governorship in 2014). This year incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan is seeing a challenge from Independent and lifelong Alaska fisherman Al Gross. Al is the son of Avrum Gross, who served as Alaska’s attorney general from 1974 to 1980 as a Democrat. Although he is not running under the Democratic label, Al Gross is seeing a lot of support from traditionally Democratic voters and vows to end Mitch McConnell's career as senate majority leader. His candidacy is taken seriously, with election handicappers such as Cook, The Crystal Ball and Politico all rating the election as only “likely-Republican” instead of the normal “safe-GOP” label.
Although Sullivan is seen as the favorite, there is a growing consensus that this could be a sleeper race which decides control of the senate in 2020. As such, the demand for a poll for Alaska’s senate race is in high demand among Twitter’s most avid political junkies. Last night PPP polls made Election Twitter an offer: raise $5,000 for the firm and they would do a poll for Alaska. Before the night was out, hundreds of Twitter users had contributed more than that amount to a “Go-Fund-Me” posted by twitter user Jack Vaughan to secure the funds necessary to poll Alaska. In response, PPP said that in addition to polling the Senate, Presidential and at-large house race in Alaska that they would waive their fee if the $5,000 was donated to charity.
This act of compassion on behalf of Public Policy Polling inspired election junkies to raise an additional $3,000 dollars to poll an additional race. As of today, #ElectionTwitter is still deciding on what state should be polled second. In the meantime, the movement was such a success that some are saying that this crowdsourcing effort should become a regular occurrence in the weeks leading up to the general elections. What races should be polled? Many believe that Democrats have an outside shot at winning Kansas’s senate seat. They also believe Democrats have a solid chance at flipping Montana with the help of Incumbent Democratic Governor Steve Bullock, who plans to unseat Republican senator Steve Daines in November. But with hundreds of races at multiple levels, the possibilities are endless.
Polling is crucial to political strategy. Results help parties determine which races are up for grabs and which aren’t worth fighting for. Just as important, a good polling result can encourage donors to contribute to strong candidates who would otherwise be overlooked if not for strong indications that they could win. Although the Go-Fund-Me movement saw large bipartisan support, some are hoping that this movement could help Democrats target competitive races which would otherwise be seen as unwinnable.
You can find to Go-Fund-Me at this url: www.gofundme.com/… I will post updates should we continue our efforts to raise money for quality polling. Although Public Polling Policy is a Democratic-leaning pollster, they are rated a solid “B” by Nate Silver’s website 538 and was one of the most accurate pollsters of the 2012 season.
Would you be interested in providing monetary support to this cause? Feel free to comment down below!