Ranked number one on the Pollster Ratings, Suffolk University’s Political Research Center is committed to accurate, unbiased polling that gives a window into the political atmosphere of different places across the world.
The center’s 11-year partnership with news organization USA Today allows the center to creatively approach different aspects of political polling while reaching a national audience.
David Paleologos, the director of Suffolk’s Political Research Center, said the process of gaining such a reputation and influence was well worth the hard work over the past decade.
“Now we’re actually having fun. We’re doing polling that’s different and unique, and we’re getting attention on top of it, which isn’t our goal,” Paleologos said.
Political polling is one of the main ways reporters, politicians and everyday citizens learn about how the general public is feeling in terms of policies, candidates and other factors facing their communities.
“It’s a snapshot in time about where the voting public is at a given moment, it’s also useful in the sense that you understand what issues and what policies are important,” said Paleologos.
Emily Dempsey, a graduate student in the applied politics program, said that polling can reveal important information, serving a significant role in the political process.
“It really is able to provide a window into what people feel about certain issues,” Dempsey said. “I think that it’s a really good gage in understanding how a specific community thinks, how your community thinks and it gives you, I mean, at least for me, when I’m reading a poll, it gives me ideas on what topics to research, how I can become more informed, what issues are important, how to kind of stay up to date on different events that are happening.”
Suffolk’s Political Research Center has been able to look critically at different areas and communities that will influence the 2024 presidential election. The center conducted a poll of Black voters in Pennsylvania and Michigan Aug. 19. It found that Vice President Kamala Harris leads former President Donald Trump in both states.
Paleologos said that in Pennsylvania, Black voters make up 12% of likely voters in the state. So, when conducting a state-wide poll, if you were to poll 1,000 people, only 120 of those would be Black voters and this doesn’t proportionally convey how Black voters are feeling.
“What Suffolk decided to say was ‘That’s really dangerous, we’re going to do only Black voters, only Black voters in Michigan and in Pennsylvania,’” Paleologos said. “That piece of research in 2024 continues to be referred to by every major newspaper – Washington Post, the LA Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, you name it – because they know that that research is better and has a lower margin of error, and it focuses on the Black voters.”
Because of the unique ways Suffolk is approaching political polling, they are a respected center for students who are looking for internships and jobs after graduating.
Ava Cabana, a senior political science major with a concentration in American politics, said that because of her involvement with Paleologos and the Research Center, she was able to get an internship as a government affairs associate.
“The influence of the Suffolk Research Center is really big, especially when I was applying to jobs,” Cabana said. “The first thing I noticed is [that] we leave here [and it’s a] really high ranked place, it’s really respected. David is a really respected person.”
Cabana also said that the Center’s influence goes beyond just her career experiences.
“I didn’t have confidence before I went to the Suffolk Research Center. Before that, I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to go into politics, because women in politics, even in 2024, are really undermined. So I was kind of apprehensive. But [Paleologos] kind of pushed me forward to do it.”
Dempsey said that after taking the Political Survey Research class, she applied to intern for the Research Center this past summer. With so many events that shaped the election occurring – the first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the Democratic nominee change to Vice President Kamala Harris and the assassination attempt against Trump – Dempsey was able to see how voters’ opinions changed and adapted throughout it all.
“I think it was so cool to be able to experience these major visceral events that just so happened right when I was in this internship, and really work on it and take these major news stories and kind of help guide the process through every step,” Dempsey said.
Paleologos said students who excel in his polling class are guaranteed a job after graduation. One of the reasons Paleologos says this with such confidence is because at Suffolk, students who are really involved in a particular poll will have their names on the statement of methodology, something most other universities don’t do.
“Other universities don’t do that because their theory is the students don’t have their degrees, they’re not bona fide researchers,” he said. “They don’t belong in the statement of methodology. But at Suffolk, we feel really strongly that we have enough confidence in our poll students that the work that they do is worthy of them being mentioned in the statement of methodology.”
Dempsey attributed the polling center’s successes to the staff and students who work to create and conduct the polls.
“I genuinely think it’s like the people who work there and how passionate everybody is about working in polling, it really creates an environment in which people are so committed to providing those best results, because it’s what the public and people deserve,” Dempsey said.
