What Are Voters Saying About Donald Trump And Kamala Harris? Expert Looks Beyond The Polls

By Jon Keller, CBS Boston

August 12, 2024

BOSTON – Polls are a snapshot in time, goes the cliché, good for fueling horse race analysis of elections but little else. That's why a political expert is using a different way to find out what are people saying about former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of November's election?

Boston market research expert Diane Hessan had an idea better than polling for gauging public opinion about the 2016 presidential race. She set up a demographically-diverse online panel of 500-plus voters and checked in with them every week by email and, sometimes, by phone, winning their trust and sampling their opinions over a long period of time.

Her work yielded dozens of columns in the Boston Globe and a 2021 book "Our Common Ground: Insights from Four Years of Listening to American Voters." And while she thought she was through with the survey, Hessan recently restarted it to get a handle on the wild 2024 presidential contest.

Click here for the full story via CBS Boston

CBS Local Digital Media personalizes the global reach of CBS-owned and operated television and radio stations with a local perspective.