The survey research firm of Public Opinion Strategies (POS) polled for three of the eight candidates who took away Democratic Senate seats (so far), four Governors, and nine new Members of Congress. Including independent expenditure efforts, Public Opinion Strategies polled in 16 Senate and Gubernatorial statewide victories and 53 Congressional victories, including 19 seats wrestled away from Democrats by Republicans.
Major statewide winners were:
- Senators-elect Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.
- Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas.
- Governor-elect Doug Ducey of Arizona.
- Governors Robert Bentley of Alabama, Paul LePage of Maine, Susana Martinez of New Mexico, and Dennis Daugaard of South Dakota.
Including doing polling for SuperPACs in the Senate races in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, and Kentucky, Public Opinion Strategies did polling in every GOP Senate pick-up and key hold except for Montana.
POS handled the polling for nine new Republican Members of Congress, including Rick Allen (GA 12), John Moolenaar (MI 4), Mike Bishop (MI 8), Bruce Poliquin (ME 2), Tom Emmer (MN 6), John Katko (NY 24), David Rouzer (NC 7), Will Hurd (TX 23), and Alex Mooney (WV 2). Hurd is one of the two new African American Republican members of Congress, and Rouzer won a seat not held by Republicans since 1871.
In SuperPAC work, the firm polled in Congressional races for efforts that helped elect ten additional new Republican Members of Congress, including in AZ 2, CA 7, CA 52, FL 26, IA 1, IL 12, NJ 3, NY 1, PA 6, and WV 3.
POS now polls for 13 U.S. Senators, five Governors, and 74 members of the House of Representatives.
The firm also polled the GOP takeover of the New Mexico State House for the first time since 1952, for the takeover of the Colorado State Senate, and for a group that worked for the takeover of GOP control of the Minnesota State House. POS also polled for successful legislative campaigns in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky,* Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.
*A Senate minority leader in Kentucky did lose last night, but it was the Democratic minority leader in the state Senate, NOT the now Republican majority leader in the U.S. Senate.
The firm also conducted the opinion research which guided successful ballot issues in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, South Dakota, and Tennessee.
