Introduction

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Whit Ayres, founder and president of North Star Opinion Research, has been a leading GOP pollster for more than 30 years. First a high school teacher then an academic, he cut his political teeth as state Budget Director for South Carolina Governor Carroll Campbell. As a pollster, upset Senate victories for Georgia Senator Paul Coverdell in 1992 and Tennessee Senator Bill Frist in 1994 put Whit and his firm on the map. And since then he's worked for some of the biggest names in GOP politics: Strom Thurmond, Lamar Alexander, Marco Rubio, Bob Corker, Lindsey Graham, Ron DeSantis, among others. In this conversation, Whit talks his path to politics, favorite campaign stories, most famous clients, best polling practices, thoughts on the trajectory of the GOP and much more.


IN THIS EPISODE

Whit's interest in politics sparks in an Ames, Iowa high school classroom...

The "searing experience" that influenced him in 1970s Berlin...

What Whit learned teaching 8th grade public school for three years...

Whit's gets his start in politics working for future South Carolina Governor Carroll Campbell...

How a vetoed pay raise encouraged Whit to take up political polling...

Whit's first big client, Paul Coverdell, wins an upset Georgia Senate race in 1992...

Whit's role in Lamar Alexander's insurgent 1996 GOP Presidential Primary campaign...

Whit helps re-elect South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond at age 94 to his last term in the Senate...

Whit polls for Marco Rubio's underdog first US Senate race in 2010 over Florida Governor Charlie Crist...

Whit talks his role working for Ron DeSantis in 2018...and his take on the DeSantis 2024 presidential...

Whit remembers the 1994 Bill Frist upset Senate win in Tennessee...

Whit's take on the evolution of the GOP over the last decade...

Whit on what makes for an effective pollster...

Whit talks his time as active airplane pilot...

AND academic towns, ballistic donors, Bob Barr, the Bernoulli Principle, bionic men, Brexit, Pat Buchanan, William Jennings Bryan, Checkpoint Charlie, Chris Christie, Bill Clinton, commuting marriages, Bob Corker, Steph Curry, Davidson College, Bob Dole, Mr. Enquist, flaming underdogs, Wyche Fowler, Cheryl Glenn, hail fellow well mets, Alex Haley, Nikki Haley, Tom Ingram, Dan Judy, Ted Kennedy, Rush Limbaugh, Huey Long, Dick Lugar, mainframe computers, Jon McHenry, Mike Murphy, Barack Obama, plaid work shirts, Adam Putnam, Dick Riley, Ronald Reagan, Jim Sasser, Floyd Spence, the Tea Party, totalitarian regimes, Donald Trump, two scrubs, Vanderbilt Hospital, George Wallace, Susie Wiles, Joe Wilson, & more!