Off Year Questions with Ariel Edwards-Levy

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Jun 18, 2025

Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN's Editor of Polling and Election Analytics, brings over a decade of expertise in political reporting to the discussion. She reveals how polling acts as large-scale journalism, emphasizing the complexities behind question design and how partisan perspectives can distort public opinion. Exploring issues like AI and consumer behavior, she highlights how polls often fail to capture the nuances of democracy and voter discontent. Join Ariel as she navigates the evolving landscape of public sentiment and the true meaning behind survey results.

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ANECDOTE

Ariel's Accidental Path to Polling

Ariel Edwards-Levy entered political polling by accident in 2012 after a journalism internship.
She quickly grew to love polling as a unique form of large-scale journalism about public opinion.

INSIGHT

Public Opinion's Dynamic Nature

Public opinion is usually stable but can change noticeably during significant political events or societal shifts.
Issues like same-sex marriage and abortion illustrate major opinion shifts over time affected by political decisions.

ADVICE

Handle Hypotheticals with Caution

Avoid relying on hypothetical polling questions as people often cannot accurately predict their future opinions.
Ask questions at multiple detail levels to capture nuanced public sentiment and identify key influencing factors.

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After a brief break, Cross Tabs returns with a must-hear conversation between host Farrah Bostic and journalist-pollster Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN’s Editor of Polling and Election Analytics. Ariel shares insights from over a decade of political polling and reporting, shedding light on how polls get designed, interpreted, and communicated—and why public opinion is more nuanced, contradictory, and dynamic than we often assume.

📌 Topic Highlights

How polling serves as a form of large-scale journalism
Question design, framing effects, and the limits of hypothetical polling
Expressive responding and partisanship’s effect on perception
The challenge of polling on emerging topics like AI and crypto
Why polls often fail to capture what people mean when they talk about democracy, education, or trust in government
What polling reveals—and obscures—about voter discontent with both parties

👤 About Our Guest

Ariel Edwards-Levy is the Editor of Polling and Election Analytics at CNN. Previously, she was a senior reporter and polling editor at HuffPost. She is a member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research and was awarded the 2019 Carey McWilliams Award by the American Political Science Association for her journalistic contributions to understanding politics. You can follow her work (and jokes!) on Bluesky.

🔗 Mentioned Resources

CNN Polling Hub: https://www.cnn.com/politics/polling-center
CNN/SSRS polling report: "A record share of Americans want the government to get more done": https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/08/politics/poll-government-done-party-trust
The Breakthrough Project (CNN, Georgetown, Michigan, SSRS, Verasight): https://breakthrough.cnn.com
Pew Research on AI: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/28/how-the-us-public-and-experts-view-artificial-intelligence
Roper Center for Public Opinion Archives: https://ropercenter.cornell.edu
Brian Schaffner’s research on expressive responding: https://sites.tufts.edu/brianschaffner/publications/