Whit Ayres spoke about client Marco Rubio at The Monitor Breakfast this morning: “Marco Rubio is the Michael Jordan of American politics,” Ayres said on Tuesday, comparing the 43-year-old Florida senator to the basketball prodigy’s celebrated run in the 1980s at the University of North Carolina. “Anyone underestimates his ability at their peril….He’s substantive, he’s talented and I...
Whit Ayres spoke at today’s Christian Science Monitor Sperling breakfast: While a majority of Americans support gay marriage, nearly three-quarters of Republicans do not, according to Gallup. That’s not true for young Republicans, however. More than 60 percent of Republican voters under 30 do support gay marriage, said Ayers, the founder and president of North...
Whit Ayres was cited in the New York Times regarding the 2016 presidential contest and the need to appeal to Hispanic voters: Mr. Bush’s calculus is based in part on the 2012 election: Mitt Romney received 17 percent of the nonwhite vote, meaning that if the next Republican nominee does no better, he or she will...
Dan Judy’s comments in The Hill on the importance of likability in the presidential contest: “Part of [Ted Cruz’] problem is not being likable to voters, but another part of it is not being likable enough to the people [within the party establishment] whose help you need to get a campaign off the ground,” said GOP...
Whit Ayres’ comment in The Washington Post regarding the Republican presidential nomination contest and factions: Whit Ayres, a pollster who advises Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), has a rule about his party’s nomination contests: “No one faction is large enough to nominate its favorite candidate,” he says. “Whoever is nominated will be rooted in one of...
Whit Ayres’ comments in the Atlanta Journal-Constititution regarding opinion on “income inequality”: Veteran Republican pollster Whit Ayres has tested extensively whether Americans respond more to cries to do something about income inequality or to increase middle class opportunity. The latter is a key part of the platform of Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, whose nascent presidential...
From Whit Ayres’ op-ed in the WSJ on March 4: Republicans stand a slim chance of winning the presidency in 2016—unless they nominate a transformational candidate who can dramatically broaden the GOP’s appeal. That assertion may seem incongruous in light of stunning Republican triumphs in the past two midterm elections. But success in 2014 no...
Whit Ayres was interviewed by Forbes to discuss his new book 2016 and Beyond: How Republicans Can Elect a President in the New America: In a new book, 2016 and Beyond: How Republicans Can Elect a President in the New America, veteran GOP pollster Whit Ayres argues that given demographic trends, Republicans need to attract more minority...
Whit Ayres’ recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece, “A Daunting Demographic Challenge for the GOP in 2016,” was quoted in the Dallas Morning News: At the same time, Hillary Clinton seems likely to benefit from the country’s continuing demographic diversification, which prominent Republican analyst Whit Ayres said recently poses a big barrier toward a GOP victory...
