Although the vast majority of Millennial and Gen Z voters skew liberal, Biden's plan may have some crossover among younger voters who identify as moderate Republicans — according to recent polling conducted by Avalanche Insights, the voter organization Voto Latino and the student debt cancellation advocacy group Rise.

Although the vast majority of Millennial and Gen Z voters skew liberal, Biden's plan may have some crossover among younger voters who identify as moderate Republicans — according to recent polling conducted by Avalanche Insights, the voter organization Voto Latino and the student debt cancellation advocacy group Rise.

In research conducted this summer by ParentsTogether Action and Avalanche Insights, we heard loud and clear from parents and voters across the board about what families are feeling. They used words like "chaotic," "difficult," and "stressful" when describing the past year. More than three-quarters of voters told us that raising a family in America today is either "much harder" or "a little harder" than it was for their parents' generation, including 71 percent of parents currently raising children under 18, and 83 percent of parents who previously raised children.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Michiah Prull, founder of Avalanche Insights, to talk about setting up a company after the 2016 election.

“‘Trump’s reaction to the protests was not the only reason for his summer collapse. Most pollsters say that Trump’s continuing inability to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, and the economic havoc that’s come with it, has been the dominant factor. And last week, for the first time, polls began to show Biden beating Trump on the question of who would best handle the economy, the only decent card left in Trump’s deck. But if Trump loses in November, the nationwide protests against racism and police brutality that erupted in early June have to be seen as a significant breaking point.’”

"“There is a persistent belief that gender is a barrier to electability, even though people are choosing Warren,” said Michiah Prull, the CEO of Avalanche. “Gender being a barrier is a view held as much by Warren supporters as anyone else. But what we are really seeing in Warren’s rise is that people recognize that gender is a challenge, but people also think she is up for it, and that she can overcome this barrier. Democrats are worried about winning. And at the same time you have a bunch of people saying, ‘Let’s support a bold female candidate with bold progressive ideas, someone who presents optimistic views in the face of a dark view of the country.’”

"Democrats are obsessing over which candidate is most capable of beating Trump. But how voters gauge that is far more complicated than it may seem.

“The tension between Democrats’ urgency to beat Trump and their uncertainty that it will happen is why electability is driving the primary process,” writes Ryan Pougiales, a senior political analyst at Third Way, in a memo releasing the study. More than three-fifths of Democrats said they preferred a nominee with the best chance of beating Trump, even if they didn’t agree with him or her on most issues; only about one-fifth prioritized a candidate they agreed with most of the time."

"A recent Avalanche Strategy poll found Joe Biden in the lead, but when voters were asked to “imagine that they have a magic wand and can make any of the candidates president,” Elizabeth Warren narrowly became the top choice. Being a woman was the biggest barrier to electability, based on Avalanche’s analysis of the results, and women were more likely to cite gender as a factor than me.”

"New polling from Avalanche, a Democratic digital strategy firm, takes a novel approach to getting at the concept of electability. The poll asks voters two questions: your traditional horse-race question (“considering all the factors of the 2020 election … who would you vote for” today in the primary) and a “magic wand” question — “imagine you could choose any of the likely candidates and magically make them president. They don’t need to beat an opponent — you just get to wave a wand and it happens. Who would you choose?”

The biggest change comes from a precipitous drop for Biden from horse race to magic wand: 29 percent to 19 percent. Warren jumps from 16 percent to 21 percent. Sanders inches up from 17 percent to 19 percent...

"When it comes to perceived electability, the greatest messaging challenge for the campaigns of female candidates, like Sen. Warren, may not be convincing voters that a female candidate is more capable, but convincing voters that America is capable of electing a female candidate,” Michiah Prull the CEO of Avalanche, told Score."

"NARAL is shifting its strategy to embrace the term "reproductive freedom," which polls well with moderates and independents.

The changes are the result of new research the organization commissioned from Avalanche Strategy. According to their polling...72 percent of American voters support the right to [an abortion].

But Avalanche’s researchers pinpointed a specific subset of those supporters whom they call the “freedom first” segment, a group that is personally opposed to abortion, but believes in other people’s right to access it free from government intervention. That group made up 29 percent of respondents."

"Avalanche Strategy, a progressive research organization, released a survey in June that found 72 percent of Americans are opposed to regulating abortion. Twenty-nine percent are personally uncomfortable with abortion rights but prioritize freedom and are against government preventing people from choosing abortion care. Only 26 percent are both uncomfortable with abortion and want abortion care to be illegal.

The survey uses a mix of traditional close-ended polling questions and more open-ended that the company then analyzes. Tovah Paglaro, COO of Avalanche Strategy, described their approach as “human-in-the-loop.”...Paglaro told Rewire.News that the open-ended approach helped uncover what they call the “freedom first” group—voters who are uncomfortable with abortion but against government limiting the right."

"And yet Biden is cruising toward the nomination. Why?

Because of a collective decision among a significant portion of the Democratic electorate that he is “electable,” i.e., that other people will find him inoffensive enough to vote for. As Michelle Cottle noted, one poll last year asked Democrats who they were supporting, and Biden was in the lead; when they asked who they’d rather see as president if they could wave a magic wand, Warren was in front."

Last summer, a poll on perceived electability by Avalanche Strategies found that gender appeared to be a bigger issue than “age, race, ideology, or sexual orientation.” When voters were asked whom they’d pick if the primaries were held today, Mr. Biden came out ahead. When asked whom they would make president with the wave of a magic wand, without the candidate needing to win an election, voters went with Ms. Warren. Women were more likely than men to cite gender as a concern.

"According to a recent open-ended survey conducted by Avalanche Strategy and Change Research, voters across partisan lines feel that their right to participate in our democracy fairly is not being adequately protected...According to the study, only 2 percent of Americans say American elections work all of the time. It also found that fighting gerrymandering and corruption has bipartisan support, with 82 percent of Americans saying they are concerned with the corruption of the system, and believe gerrymandering is undemocratic and should be illegal.”

Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University and Scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics, Kelly Dittmar and the Director of Progressive Programming for Sirius XM, Zerlina Maxwell join Chris Jansing to discuss the factors at play behind the surge of women candidates in 2019 elections.

"Women need to be asked to run for office 7 times before they agree...[a] survey found women twice as likely as men to identify a role model as a reason to run. 60% cited friendship with another woman candidate or officeholder."

Run for Something Action Fund summarizes Avalanche Strategy's work to understand more about first- and second-time candidates: How did they decide to run? What was helpful for them, and just as important, what wasn’t?

"One of the most valuable things we can do whether it’s recruiting folks to run or helping them through the process: Build community between candidates and alumni."

Michiah Prull joins The Great Battlefield podcast to discuss his work as the CEO of Avalanche Strategy -- a political firm using psychographic listening to help clients deliver their messages in ways that resonate emotionally and win elections.