Paul Harstad, JD
PAUL HARSTAD, CEO
Boulder, Colorado
Phone — 303-545-0200
E-mail — Paulh@Harstadresearch.com
Paul Harstad brings 38 years of experience in government, survey research, public affairs and campaign strategy.
THE BIG PICTURE AND OVERALL RECORD
Harstad Strategic Research has achieved probably the best win-loss record in November elections of any Democratic pollster in America, having won 52 out of 59 statewide general elections for U.S. senator, governor, initiatives and presidential Battleground states – all but a handful of them competitive. This includes winning 14 out of 17 races for U.S. senator and 15 of our last 16 statewide referenda campaigns.
WORKING WITH BARACK OBAMA FROM 2002 TO THE PRESENT
We have had the privilege of working with Barack Obama since 2002 when he was a little-known state senator (even in most of Illinois) through 2009 when he has probably become the most-recognized and most-admired person in the world.
- We have done survey research and consulting for Barack Obama every year since 2002 when as an little-known state legislator Obama entered a long shot Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Illinois – a 7-way primary in which Obama climbed from 6% to win with 53% of the vote in March 2004. This set the stage for his July 2004 speech to the Democratic convention that began to propel him into the hearts and minds of Americans.
- Harstad was one of the leading pollsters for Obama’s presidential campaign, from the exploratory surveys in 2006 to the pivotal Iowa caucus campaign throughout 2007 that gave Obama his breakthrough win in January 2008.
- In addition to doing some messaging and issue polling across the Battleground states in 2008, we conducted surveys in a total of 22 primary or general election states, including eight core Battleground states in the Industrial Belt and Midwest.
- We were proud to be part of the team that helped win 7 out of 8 core Battleground states: Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota (plus Omaha) – losing only in Missouri by about 1/1000th of 1%.
- Now Barack Obama has become the first minority elected President and two of our other clients have joined his Cabinet: Ken Salazar as U.S. Interior Secretary and Tom Vilsack as U.S. Agriculture Secretary.
Paul Harstad with U.S. Senators
Ken Salazar and Barack Obama
(January 2005)
OUR RECORD OF WINNING IN RED STATES & TOUGH ELECTION YEARS
Unlike most Democratic polling firms based in the DC Beltway, Harstad Research is based in Boulder, Colorado, where the firm built a clientele of six Democratic U.S. senators (Obama, Salazar of Colorado, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, and Mark Udall of Colorado). While having worked in Washington, DC, Harstad was raised in the Midwest and since DC has lived in Colorado for 15 years.
We continue to expand upon a remarkable pattern of stand-out victories in nearly every election cycle. This winning record is not achieved by accident, but instead through listening to clients, hard work, creative survey design, strict survey methodology, thoughtful analysis, strategic insight, and ongoing guidance throughout the campaign.
It is easy to win elections in heavy-Democratic years, but we win tough races in Republican years like:
- 1984 (Tom Harkin beating a Republican Senator in Iowa while Reagan swept 49 states),
- 1994 (winning three tough Texas congressional seats while Republicans swept Congress and the governorship),
- 1996 (a tough upset of a Republican Texas congressman in a December special election),
- 1998 (coming from 14% behind to help Tom Vilsack win Iowa’s governorship by 5% — the first time for a Democrat in 32 years),
- 2002 (helping Vilsack climb from an 8% deficit to a 7% victory to become the nation’s only Democratic governor re-elected to a full-term that year),
- 2004 (winning the only two Democrats out of 10 newly-elected U.S. Senators: Ken Salazar and Barack Obama).
It can be easy to win elections in Blue States, but we win close races (typically with 51%) in Red States such as in:
- Missouri (helping Claire McCaskill beat an incumbent GOP senator in 2006),
- Texas (winning 14 out of 15 congressional races),
- Colorado (helping Ken Salazar be the only senator out of 10 new senators buck his state’s presidential preference in 2004 – and also pick up a Republican seat),
- Indiana and Ohio (where Democrats had not won their Electoral College votes since 1964 and 1996 respectively).
In fact, five of our six U.S. senators took over seats held by Republicans, including two who defeated the GOP incumbents.
AN IMPRESSIVE RECORD IN BALLOT MEASURES & OTHER LEADING CLIENTS
Few if any polling firms in the nation can match our record of having won 14 of our last 15 statewide referenda campaigns. Our work on referenda has focused on protecting and increasing funding for public education, as well as promoting renewable energy, funding tobacco prevention programs, and increasing tobacco taxes.
A few of our other clients include Stanford University, the National Education Association, the American Cancer Society, Environmental Defense Fund, Tobacco-Free Kids, the Trust for Public Lands, the League of Conservation Voters, and a variety of foundations.
Paul Harstad has a law degree from Georgetown University, earned while working full-time in the U.S. Senate. He is admitted to the DC bar but chose to both bypass law practice and leave DC in favor of politics, raising his two children and his office overlooking a lake just north of Boulder, Colorado.
