Welcome to The Higher Ground Lab Report a (new) monthly newsletter bringing political data & tech insights to life.
— Higher Ground Labs start-ups have collectively powered over 6,000 Democratic campaigns and causes, including every 2020 Democratic Presidential campaign.
–We’ll help you visualize and understand what our powerful new tech is uncovering and changing.
Hope you enjoy & thanks for reading!
By: Teddy Gold & Team HGL
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Despite Intense Focus on Impeachment, Democratic Voters Still Favor Healthcare as Their Most Motivating Issue
Impeachment will command obsessive media attention but is still far from the most important issue for Democratic voters. Likely American voters ranked healthcare as more important than impeachment by more than 2:1.
PredictWise polling relies on ‘random device engagement‘, a technique that randomly targets cell-phone identifiers with in-app surveys. This cutting edge approach to data collection feeds PredictWise’s Audience Technology which is able to curate tailored audiences for any campaign or creative within minutes.
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Words That Trigger Trump? ‘God’,‘God Bless America’ & ‘Thank You’
Factba.se is an HGL company that uses artificial intelligence to find ‘stress blips’ in a person’s speech. The more words available in the database, the more accurate the findings. Factba.se has analyzed every word that Trump has ever uttered publicly to uncover some (unsurprising?) findings.
Trump exhibits verbal agitation when blessing his country, talking about God and saying… thank you. Finally, a God-Fearing Republican.
Read More >
The Science of Verbal Stress>
Elizabeth Warren is Closing the Perceived Electability Gap
In June, Democratic primary voters listed Warren as their most desirable candidate but ranked her as far less electable. By October, Warren improved her standing to be seen as the most desirable candidate AND most electable candidate in the entire primary field.
Avalanche Strategy listens deeply to limitless voters in their own words. In this study, Avalanche fielded a listening survey to 1,041 registered Democratic voters to understand how the concept of electability is influencing the beliefs and behavior of likely Democratic primary voters. This research builds on previously released electability research, published in June 2019, that was featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Vanity Fair.
Democrats are Alarmingly Vulnerable to Fake News
Republican fake-news talking points are working on Democrats, according to PredictWise, an HGL portfolio company that builds mobile-first targeting lists for political ad buys.
Democrats must invest in sticky, salient, counter-narratives to push back against the fake-news deluge that is quietly shaping opinions in both parties. For a new approach to fight fake news, check out Main Street One, an effort initially backed by DARPA to counter ISIL propaganda online.
