GD POLITICS Epstein Fallout, The Shutdown Fight, And Gallup's Goodbye
Feb 12, 2026
Lenny Bronner, Senior data scientist at The Washington Post, gives technical polling analysis. Mary Radcliffe, head of research at 50 Plus One, tracks approval and public-opinion trends. They discuss Gallup stopping presidential approval tracking and what that means for long-run comparisons. They debate polling and politics around DHS funding and the political fallout from the Epstein files.
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When AI Tries To Do Your Job
- Mary Radcliffe jokes that building AI tools to find polls means teams are trying to automate her job.
- She says that effort 'sucks' and implies humans still play a key role.
End Of Gallup Presidential Tracking
- Gallup will stop tracking presidential approval after 88 years, removing a long-running, directly comparable data series.
- Mary Radcliffe and Lenny Bronner say this loss weakens historical comparisons even though many pollsters still track approval.
Gallup's Strategic Shift To Global Research
- Gallup is refocusing on global research and methodological work rather than American political tracking.
- Mary argues this shift and business reasons make the presidential series less of a priority for Gallup.