For-profit

Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research (GQRR)

Website:

www.gqrr.com/

Location:

Washington, DC

Formation:

1980

Type:

Polling Firm

Partners:

Anna Greenberg, Al Quinlan, Jeremy Rosner and Elizabeth Sena

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Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research (GQRR) is a Democratic polling firm established by Stanley Greenberg in 1980. The firm has worked for numerous top Democratic campaigns, including Bill Clinton’s successful presidential campaign in 1992. It was instrumental in pushing a more centrist brand of Democrats in the 1990s.

Background

Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research is a liberal polling and consulting firm that has operated for four decades. The firm focuses on public opinion research and data for mostly Democratic candidates in the United States, but also works to elect left-leaning candidates abroad. It works in 90 countries on six continents providing polling, focus groups, communications and digital strategies and data analytics for candidates and private corporations. 1

Pollster Stanley Greenberg, a former Yale political science professor, founded the firm in 1980. His 1985 study on “Reagan Democrats” in Macomb County, Michigan was pushed by moderate Democrats in the late 1980s and early 1990s to reform the party. Greenberg worked as the pollster and strategist for Bill Clinton’s “New Democrat” presidential campaign in 1992. 1

Greenberg later passed on ownership of the company to his daughter Anna Greenberg and partners Al Quinlan, Jeremy Rosner and Elizabeth Sena. 1

Political Clients

The firm’s website claims, “No polling and strategy firm has succeeded in more races and issue campaigns than GQR.” It adds, “Our victories include a ‘who’s who’ of diverse progressive champions, including 8 current US Senators, over a dozen House members, 3 Democratic governors, and the current mayors of New York, Seattle, Philadelphia and Detroit.” 2

The firm says it provided strategy and public opinion research for nine of the 2018 campaigns that helped flip the House of Representatives back to the Democrats, the most of any single firm. Four of those seats were ranked as “safe Republican.” 2

GQRR, along with Gerstein Bocian Agne Strategies, served as the research arm of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the 2018 House campaigns. 3

The firm specifically cites a handful of significant high profile wins: U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D), and the left-progressive New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D); GQRR claims their elections as victories that at one point pundits deemed unlikely. 4

Other campaigns the firm has worked on include the gubernatorial campaigns of Ned Lamont (D-CT), Ed Rendell (D-PA), and Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM); Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D); and numerous state Democratic committees. GQRR has also worked for numerous losing campaigns, including the presidential campaigns of former Vice Presidents Al Gore and Walter Mondale. 5

On the international front, GQRR also worked for Nelson Mandela’s victorious presidential campaign in 1994 in South Africa, worked for Tony Blair’s three successful campaigns for British prime minister, Ehud Barak’s successful campaign for prime minister of Israel, and for former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. It has also worked for former Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes, former Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, and former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. 4

Nonprofit Clients

GQRR has worked closely with Democracy Corps, a liberal lobbying and advocacy group that promotes liberal policies that Greenberg founded with Clinton campaign alum James Carville in 1999. GQRR and Democracy Corps are transparent about their working relationship; Greenberg’s nonprofit has paid about $849,000 to his for profit. 6

Nonprofit advocacy groups that were clients of the firm include the AARP, the American Civil Liberties Union, the George Soros-backed Open Society Foundations, EMILY’s List, Human Rights Campaign, the Joyce Foundation, Mother Jones, MoveOn.org, NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Association of Realtors, Oceana, Pew Charitable Trusts, Planned Parenthood, Service Employees International Union, Sierra Club, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Third Way, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press. 5

Corporate Clients

The firm expanded beyond polling and public opinion research to conduct communications, manage digital and social media, consult on corporate branding, and perform data analytics. 4

Notable corporate clients include Blue Cross Blue Shield, United HealthCare, Allstate, Charles Schwab, Commerce Bank, Cisco, CNBC, Comedy Central, ESPN, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Time Warner Cable, Univision, Verizon, BP, Boeing, General Motors, United Airlines, and Coca-Cola. 5

Leadership

Anna Greenberg, the Stan Greenberg’s daughter, has more than 20 years’ experience in polling. She joined the firm in 2001 after teaching at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Greenberg won the U.S. Pollster of the Year award from the American Association of Political Consultants in 2014 for her work on New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s campaign in 2013. 7

Al Quinlan has provided strategic campaign advice to U.S. Sens. Tina Smith (D-MN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Gary Peters (D-MI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Tom Udall (D-NM). 8

Jeremy Rosner has been heavily involved in international political campaigns, including in Australia, Ukraine, Britain, Israel, Italy, Slovakia, Mexico, and Poland. Before joining the firm, he was a special advisor to President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeline Albright on the Clinton administration’s effort to add Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic to NATO. Before that, he served as the counselor and senior director for legislative affairs on the staff of the National Security Council. He also served as President Clinton’s chief foreign policy speech writer. 9

Elizabeth Sena is a partner and the managing director for GQRR Canada. She conducts online studies for left-progressive groups and academic institutions. While working for the firm, she has worked for the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union, as well as left-of-center groups based in Florida, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Michigan, Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia. 10

References

  1. History. GQRR. Accessed September 10, 2019. https://www.gqrr.com/about-us/
  2. U.S. Political Campaigns. Accessed September 10, 2019. https://www.gqrr.com/polling-and-strategy-for-domestic-campaigns/
  3. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Accessed September 10, 2019.  https://www.gqrr.com/case-study/sample-case-study-1-copy-5/
  4. Our Approach. Accessed September 10, 2019. https://www.gqrr.com/our-approach/
  5. Clients. September 10, 2019. https://www.gqrr.com/clients/
  6. Ludwig, Hayden. “Is the Democracy Corps Stanley Greenberg’s Pass-Through… For Himself?” Capital Research Center. Capital Research Center, November 9, 2017. https://capitalresearch.org/article/is-the-democracy-corps-stanley-greenbergs-pass-through-for-himself/.
  7. Anna Greenberg. Accessed September 10, 2019. https://www.gqrr.com/team/anna-greenberg/
  8. Al Quinlan. Accessed September 10, 2019. https://www.gqrr.com/team/al-quinlan/
  9. Jeremy Rosner. Accessed September 10, 2019. https://www.gqrr.com/team
  10. [1] Elizabeth Sena. Accessed September 10, 2019.  https://www.gqrr.com/team/elizabeth-sena/
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Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research (GQRR)


Washington, DC