Just the News, Scott Rasmussen partner on new polling venture

Just the News and independent pollster Scott Rasmussen announced Thursday a partnership to produce polling that measures sentiments on issues resonating with everyday Americans outside the Beltway.

The year-long partnership with Rasmussen’s RMG Research will provide Just the News readers a fresh daily poll each Monday through Friday from a sample of 1,200 registered voters reached by phone and online. The polling will provide insights about political and policy issues facing everyday Americans.

The first poll is set to debut next Monday.

Rasmussen said the partnership will help illuminate the difference between how voters perceive topics and the way they are discussed in official Washington.

“I'm very excited to be working with JustTheNews.com,” Rasmussen said. “When it comes to issues, we will always strive to avoid using inside-the-beltway terminology and ask questions in a language that makes sense to everyday Americans.”

John Solomon, the CEO and Editor in Chief of Just the News, said the collaboration is a natural extension of the one-month-old news venture’s commitment to cover Washington for those who live outside it.

"Scott Rasmussen has long been one of the country's most influential pollsters, able to spot and keenly analyze trends in real America long before others,” Solomon said. “We are thrilled he is partnering with us on this project to measure American sentiments about the issues that matter on a daily basis.”

A best-selling author, co-founder of ESPN and Rasmussen Reports (which Rasmussen departed from in 2013), Rasmussen currently serves as editor-at-large for Ballotpedia.  He also runs his own Web site ScottRasmussen.com.

Rasmussen said the current polling industry does a “great job” on elections and fundamental measures of the political environment, yet the analysis and reporting of these factors, including during the 2016 presidential election, is lacking.

“The built-in belief that Trump couldn't win caused many pundits to ignore the real possibility of an Electoral College upset. So our challenge will be to look carefully at what the data is telling us,” Rasmussen said. “Many people believe the polls were wrong in 2016, but that's not the case. 

“The Real Clear Politics polling average showed Clinton winning the popular vote by 3 points and she won by 2. The state polling was also better than is commonly believed. Two of the biggest surprises on election night were Pennsylvania and Michigan. The Real Clear Average showed those races within the margin of error and the last poll in each showed Trump ahead. Wisconsin was the only state with a true public polling miss.”

Innovation has been a hallmark of Rasmussen's career. In 1978, the then-new technology of satellite communications dramatically reduced the cost of sending a broadcast signal around the nation. Building upon that opportunity, Rasmussen and his father, Bill, founded ESPN, the cable sports network.

In the 1990s, the birth of the Internet provided the unique opportunity to capitalize on another ground-breaking technology. Rasmussen launched his first website in 1994 and became the first pollster to offer data directly to the public rather than filtered through a network reporter. 

It was also at this time that Rasmussen saw the potential for the concept of automated polling and ultimately revolutionized the polling industry. In just over a decade, Rasmussen's work attracted more Google searches than the long-established industry leader – Gallup.

His most recent book, “The Sun is Still Rising: Politics Has Failed But America Will Not,” was published in 2018 by the Sutherland Institute. 

The book explains Rasmussen’s optimism about our nation's future, despite his deep pessimism over our broken political system. Co-founder of No Labels, Mark McKinnon, said the book features "some of the freshest, most inspiring thinking I've read in years There's a light at the end of the tunnel, and Rasmussen has found it."