Cygnal Pulse Podcast

Democrats lead the generic ballot by 9 with less than four weeks to go, but the bigger story is on the Republican side. In our last look before the midterm, Brent Buchanan and John Rogers break down the early October National Voter Trends poll: the Republican voters who think it’s already over, why gas prices now hurt the party in power, and why Chuck Schumer is the better closing villain. 

Brent’s takeaway: much of this is fixable.

Give Republican voters a reason to show up, a real answer on costs, and some daylight from Trump on Iran and tariffs. Full data at cygn.al.

Socialism is now favorable with a third of voters, but 61% of self-identified socialists can't define the word. Pollsters Brent Buchanan and Mitch Brown break down Cygnal's September National Voter Trends poll of 1,500 likely 2026 general-election voters: what's really driving socialist identity (it's housing, not age), why 88% of voters feel something negative about politics while only 25% feel anything positive, and how Democratic intensity hit a 32-month high just as Republican intensity hit a 32-month low. Plus, a look at the Voter Reachability Index our team used to measure whether paid communication can physically reach a voter, and why the swing voters campaigns need most are the hardest to reach.

A special mini episode with Brent Buchanan and Nick Weinstein breaking down how fast data centers went from a niche local issue to a national political fight. Awareness has spread widely without any change in how close voters actually live to one. A key takeaway: proximity builds support, not opposition. Voters nearest to real data centers are the most positive based on our data, while the erosion is happening among people with no direct experience to ground the fear against. Which means the fight is won or lost on trust built before the opposition organizes, not after. Want the full data behind it? Get exclusive access to The New Politics of Power deck here: https://www.cygn.al/new-politics-of-power-full/

The most populist voters in America are the least likely to vote. The most certain voters are the most Democratic. And a quarter of Trump's 2024 coalition is no longer locked in, though almost none of it went to the Democrats.

Those three findings come out of two new measures Cygnal is debuting this month, the Turnout Score and the Populism Index, built on our August National Voter Trends poll of 1,500 likely midterm voters. Together they explain more about how this midterm breaks than party ID does.

Brent Buchanan and Nick Weinstein walk through what each one found and what it means for a campaign trying to put a coalition back together. The topline: Democrats lead the generic ballot 49 to 42, but voter expectations swung 9 points toward Republicans in a single month and inflation is back on top of the issue agenda at 27 percent.

For Republicans the job is engagement, not conversion. Full data at cygn.al

In this episode, Brent Buchanan and Alex Tarascio break down Cygnal's latest national voter poll, which reveals that GLP-1 medications have become a mainstream part of the healthcare conversation. The data shows that more than one-third of likely voters are currently using, have used, or are considering GLP-1s, challenging the perception that these medications are only for affluent consumers or cosmetic weight loss. The discussion explores who is using GLP-1s, why they're using them, and what voters think about safety, Medicare coverage, and the future of access to these treatments.

Cygnal's July NVT poll (1,500 likely voters, fielded right after July 4th) shows Democrats up to D+6 on the generic ballot, but the real story is underneath. The GOP coalition is leaking, the persuadable middle is shrinking, and Congress is cratering across the board. The one figure trending up? Zohran Mamdani, rising with the same voters drifting from the GOP. Gas prices are hitting Republican turf hardest - men, rural, small-town, Trump '24 voters. But there's common ground too: 83% back the bipartisan housing bill, no subgroup below 70%. And despite it all, voters aren't checked out, they blame politicians, not the system, and still believe voting matters most.

Pollsters Brent Buchanan and John Rogers are back with Cygnal's June national survey — and while the horse race hasn't moved much, the mood has. Voters are feeling the economic squeeze, Dems have clawed back the inflation advantage, while the GOP still wins on security. Plus: what America's 250th reveals about the left-right divide on patriotism and where the real Republican opportunities are heading into November.

Special Mini Episode | Live from Pubkey DC

Four years in. Hundreds of honorees.One conversation to tell the story behind it. 

ARRO founder Chris Lane joins Brent Buchanan and Chris Kratzer live at Pubkey DC (right before the 2026 ARRO 30 Under Thirty Award Reception) to talk about how this initiative started, how it's grown, and where it's headed. Plus, personal advice for the next generation of political operatives.

The fundamentals are flashing red for Republicans — but it's not a blue wave yet. In this month's National Voter Trends poll of 1,500 likely midterm voters, Pollsters Brent Buchanan and Mitch Brown break down why GOP losses are drifting to "undecided" rather than across the aisle, what voters are really saying about cost of living (and why "the economy is strong" falls flat), and how a single ballot tweak on criminal illegal immigrants produces a jaw-dropping 25-point swing. Plus, early 2028 signals from Vance and Rubio reveal two very different paths for the post-Trump coalition.

This month's National Voter Trends poll of 1,500 likely midterm voters is flashing warning signs that the political media isn't talking about. Brent Buchanan and Nick Weinstein break down why voters blame both government and corporations for high prices — and what that means for Republican economic messaging. They dig into a stunning finding on immigration: nearly half of Democrats actually support deporting criminal illegal immigrants, putting Democratic leaders wildly out of step with their own base. Then there's the working-class brand problem Republicans don't want to admit — moderates still trust Democrats more by 31 points. Add in Iran's growing economic blowback, a Boomer shift that should alarm the GOP, and collapsing trust in Big Tech, and you've got a data-packed episode that reframes almost every major story of the 2026 cycle. Plus: Winners & Losers.