Political Solutions

By digging deeper into what drives voters in campaigns, BSG has played a critical role in designing winning campaigns for a presidential candidate, international heads of state, governors, U.S. senators and representatives, mayors and city council members. In addition to our national presidential election polling, BSG has experience in states as diverse as New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Texas, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Iowa, Nevada and Ohio, and has worked on international campaigns in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Benenson Strategy Group has been behind some of the most hard-fought and surprising wins in recent political history. Founder and CEO Joel Benenson signed on with the Obama for America campaign at its inception, polling nationally and in key primary states as the candidate went from unlikely challenger to the winner of more votes than any other presidential candidate in U.S. history — a win that included taking 52.9 percent of the popular vote and a 192-vote margin in the Electoral College. Benenson continues to advise the White House and polls for the Democratic National Committee.

In 2008 statewide races:

• BSG led the polling for Sen. Jeff Merkley’s upset win over incumbent Gordon Smith in Oregon — the first defeat of an incumbent senator in that state in 40 years.
  
• BSG was the lead pollster for Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s re-election in New Jersey, winning the widest margin of victory in his career.
  
• BSG was responsible for the polling and strategy for a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) independent-expenditure team that led to the Democrats’ pickup of eight congressional seats.
  
• BSG worked directly for six additional Democratic congressional candidates, each of whom won despite running in historically Republican districts.
  

In 2006:

• BSG worked directly on the winning campaigns of Sen. Jim Webb in Virginia and Sen. Robert Menendez in New Jersey, victories that gave Democrats two of that year’s seven contested Senate races — and the majority in the Senate. Webb took a come-from-behind win against a popular incumbent who had held a 31-point lead at the beginning of the race, while Menendez beat Tom Kean Jr., son of the popular former governor.
  
• BSG contributed to Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee independent-expenditure campaigns that helped pick up Senate seats for Democrats in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
  
• BSG worked with the DCCC on a team that won eight of the 10 races it engaged in, knocking off three incumbent Republican candidates.
  
• BSG worked directly for many congressional candidates, including Rep. Michael Acuri of New York, who took his seat in a district that had previously gone to a Republican for 12 consecutive elections.
  

In 2005:

• BSG helped elect Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia and worked on Rep. Anthony Weiner’s come-from-behind near win in the 2005 New York Democratic mayoral primary.
  

Overseas, current BSG clients include British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is facing re-election in June 2010.