Understanding what swing voters think before the general election.
The Swing Voter Pilot brings independent and undecided voters into the primary process through structured forums, debate testing, and voter research.
CURRENT FORUM INITIATIVES
Leadership & Advisors
The Swing Voter Pilot is guided by experienced researchers and bipartisan political advisors committed to understanding how swing voters evaluate candidates, issues, and campaigns.
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Michael Sadowsky is Research Director of The Swing Voter Pilot. A survey researcher and political data scientist with more than a decade of experience, he studies how voters evaluate candidates, what predicts candidate electability, and how debates and campaign messages shape public opinion. His work, including previous roles at Civis Analytics and Tavern Research, has covered U.S. primary and general elections as well as elections internationally, and he has managed debate-based swing-voter research in Texas and Wisconsin. Michael also teaches data-driven campaign methods at Columbia SIPA and holds an M.S. in Survey Methodology from the University of Michigan.
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Daniel Markovits is a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and serves as a Research Advisor to the Swing Voter Pilot. His research examines how strategic incentives influence political behavior, democratic norms, and electoral competition. Using surveys and field experiments, he studies how voters and political actors respond to campaigns and elections. Daniel earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.
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Pat Rosenstiel is a nationally recognized public affairs strategist with more than two decades of experience in market research, communications, and Republican politics. He has advised elected officials, advocacy organizations, and national campaigns while leading major grassroots initiatives on trade policy and judicial nominations. Drawing on decades of campaign experience, Pat helps guide the Swing Voter Pilot’s bipartisan approach to understanding how independent voters evaluate candidates and issues.
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Alyssa Cass is an experienced Democratic political and communications strategist, whose expertise and commentary has been featured in outlets like The New York Times, The Atlantic, CNN, Politico and The Washington Post. She advises elected officials, advocacy organizations, and public policy campaigns at the national, state, and local levels. A partner at Slingshot Strategies, she has worked on some of the most high-profile races in the country, including for Pat Ryan, Alex Bores, and Grace Meng. Alyssa has been recognized in City & State's Political PR 50 and named one of the nation's Top 75 Political Consultants.