John Anzalone has been a Democratic pollster winning tough races for 30+ years, most recently as Chief Pollster for Biden 2020 helping navigate a crowded primary and grueling general election en route to ousting Donald Trump. John talks his working class roots growing up in Michigan, cutting his teeth in the Biden '88 ('87) presidential, his path to polling, and ultimately starting and growing his own firm to become on the handful of top-tier Democratic pollsters in the country.
IN THIS EPISODE
John grows up a “free lunch kid” and the son of a Teamster in Michigan…
John learns an unfortunate lesson from his childhood nickname…
Practicing dirty tricks in his first campaign involvement…
John talks about his mentor David Wilhelm…
John’s first big campaign working for Biden for President in 1987…
John’s memories from his early 20s of being around then Senator Biden…
John talks the All-Star team he was part of with James Carville and Paul Begala in a 1988 Senate race…
John’s FOMO from missing the 1992 Clinton Presidential…
The John Anzalone best practices for campaign managers…
John’s decision to go into polling…
John opens up his own polling firm after apprenticing at Frederick Schneiders…
John talks the value of “coming in second” in client pitches…
The challenge of starting a new Democratic firm in the South in the mid 90s…
The firm’s success in 04/06 sets the stage to be brought on board with Obama 2008…
John talks lessons learned from working at high levels in four straight presidential races…
John talks the fabled slide deck that informed some of the early Biden 2020 conversations…
John on early challenges for Biden 2020 and what is underappreciated about the winning campaign against Trump…
John’s advice to the next generation pollsters…
John’s travel tips…
John talks the rebrand of Impact Research…
AND…$50,000, Pete Aguilar, Kevin Akins, Jason Altmire, David Axelrod, Barcaloungers, Anna Bennett, big damn deals, Chris Bollwage, Bobby Bright, Joe Burrow, Pete Buttigieg, Don Cazayoux, the Chicago Sun-Times, Travis Childers, Citizens for Tax Justice, Sam Coppersmith, Country Club Republicans, the DC vortex, Rich Daley, Buddy Darden, Pete Dawkins, dead-bang losers, Nathan Deal, Delta Comfort, David Dixon, David Doak, Mike Donilon, Mike Doyle, Anita Dunn, Rahm Emanuel, Rob Engel, Paul Finebaum, the Florida House Caucus, Pete Giangreco, Gwen Graham, Larry Grisolano, Kay Hagan, Debbie Halvorson, Tom Harkin, Gary Hart, Paul Hodes, Jimmy Hoffa, Matt Hogan, Paul Johnson, Larry Kissell, Ron Klein, Amy Klobuchar, Bruce Koeppel, Leading Edge Computers, Jeff Link, Jeff Liszt, Local 7, Jon Macks, Frank Mascara, Paul Maslin, Steve McMahon, Charlie Melancon, Walter Mondale, the Monkey Business, Molly Murphy, Karen Olick, Jen O’Malley Dixon, Bob Packwood, Steve Paikowsky, David Plouffe, prayer warriors, Mark Pryor, Ronald Reagan, Jay Rhodes, Karl Rove, Mitch Rubin, Dan Rostenkowski, John Salazar, Bernie Sanders, Rick Santorum, Greg Schneiders, Heath Shuler, Sicilian enclaves, Clay Shaw, Bob Shrum, Mark Siljander, Steve Sisolak, David Stockman, stray dogs, Brian Stryker, Survey Monkey, Charles Taylor, Dina Titus, Trenton labor people, Uncle Izzy, Fred Upton, Chris Van Hollen, Jon Vogel, Terry Walsh, Whirlpool HQ, Sheldon Whitehouse, whiz-bang kids, Howard Wolpe, & more!