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Hello readers – I’m Michael Dimock, president of Pew Research Center. Like many people around the world, all of us at the Center have found our lives and workplace upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only did we transition to a fully remote working environment in March, we also overhauled our planned research agenda in an effort to better understand the pandemic’s effects on health, the economy, politics and society, both in the United States and around the world.

And when George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, we adjusted course again to measure and understand the public’s response at a time of nationwide protests and renewed calls for racial justice. We’ve worked for years to better understand attitudes about race and experiences with discrimination and racism in America. Floyd’s death has led us to strengthen these efforts, and we’re committed to bringing more focus to this work. 

Both of these events have raised urgent questions about American society. Our mission is to enrich the public conversation, help people understand where their experiences and views fit, and provide data that informs sound decision-making by those in leadership positions. We believe accurately capturing the public’s voice is especially crucial at this moment – not only to our own understanding, but to informing debates about policy and international cooperation.

So far, our research has found that the coronavirus pandemic is affecting and even accelerating many of the trends we’ve been tracking for decades, from political realignment to the restructuring of personal and family lives to the way citizens allocate trust. While we seek to understand how these larger trends are changing, we will pay particular attention to the disparate impacts that the COVID-19 crisis is having across the population.

Meanwhile, the 2020 election approaches. We were already preparing for a consequential and turbulent election cycle before the pandemic hit, and that has only intensified. We know public confidence in the electoral process has been eroding on many fronts, and uncertainty about how the election will be conducted may well accelerate that loss of trust. What impact, if any, the events of the past few months will have on the outcome remains to be seen.

We recognize that the consequences of this year’s events will be cumulative and may dramatically affect many of the trends we’ve been tracking for years. So while our immediate focus is on understanding the impact of the pandemic and renewed conversations about racial justice as we approach the November election, we will also keep our eyes trained on the horizon. After all, it’s our understanding of the longer-term impact of these events that will help guide not just leaders and policymakers – but all of us – in building a better world. 

We hope you find our work useful as you try to make sense of these tumultuous times. I'm including a sampling of our research from the last few months below. Please keep in touch. We love hearing from you.

Michael Dimock

President, Pew Research Center