Data for Progress' top highlights of 2021.

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Dear DFP Community,

If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that 2021 was a long year. From the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol (yes, that was this year), to the passage of the historic American Rescue Plan, to the continued spread of the coronavirus pandemic, to the fight for the Build Back Better Act, it’s been an eventful year to say the least — and throughout it, you’ve helped us organize and provide key polling for the progressive movement.

2021 was the biggest year in Data for Progress history. We shifted the narrative in Washington more than ever before, showing the popularity of the progressive agenda everywhere from America’s top news outlets to Congress and the White House.

And we couldn’t have done any of it without your support. Thanks for standing with us throughout the year.
Help Make 2022 Even Bigger: Donate to DFP Now ([link removed])

To recap the year, here are our top 18 highlights of Data for Progress’ 2021:

1. Our Polling Made Inroads in the White House and Congress

In just three years, we went from not even existing to having our polling cited by President Biden on a call with House Democrats. As Politico wrote ([link removed]) , that call demonstrated Data for Progress’ growing impact on national politics: “Data for Progress may not have been in existence when Biden was vice president, but it’s become a mainstay for activists and lawmakers on the left.”

Within the first seven days of April, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki cited our polling in two ([link removed]) separate ([link removed]) press briefings. She’s not the only one: White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain ([link removed]) , Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg ([link removed]) , National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy ([link removed]) , and former senior advisor Anita Dunn ([link removed]) have all used our polling to advocate for progressive policies. In September, Axios obtained internal documents
([link removed]) from White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield laying out Democrats’ messaging strategy around Build Back Better. It turns out, it was loaded with Data for Progress polling. Our polling was cited ([link removed]) six separate times to show the popularity of Biden’s investment agenda, far more than any other pollster. Our polling also made an appearance in two White House press ([link removed]) releases ([link removed]) , and in September, President Biden tweeted ([link removed]) our polling to show the
popularity of the Build Back Better agenda.

Every progressive policy that gets included in the Biden agenda is a win for our movement — and our position of influence in the White House is helping progressives push for these wins.

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2. We Pushed for #DebForInterior — And Won

Today, the Interior Department is led by the first-ever Native American Cabinet secretary — Madam Secretary Deb Haaland. Julian Brave NoiseCat was one of the key advocates for Haaland’s appointment and confirmation, leading a sophisticated inside-outside strategy utilizing writing ([link removed]) , earned media ([link removed]) , organizing ([link removed]) , advocacy ([link removed]) , social media ([link removed]) , and lots of memes ([link removed]) . This incredible campaign is one of the many reasons Julian was named ([link removed]) to the TIME100 Next 2021.

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That’s not the only way we worked to make Biden’s cabinet more progressive. We also consistently ([link removed]) showed ([link removed]) with our polling that voters support antitrust enforcement to take on Big Tech, which we used to push ([link removed]) for Jonathan Kanter as the Justice Department’s antitrust chief — a position he ultimately received.

3. We Showed Georgia Democrats That Stimulus Checks Are the Path to Victory

It feels like ancient history since last January, but this year started on a high note: Democrats sent Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to the United States Senate. We were only able to pass the historic American Rescue Plan this March because they won both of Georgia’s crucial special election races, and throughout these elections, we sent one message ([link removed]) loud and clear to both campaigns: run — and win — on passing coronavirus stimulus checks.

Our polling found ([link removed]) that Independents’ support for Georgia Democrats rose from 38 percent to 52 percent when voters were told Dems would pass another round of stimulus checks. Sen. Bernie Sanders cited ([link removed]) our polling on the Senate floor, and we even got Sen. Chuck Schumer on the blog ([link removed]) to push for $2,000 checks. In addition, our polling was also covered by Chris Hayes ([link removed]) , The Washington Post ([link removed]) , FiveThirtyEight ([link removed]) , In These Times
([link removed]) , Vox ([link removed]) , and New York Magazine ([link removed]) .

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4. The New York Times Profiled Our Work and How Much We’ve Impacted National Politics

“President Biden mentions it in private calls. The White House reads its work. And Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, teams up with its leaders for news conferences, blog posts and legislation.” That’s how The New York Times opened their profile of our work, published in June.

“We’re relatively young, but my belief about progressive politics is that first and foremost we have a moral obligation to win,” our founder Sean McElwee told the NYT’s Lisa Lerer ([link removed]) . “The demands in a lot of corners for policymakers to hold positions that are highly unpopular is wrong.” Read the full profile here. ([link removed])

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5. We Produced Best-in-Class Polling in 2020 — And We’re Only Getting Better

Our polling has consistently been best-in-class ([link removed]) , and we’re constantly working to make it even more accurate. In May, we turned our research inward by publishing a 2020 Polling Retrospective ([link removed]) that examines how we’re improving our methods — from a new zip code weighting scheme, to downweighting responses from the liberal activist types, to enticing right-leaning voters to engage with our surveys. For a summary of our findings, check out this New York Times article ([link removed]) on our retrospective.

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And we’re only getting better: Our analysis finds ([link removed]) that in the June 2021 New York City primary, DFP outperformed every other pollster. Our root-mean-squared error (RMSE), which is how pollsters determine their accuracy, was the lowest of the 13 polls we analyzed leading up to the New York City Democratic primary, across partisan and non-partisan pollsters.

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6. We Fought For A Progressive Industrial Policy and Climate Agenda in Congress

Throughout the year, we pushed for significant climate investments in Biden’s infrastructure packages. We pushed ([link removed]) for an Indigenous-led land stewardship strategy to meet President Biden’s 30 by 30 conservation goal. We showed ([link removed]) that Build Back Better’s investments to tackle the climate crisis and create new clean energy jobs are highly popular and critical components of the plan. We also partnered ([link removed]) with Evergreen Action, Professor Leah Stokes, and Sen. Tina Smith ([link removed]) to lay out a roadmap for a federal clean electricity standard — a report that was covered by The
Atlantic ([link removed]) , Axios ([link removed]) , The Hill ([link removed]) , and Vox ([link removed]) . As those provisions faced cuts, we partnered ([link removed]) with Sen. Ed Markey, who wrote a blog ([link removed]) declaring that progressives would not cut climate investments from Build Back Better.

But we don’t just run polls here at DFP — this year, we added economic and environmental impact analysis to our arsenal. In March, we showed ([link removed]) that the BUILD GREEN Act would create approximately 960,000 jobs and significantly reduce CO2 emissions — equivalent to taking 4.5 million cars off the road. And in September, we found that the 48C Advanced Manufacturing Tax Credit — a little-known tax incentive for companies to expand their clean energy capacity — would create 140,000 jobs nationwide over the next several years ([link removed]) , and 15 to 30 percent more jobs could be created if the policy was paired with the Clean Electricity Performance Program. An $8 billion investment in 48C was ultimately included in the final BBB framework.

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7. We Teamed Up With Partners to Push for Disability Justice

One of the most crucial investments in the Build Back Better Act is its funding for home and community-based care. There are currently 800,000 Americans with disabilities and senior citizens that are on waiting lists to receive home and community-based services, and as DFP Senior Fellow Matthew Cortland shared on our blog ([link removed]) , 89 percent of voters with disabilities would prefer to receive care at home than live in a nursing home.

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We’ve shown throughout the year that voters are on their side — Democrats perform ([link removed]) +13 points better on a generic ballot when voters are told that the party is pushing to invest in home and community-based services and expand Medicare. Our polling ([link removed]) with The Century Foundation also found that a bipartisan majority of voters want to increase Supplemental Security Income benefits to the poverty line — findings that were covered in a New York Times piece ([link removed]) on the push for disability justice.

8. We Raised Money for Michelle Wu and Other Green New Deal Champions

Although Democrats suffered a tough series of losses in the 2021 down ballot races (don’t remind us about Virginia), there were also some major progressive victories across the country that same night. Michelle Wu is now Boston’s mayor — exactly as we predicted in our polling ([link removed]) . We’re proud that Wu was represented on our Green New Deal Slate ([link removed]) , which helped her and other GND champions raise crucial funds. Candidates like Abdullah Hammoud, who became the first Arab-American mayor of Dearborn, MI, and Justin Bibb, who became the fourth Black and second youngest mayor of Cleveland, OH, also made history on our GND slate ([link removed]) .

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9. We Co-Founded a Child Tax Credit Advocacy Group, Fighting Chance for Families

In June 2021, Data for Progress partnered ([link removed]) with Groundwork Collaborative to launch Fighting Chance for Families ([link removed]) , a war room advocating for a permanent extension of the expanded Child Tax Credit. Fighting Chance for Families has used polling ([link removed]) , media ([link removed]) , and partnerships with members of Congress ([link removed]) to push legislators to expand the tax cut — all generating significant media coverage ([link removed]) , from The Washington Post to Common Dreams to Huffington Post.

Senator Michael Bennet ([link removed]) and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro ([link removed]) joined our blog over the course of the past few months to make clear the need to extend the expanded Child Tax Credit and make clear the popular mandate Congress has to do so. We also joined Congressman Ritchie Torres ([link removed]) and a recipient of the credit in New York City for a press conference calling to extend this tax cut for working families across the nation.

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10. Our Maps Showed Build Back Better Is Even Popular in West Virginia

Joe Manchin dealt a massive blow to progressives and our country when he announced his opposition to the Build Back Better Act earlier this month. As we move into 2022, that means we need to work even harder, and even more strategically, to win his vote for ambitious Build Back Better legislation. A key way we can do this is by promoting our polling of key states ([link removed]) conducted this August, which showed that 68 percent of West Virginia voters — including 64 percent of Independents and 56 percent of Republicans — support Build Back Better.

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11. We Showed America Just How Out-of-Touch Kyrsten Sinema Is

At the height of Build Back Better negotiations, Kyrsten Sinema flaunted ([link removed]) her opposition to provisions, such as plans to raise tax rates on the wealthy and large corporations, that she had won her 2018 Senate race by supporting ([link removed]) . As a result, we polled her standing among Arizona’s Democratic and Independent voters, and found ([link removed]) that her support had pretty much cratered among every demographic — putting her at a significant risk of a primary.

Those polling results garnered significant media coverage at home ([link removed]) and nationally ([link removed]) – and we’ll continue to hold her accountable for her votes and her actions.
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12. We Showed the Overwhelming Popularity of the American Rescue Plan

Our polling has consistently found ([link removed]) that the American Rescue Plan and its key provisions are popular with voters across party lines. One of these key provisions is the expanded Child Tax Credit, which we teamed up ([link removed]) with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senators Cory Booker, Ron Wyden, Sherrod Brown, and Michael Bennet in a February press call to (successfully) push for.

35 million families and 68 million children relied on this landmark legislation, and as it currently hangs in the balance, we must keep fighting for them.

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13. We Found the Highest Support Ever for D.C. Statehood

Making D.C. a state is essential for representing the 700,000 Americans living in the district. Our poll, covered exclusively by CBS News ([link removed]) , found a record level of support — 54 percent — for DC statehood, and it quickly went viral. It was picked up by Forbes ([link removed]) , NPR ([link removed]) , WUSA ([link removed]) , and Yahoo News ([link removed]) , among others — vaulting this issue into the national conversation and further galvanizing years of work by statehood activists in D.C. as well as our other
U.S. territories.

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14. When the Mainstream Media Hammered Biden’s Afghanistan Pullout, We Showed That Withdrawal Was Popular With Voters

In April, when President Biden first announced his decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and end America’s longest war, he was met with a +50-point margin of voters supporting ([link removed]) ending the war. Months later, after a messy pullout process, pundits seemed to forget that wars are pretty unpopular with Americans — and that, with the end of the war, Biden accomplished what three presidents before him could not. Several weeks after the Taliban’s capture of Kabul, we showed ([link removed]) that voters continued to support Biden’s withdrawal by a +26-point margin. This polling was covered by MSNBC ([link removed]) , Politico ([link removed]) , NBC News
([link removed]) , and others.

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15. Our Polling Supported the Fight for Worker Protections

Over the course of the year, there’s been a groundswell of support for the resurgent labor movement. As workers in Amazon organized a historic move to unionize this summer, Data for Progress polling found ([link removed]) that voters from both parties support the move to unionize — and oppose Amazon’s anti-union tactics.

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This is especially important because two bills are up for consideration in Congress that would solidify worker protections. For instance, the PRO Act — which has stalled in the Senate since March — is a sweeping piece of legislation that would crack down on union-busting and make it easier for workers to join and establish unions. We partnered ([link removed]) with Vox and found that the PRO Act’s provisions are popular with both Republicans and Democrats. Similarly, the provisions of the FAST Recovery Act, which would protect fast food workers from corporate malfeasance, garner ([link removed]) similar support from both parties.

16. We Demonstrated Public Support for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

While the failure to pass the Build Back Better Act in 2021 overshadows much else this year legislatively, it's worth noting that Democrats did successfully pass major infrastructure investments this year. As part of our partnership with Invest in America ([link removed]) over the course of the Infrastructure bill’s passage, we found ([link removed]) that the infrastructure bill carried wide margins of support, including +5 points of net support among Republicans.

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One interesting proof point for all of our comms professionals out there: when we message-tested the bill’s name, we found ([link removed]) that voters support the bill more when it’s referred to as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act than when it’s called the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework. Further proof that messaging for progressive policy matters!

17. We Advanced Climate Industrial Policy

Throughout the year, we showed that rebuilding American manufacturing and tackling the climate crisis are deeply interconnected goals. This year we partnered ([link removed]) with the National Wildlife Federation to release “Made Clean in America," a series of policy and polling briefs detailing how we can shore up clean energy supply chains, procure clean vehicle fleets and building materials, and more. In another series of reports ([link removed]) led by DFP's climate team, we showed how the Biden Administration can use executive orders, new legislation, and reconciliation to advance the progressive climate innovation agenda. Our polling finds these investments are popular — The Hill covered ([link removed]) our finding that 67 percent of voters support the Solar Energy
Manufacturing for America Act, which would provide tax credits for solar energy manufacturers.

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18. Like, Half of Congress Wrote for Our Blog

And as if that wasn’t enough, take a look ([link removed]) at some of our guest contributors to the Data for Progress blog this year.
* Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Pramila Jayapal ([link removed])
* Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Ro Khanna ([link removed])
* Sen. Elizabeth Warren ([link removed])
* Rep. Cori Bush ([link removed])
* Rep. Chuy Garcia ([link removed])
* Rep. Barbara Lee ([link removed])
* Sen. Michael Bennet ([link removed])
* Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand ([link removed])
* Sen. Jeff Merkley ([link removed])
* Sen. Ron Wyden ([link removed])
* Sen. Ed Markey ([link removed])

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As we move into 2022, the fate of our climate and our economy is on the line. We need to put all our energy and resources into fighting for the passage of a Build Back Better Act that is as ambitious and comprehensive as possible. At Data for Progress, we're continuing to expand our polling operation, strengthen our partnerships with key players in national politics, and continue building our earned media coverage to push for a bold BBB investment.

Please help us make it happen by donating below.

Donate to DFP ([link removed])

Thank you for supporting our work throughout 2021, and our DFP team wishes you a Happy New Year!

Sincerely,
Data for Progress Staff

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