Claim OwnershipThe Focus Group Podcast
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Unfiltered, uncompromising, unexpected—The Focus Group is a look into what the average voter thinks about politics, policy, and current events. Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark, has conducted hundreds of hours of focus groups all across the country. She and a series of special guests will take you behind the glass to hear what real focus group participants have to say.
https://www.thebulwark.com/podcast/focus-group/
27 Episodes
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1One of our focus group participants really prefers that the president be a man. And most of the Republican voters we talked to have only one man in mind: Donald Trump. The Bulwark's own Tim Miller joins Sarah for part two of our season premiere to break down the sorry state of the non-Trump candidates in the Republican presidential primary.
show notes:
https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/there-are-two-gop-primaries-only-one-is-real?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/super-pacs-worthless-donors-stop-torching-cash
The Focus Group Podcast is BACK, and we're powering all the way through the 2024 election. For part one of our two-part season premiere, we're checking in on how Donald Trump's legal troubles have put his campaign on steroids. CNN's Jake Tapper joins Sarah to hear how much the voters care about Trump's mounting indictments (spoiler: they don't). They also discuss how the media should be covering a presidential nominee on trial, and Jake discusses his new book, All the Demons Are Here.
show notes:
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/jake-tapper/all-the-demons-are-here/9781668623435/?lens=little-brown
A year ago, Republican voters thought Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine were badasses. Now...Zelenskyy is just as bad as Putin. Tom Nichols, Professor Emeritus at the Naval War College and staff writer at The Atlantic, joins Sarah to listen to the voters' foreign policy takes. Tom is not impressed with the voters.
show notes:
Tom Nichols Atlantic piece: I Supported the Invasion of Iraq
Tom Nichols book: Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assault from within on Modern Democracy
Pew Research Poll: Poll on Ukraine
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Marjorie Taylor Greene wants a national divorce. We don't, but we asked our focus groups about it anyway. New York Times opinion columnist David French (literally) wrote the book on a possible national divorce. He joins Sarah to talk about whether (and how) the United States holds together; and the task of rebuilding trust in our institutions.
Show notes:
Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation (by David French)
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/26/opinion/fox-news-lies-dominion.html
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The Republican establishment — and many Republican voters in our focus groups — think Ron DeSantis is the answer to their prayers that they can win in 2024. But Donald Trump has a say in this matter, and he's already offering up an early taste of the kind of attacks he's planning on DeSantis. Heads-up: Those attacks are likely to go lower. What are DeSantis' vulnerabilities as a candidate? Tara Palmeri of Puck News joins Sarah to listen to the focus groups and share some of her reporting from the Trump and DeSantis camps.
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Ready or not, it looks like Joe Biden is running for re-election. Our swing voters liked his State of the Union speech this week, but they've got concerns under the surface. Peter Baker, Chief White Correspondent for The New York Times, joins Sarah to listen to Trump-to-Biden voters and make a broader assessment of the Biden administration's political standing.
show notes:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/06/us/politics/kamala-harris-vice-presidenct-legacy.html
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The Focus Group Podcast is on hiatus for a few more weeks, but we've been doing focus groups this whole time. We've got a preview of what you're going to hear when we come back, and we're re-upping our conversation from March with Jane Coaston of The New York Times about our never-ending culture wars. Enjoy, and we'll see you soon!
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You've heard the terms "woke" and "cancel culture" for years now. No one seems to agree on what they mean, though — which is why our guest says the culture wars will keep morphing, and they'll go on forever. New York Times opinion writer Jane Coaston joins Sarah to hear how the focus groups respond to "wokeness," "cancel culture," and...schools and drag show bans. We promise, this is NOT the episode to miss.
show notes
Jane Coaston: The Debate Hugh Hefner Won and William Buckley Lost
Survivor: Host Jeff Probst Refuses to Say "Come On In, Guys"
Teen who refuses to cite the Pledge of Allegiance
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Mike Pence seems to think that he's destined to be president. The evangelical Christians in our focus groups did NOT get the memo. McKay Coppins, staff writer at The Atlantic joins Sarah to talk about the future of social conservatism in the Republican Party and Mike Pence's 2024 prospects.
show notes:
"God's Plan for Mike Pence" by McKay Coppins
https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/mckay-coppins/the-wilderness/9780316327466/
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Voters that we talk to are iffy about Biden running for re-election given his age, but Republicans may have even larger challenges. Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs joins Sarah to talk Joe Biden, the Democratic base, and the bright future of the Democratic bench.
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The Focus Group podcast is BACK, with a twist: We're releasing The Bulwark's first-ever poll of Republican primary voters where we're trying to figure out just how big the "Always Trump," "Maybe Trump," and "Never Trump" buckets are among Republican primary voters. For that, we brought in Republican pollster Whit Ayres, who joins Sarah to stack our poll results up against the focus groups we've done since the election.
Links:
Poll by The Bulwark and North Star Opinion Research of Republican Primary VotersPoll Toplines from Whit Ayres
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We're wrapping up this election cycle in Georgia with voters who voted for Herschel Walker in November — but aren't so sure about him going into the December 6 runoff. Atlanta Journal-Constitution political reporter Greg Bluestein joins Sarah for one last focus group in 2022.
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The midterms have come and gone, and it turns out many of our focus groups were signs of things to come. Amy Walter, Editor-in-Chief of the Cook Political Report, joins Sarah for a look back at this year's groups.
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Donald Trump announced his 2024 campaign this week. Republican elites would love to move on from him, but will Republican voters? David Drucker, the author of In Trump's Shadow: The Battle for 2024 and the Future of the GOP, joins Sarah to listen to Trump voters from the past year and discuss whether they provide clues for how the 2024 Republican primary may unfold.
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Sarah has a special message for Focus Group fans as we wait for the remaining election results.
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Instead of a focus group this week, Sarah sits down with four political super-nerds to get their read on Tuesday's election and beyond. She's joined by Jon Ralston to talk Nevada, Brahm Resnik — political reporter for Phoenix’s local NBC affiliate — to talk Arizona, along with Bill Kristol, and Gunner Ramer, the political director of the Republican Accountability PAC.
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John Fetterman had a bad night in the Pennsylvania Senate debate, and an even worse night in our focus group — though this group wasn't inclined to like him anyway. Legendary Democratic operative James Carville joins Sarah to break down the Pennsylvania Senate race, and James shares his thoughts on how the Democratic Party needs to shape up.
The Focus Group podcast is now exclusively for Bulwark+ members.
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Arizona is ground-zero for the Big Lie about the 2020 election. The Republican nominees for Governor and Secretary of State, Kari Lake and Mark Finchem, are avowed election deniers, and Democrats may or may not rise to the occasion to beat them. But our guest HAS risen to the occasion: Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer joins Sarah to listen to Arizona swing voters and talk about his job running elections for 60% of Arizona voters.
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Georgia is a closely divided state, but we're likely to see a lot of ticket splitters there this year - specifically a lot of people voting for arch-conservative Gov. Brian Kemp and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. Partly because they think Kemp is doing a good job, and partly because Warnock's opponent, Herschel Walker, is a total mess. TIME Magazine national political correspondent Molly Ball joins Sarah to discuss her reporting out of Georgia and listen to a group of Georgia swing voters.
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The Pennsylvania governor's race is a bit of a political science experiment: what happens if one candidate barely runs any ads? Turns out, swing voters still really don't like that guy. POLITICO's in-house Pennsylvania expert Holly Otterbein once again joins Sarah on the pod. They discuss how swing voters are feeling about the Pennsylvania governor's race, as well as how these same voters may be starting to sour on John Fetterman in the Senate race.
The Focus Group is now exclusively part of Bulwark+. To listen to this episode in full and to get future editions, upgrade to a Bulwark+ membership now and the next two weeks are on us—Free. Go to TheBulwark.com/FocusGroup to claim this free trial offer.
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I know this isn't the way focus groups work, but I just wanted to jump into the podcast to press these people to articulate just exactly how they would enumerate "Trump policies" and "Republican principles". All I heard was "this is your brain on Fox", aped talking point after aped talking point.
I'm curious - is there any kind of sociological study that shows the overlap between GOP voters and irrational/conspiratorial thought? just seems that when a Democrat loses an election, Democratic voters are not anywhere near as predestined to default to this argument of a rigged election.