Two new polls show learning about Trump's policies moves public opinion toward Democrats

Dear readers,

This is my weekly roundup of new political data published over the last week.

One of the big mysteries in public opinion research is the problem of non-attitudes. Because pollsters just get responses to survey questions and have to take them (mostly) at face value, we usually don’t know whether the answers people give to us represent real, well-thought-out attitudes, or are simply answers quickly conjured from the front of the mind for the purpose of answering a survey.

The difference between the two is important because if the thing pollsters are measuring is attitudes — formed through an informed model of the world and stable for each individual over time — then they are predictive of both other thoughts and behaviors in the real world (see: the 2026 midterms). But if polls are measuring non-attitudes, then our analysis about what people think now (and how they might act in the future) is thrown into question.

The lead story slot this week is about two new public polls that help us assess the difference between attitudes and non-attitudes as they relate to Donald Trump’s policy agenda and the 2026 midterms.

On deck here at Strength In Numbers: It’s Q&A week! I’ve got a good-sized list already, but send in any extra questions you might have via email or leave them in the comments below.

Also, it’s Thanksgiving week! Holidays are a big deal in my family, and this year I’m hosting my parents and siblings (including cooking much of the food), so emails and responding to comments/chat posts will be delayed in the latter half of the week. I will probably take next Sunday off, or send a fun newsletter about Thanksgiving polling — but paying subscribers will still get the usual Tuesday and Friday posts (my deal with members is that you paid, so you get what you paid for).

Finally, someone pointed out to me via email that comments for this newsletter had been locked to just paying subscribers. That was an accident, because I want all readers of the Sunday roundup to be able to post links in the comments. Comments on Sunday newsletters are now unlocked!

1. Two survey experiments find that learning about Trump’s policies/that GOP controls Congress moves opinion left

First up, here are the results of a new YouGov poll released this week that looks at how ...