Polling Case Study: City of St. Louis Mayoral Campaign

In 2017, the polling provided by Show Me Victories helped to elect the first-ever female mayor of the City of St. Louis, Missouri, Lyda Krewson. Our team began with a benchmark poll in late 2016 to measure the attitudes and perceptions of the electorate.

This polling dictated the tenor, tone, and substance of the campaign advertisements. Throughout the campaign, SMV continually polled the electorate to determine the effectiveness of the campaign advertisements (such as digital, television, and mail) and to determine if adjustments to the campaign tactics or strategy needed to be made to ensure the core issues the candidate stood for could be better received. 

The polling conducted in the closing weeks before the end of the election showed our candidate in the lead. Our polling the last two weeks of the election showing our candidate leading, her eight competitors, with an average level of support in the low thirties. On Election Day, our candidate won the contest with 32% of the vote. 

Overall, the polling conducted by SMV helped to elect the first female mayor of the City of St. Louis. It did so by determining her baseline level of support (which aided in resource allocation), helped to refine the messaging by determining the best strategy to communicate with voters, monitoring the effectiveness of the campaign strategy over the course of months, making adjustments where needed, and ensuring electoral victory.