Pollster · Commercial firm

DHM Research

Research draft
Polls since 2024
4
Latest poll ended
October 1, 2026
Record vs. results, relative
D+0.5

Polls from the VoteHub polling API, used under CC BY 4.0. Each result links to the pollster's or sponsor's own release. Imported once a day; a poll VoteHub later changes keeps its earlier version on record here.

§1About

Drafted by AI from the public sources cited. Each sentence links to its source.

DHM Research describes itself as an independent research firm, founded in Portland in 1977, that measures the values and priorities behind public opinion and offers nonpartisan insights.1 Its about page lists offices in Lake Oswego, Oregon and Seattle, and names Michelle Neiss as president and John Horvick as senior vice president.1 Its case studies name city governments, public agencies, a chamber of commerce and an industry institute as clients.2 OPB reported that DHM Research conducted a governor's race poll fielded September 3 to 9, 2026 that was funded by Grow Oregon, which OPB described as an advocacy nonprofit backed by business groups, and a poll fielded September 24 to October 1, 2026 that was commissioned by The Oregonian/OregonLive.3,4

Kind
Commercial firm1
Founded
19771

§2Who it works with

Why this matters: Owners, news partners and the firms behind a poll's interviews shape what gets asked, how, and what gets published.

News partners

  • Oregon Public Broadcasting (2024–now). OPB describes surveys conducted for it by DHM Research in September 2024 and in its fall 2026 election survey of Oregon and Washington voters.5,6,7

Led by

  • Michelle Neiss. The DHM Research about page names Michelle Neiss as president.1

Who paid for its polls

Sponsors named on its polls, most polls first8. A party-aligned flag is VoteHub's, per poll.
SponsorPollsBetweenFlagged party-aligned
The Oregonian/OregonLive2October 1, 2026No
Grow Oregon1September 11, 2026No
Oregon Public Broadcasting1September 27, 2026No

§3Whom it works for

Why this matters: A firm that also works for one party's campaigns can still publish accurate polls, but readers deserve to know.

Says it does no work for parties or candidates. Its about page describes its work as nonpartisan, and its case studies name government, public agency and organizational clients but no candidates or parties. OPB also calls it a nonpartisan firm.1,2,7

Of its 4 polls listed since the 2024 election, VoteHub flags 0 as paid for by a Democratic-aligned sponsor and 0 by a Republican-aligned sponsor8.

§4Record against results

Why this matters: The one test that doesn't depend on other polls: how close a firm's final polls came to what voters did.

From FiveThirtyEight's final public data9,10: general-election polls between a Democrat and a Republican in the last three weeks before each election, compared with the certified result. FiveThirtyEight rated each name polls were published under separately. Across all 8,957 such polls, the average miss was D+0.7, so the relative figure takes out the misses every pollster shared that year.

Error is the poll's D−R margin minus the result's; D+ means it showed Democrats doing better than they did.
Published asPollsElectionsAverage missRelative to other pollsTypical size of miss538's last rating
DHM Research122000–2016R+0.3D+0.52.5 pts2.1 of 3

ABC News closed FiveThirtyEight in March 2025; its data stops at the 2022 elections. 2026 results will be added once states certify them.

§5Its polls

The 4 polls of its we list, newest first.
In the fieldQuestionResultWithPaid for bySample
September 24–October 1, 2026Governor · 2026 OregonTina Kotek 46 · Christine Drazan 44 · Brett Smith 3The Oregonian/OregonLive549 LV
September 24–October 1, 2026Governor · 2026 OregonTina Kotek 46 · Christine Drazan 44 · Brett Smith 3The Oregonian/OregonLive549 LV
September 17–September 27, 2026U.S. House · 2026 WA-03John Braun 48 · Marie Gluesenkamp Perez 47Oregon Public Broadcasting543 LV
September 11, 2026Governor · 2026 OregonChristine Drazan 45 · Tina Kotek 43Grow Oregon600 LV

§6What we looked for and didn't find

  • No ownership information was found on its website.
  • The founders behind the DHM initials were not confirmed from a primary source.
  • The earliest year of the OPB arrangement was not confirmed; OPB-hosted survey files suggest earlier DHM work for OPB, but only the 2024 and 2026 pages were read.
  • The Oregonian/OregonLive article on its 2026 poll could not be fetched, so that poll rests on OPB's account and is not recorded as a standing partnership.
  • Its website does not name fieldwork or panel vendors.
  • Searches found no AAPOR statement, court ruling or filing, regulator action, aggregator statement about excluding or reweighting its polls, or retraction by the firm.
  • The Silver Bulletin ratings table and the VoteHub methodology pages could not be read, so aggregator checks rest on published text from aggregators and news searches.