Pollster · Academic

Pennsylvania State University McCourtney Institute for Democracy

Research draft
Polls since 2024
2
Latest poll ended
May 26, 2026

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.

The McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State says it promotes scholarship and practical innovations to defend and advance democracy; its about page says it began in 2012 as the Democracy Institute and that Tracy and Ted McCourtney gave $3 million in 2014 to secure its future.1,2 The about page names Michael Berkman as director since 2016, and the poll pages name Eric Plutzer as director of the Mood of the Nation Poll.1,3 Its Mood of the Nation Poll asks Americans open-ended questions to answer in their own words; the poll page says YouGov does the fieldwork online, with respondents matched to Census American Community Survey targets.2,3

Kind
Academic1
Founded
20121

§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.

Part of

  • Pennsylvania State University. Its reports call it the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State, and its about page says it draws on the resources of Penn State.1,2

News partners

  • APM Research Lab (2021–now). APM Research Lab, whose pages carry an American Public Media notice, says it has partnered with the institute since 2021 to report Mood of the Nation results to a wider audience.4

Fieldwork or panel by

  • YouGov. The poll page says YouGov, an online polling organization, conducts the Mood of the Nation fieldwork, and the February 2026 report says data collection was done online by YouGov from its panel.2,3

Led by

  • Michael Berkman (2016–now). The about page names Michael Berkman as director of the institute since 2016.1
  • John Gastil (2012–2016). The about page names John Gastil as founding director from 2012 to 2016.1
  • Eric Plutzer. The poll page and the February 2026 report name Eric Plutzer as director of the Mood of the Nation Poll, and the report says he designed its questions.2,3

Published with

Names its polls have been published under, alongside other pollsters or news outlets.

  • Pennsylvania State University McCourtney Institute for Democracy/YouGov: YouGov · 2 polls listed

§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.

Doesn’t say whom it works for. The about page, homepage and poll pages read do not say whether the institute works for candidates or parties and name no campaign or party clients.1,3,5

Of its 2 polls listed since the 2024 election, VoteHub flags 0 as paid for by a Democratic-aligned sponsor and 0 by a Republican-aligned sponsor6.

§4Its polls

The 2 polls of its we list, newest first.
In the fieldQuestionResultWithPaid for bySample
May 19–May 26, 2026Generic congressional ballot · 2026Dem 41 · Rep 37YouGov862 RV
February 18–February 23, 2026Generic congressional ballot · 2026Dem 42 · Rep 37YouGov824 RV

§5What we looked for and didn't find

  • The pages read do not say who pays for the poll; a winter 2026 transparency disclosure on its site returned HTTP 403 and was not read.
  • The about page does not name the Penn State college the institute sits in.
  • The February 2026 generic ballot report gives its field dates as February 18 to 23, 2023, although it was posted in March 2026 and discusses the coming midterm elections; the actual field year was not confirmed.
  • No start date for the Mood of the Nation Poll was found.
  • Searches and AAPOR's statements page found no AAPOR statement, court ruling or filing, regulator action, aggregator statement about excluding or reweighting its polls, or retraction or correction by the institute.