Pollster · Commercial firm
Platform Communications
- Polls since 2024
- 1
- Latest poll ended
- August 13, 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.
Platform Communications describes itself as a strategic communications, public affairs and marketing firm based in Madison, Wisconsin, with a Milwaukee office, and runs the Badger Battleground Poll as part of what it calls its political intelligence operation.1 Its team page names Keith Gilkes as executive chairman and Brian Reisinger as chief executive.2 According to Wisconsin Public Radio, its August 2026 poll was conducted by Gilkes, a former chief political advisor to Republican Governor Scott Walker, and Democratic strategist Tanya Bjork; the poll memo calls the series bipartisan and describes 500 live telephone interviews with likely voters on August 12 and 13.3,
§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.
Founded by
- Keith Gilkes (2017). Its September 2017 launch release says Keith Gilkes founded the firm in early 2017 and was its president and chief executive.5
§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. According to FOX6 News, Platform says it does not do partisan campaign work for political campaigns or parties and prepares the poll for its bipartisan, nonpartisan and private-sector clients; its home page says it works in bipartisan and nonpartisan advocacy and that its political intelligence work has served both sides of the aisle. This rests on the firm's own description.1,
Of its 1 poll listed since the 2024 election, VoteHub flags 0 as paid for by a Democratic-aligned sponsor and 0 by a Republican-aligned sponsor8.
§4Its polls
| In the field | Question | Result | With | Paid for by | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 12–August 13, 2026 | Governor · 2026 Wisconsin | David Crowley 48 · Tom Tiffany 44 | 500 LV |
§5What we looked for and didn't find
- No ownership beyond its founder and officers was found.
- No standing news partner was found; outlets reported its polls, but no arrangement with them was found.
- No fieldwork vendor was named in its August 2026 memo; a partner firm for the 2024 edition of the poll was not confirmed from a primary source.
- Its polling page returned HTTP 404, the full WisPolitics releases need a subscriber login, and a WTMJ article on who is behind the poll returned HTTP 403.
- Searches found no AAPOR statement, court ruling, regulator action, aggregator statement about excluding or reweighting its polls, or retraction by the firm.