Pollster · Works for one party

The Winston Group

Research draft
Polls since 2024
18
Latest poll ended
June 2, 2026
House effect vs. other polls
D+1.0
Record vs. results, relative
D+0.8

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 Winston Group describes itself as a strategic consulting and research firm in Washington, D.C.1 Its team page names David Winston as president, Myra Miller as co-founder and Caitlin Peartree as vice president for policy research, and says Winston is an election analyst for CBS News and writes a weekly Roll Call column.2

Kind
Works for one party1,2

§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.

Polls regularly for

  • Winning the Issues. A Winston Group post dated October 5, 2026 reports results from what it calls its latest survey for Winning the Issues, a 501(c)(4) whose site lists national surveys each year since 1999; neither site says when the Winston Group began conducting them.3,4,5

Founded by

  • Myra Miller. Its team page lists Myra Miller as a co-founder and does not name the other founders.2

Led by

  • David Winston. Its team page names David Winston as president.2

Who paid for its polls

Sponsors named on its polls, most polls first6. A party-aligned flag is VoteHub's, per poll.
SponsorPollsBetweenFlagged party-aligned
Winning the Issues22December 30, 2018 – June 2, 2026Republican-aligned sponsor (22)

§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.

Works for Republican candidates or groups. This rests on the firm's own team page, which says its president advises House and Senate Republican leadership and center-right parties in Europe and that its co-founder was political director of the Alabama Republican Party; the pages read name no Democratic clients.2

  • House and Senate Republican leadership. Its team page says David Winston has served as a strategic adviser to House and Senate Republican leadership and that Myra Miller has worked with House and Senate Republican leadership and conferences.2

Of its 18 polls listed since the 2024 election, VoteHub flags 0 as paid for by a Democratic-aligned sponsor and 22 by a Republican-aligned sponsor6.

§4How its numbers compare with other polls

Why this matters: A firm whose polls run steadily to one side of everyone else's is worth reading alongside others.

Each of its polls since the 2024 election is compared with other pollsters' polls of the same question whose field period ended within 14 days, each other pollster counted once6. The figure is the average gap, with a 95% margin. This compares it with other polls, not with the truth: the others can be the ones that are off.

Party margin
D+1.0 (±1.7) across 6 polls of the generic ballot and 2026 races, in 1 contest.
When paid for by a Republican-aligned sponsor
D+1.0 (±1.7) across 6 polls
Net approval: Donald Trump
−4.0 points (±2.7) across 6 polls, against other polls of the same question.
Net favorability: Donald Trump
−7.8 points (±2.3) across 6 polls, against other polls of the same question.

D+ means its polls showed Democrats doing better than other polls did; R+, Republicans. A figure from fewer than 5 polls isn't shown.

§5Record 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 data7,8: 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
The Winston Group112004–2022D+4.1D+0.84.2 pts2.5 of 3 · 1% partisan work

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

§6Its polls

The 22 polls of its we list, newest first.
In the fieldQuestionResultWithPaid for bySample
May 30–June 2, 2026Favorability · Donald TrumpUnfavorable 62 · Favorable 36Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
May 30–June 2, 2026Job approval · Donald TrumpDisapprove 58 · Approve 37Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
May 30–June 2, 2026Generic congressional ballot · 2026Dem 48 · Rep 41Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
March 15–March 17, 2026Generic congressional ballot · 2026Dem 49 · Rep 40Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
March 15–March 17, 2026Favorability · Donald TrumpUnfavorable 60 · Favorable 38Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
March 15–March 17, 2026Job approval · Donald TrumpDisapprove 58 · Approve 37Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
January 8–January 12, 2026Generic congressional ballot · 2026Dem 46 · Rep 43Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
January 8–January 12, 2026Job approval · Donald TrumpDisapprove 52 · Approve 40Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
January 8–January 12, 2026Favorability · Donald TrumpUnfavorable 57 · Favorable 40Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
November 15–November 17, 2025Favorability · Donald TrumpUnfavorable 59 · Favorable 38Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
November 15–November 17, 2025Generic congressional ballot · 2026Dem 47 · Rep 42Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
November 15–November 17, 2025Job approval · Donald TrumpDisapprove 57 · Approve 36Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
October 15–October 16, 2025Favorability · Donald TrumpUnfavorable 58 · Favorable 40Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
October 15–October 16, 2025Generic congressional ballot · 2026Dem 47 · Rep 43Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
October 15–October 16, 2025Job approval · Donald TrumpDisapprove 55 · Approve 38Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
August 30–September 1, 2025Generic congressional ballot · 2026Dem 47 · Rep 43Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
August 30–September 1, 2025Job approval · Donald TrumpDisapprove 52 · Approve 41Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
August 30–September 1, 2025Favorability · Donald TrumpUnfavorable 55 · Favorable 42Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
April 15–April 16, 2019Job approval · CongressDisapprove 59 · Approve 22Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
March 30–March 31, 2019Job approval · CongressDisapprove 56 · Approve 20Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
February 28–March 1, 2019Job approval · CongressDisapprove 56 · Approve 23Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV
December 29–December 30, 2018Job approval · CongressDisapprove 61 · Approve 22Winning the IssuesRepublican-aligned sponsor1,000 RV

§7What we looked for and didn't find

  • No founding year was found.
  • No ownership details were found.
  • The Winning the Issues pages read do not say who conducts or funds its surveys, and its survey toplines read do not name the Winston Group.
  • No standing news partner, co-pollster or fieldwork vendor was found; David Winston's CBS News and Roll Call roles are his own and are not recorded as polling partnerships.
  • Its team page mentions Fortune 100 clients without naming them.
  • Findings search: web searches combining the name with AAPOR, aggregator exclusion, court, regulator and retraction terms found nothing that fits the finding rules, and AAPOR's statements page names none of this batch's firms.
  • Court records were checked only through web searches; PACER and state court dockets were not searched.