The Cutting Room Floor – May 1, 2026
Press trust is at 0.4%. Foreign aid opposition is near-unanimous. And 79% of voters support the death penalty in principle — but only 44% back the specific DOJ expansion. This week’s cutting room floor has the numbers that didn’t fit anywhere else.
TrumpRx: Side Effects Include Nausea, Vomiting, and a Net -24.
A drug-pricing program polling at net -24 while the president sits at -12 isn’t a healthcare win — it’s a drag. Tavern’s latest data shows TrumpRx is the worst-performing policy in the survey, and the Protonix price comparison is why. Here’s what the numbers actually say about Kennedy’s HHS and who’s already gone negative.
The Redistricting Argument Democrats Are Actually Winning.
The redistricting question loses. The hypocrisy argument wins. Tavern’s latest data shows a 17-point swing between those two framings of the exact same issue — and the Virginia map fight may determine House control. Here’s the frame that’s actually working.
Hegseth Has Become a Liability That Rivals the President.
Hegseth’s net opposition (-20) is nearly as bad as Trump’s own net approval (-24). That’s not a personnel problem — it’s a presidential liability. New Tavern data shows impeachment support beating opposition by 11 points, and 48% of voters calling this a major factor in how they evaluate Trump.
After the WHCD Shooting, the Public Isn’t Choosing Between Order and Reform — They Want Both.
51% back “use all available force.” 67% want stricter gun laws. The electorate isn’t picking a side—they’re holding both.
The Tavern Take: Week of April 27, 2026
This week’s data points to a sequencing problem: voters move quickly once they’re paying attention. SCOTUS, Iran, and FISA all show the same thing—define early or lose the frame.
The Playbook: Real People. Real Responses. Real Results.
AI shouldn't be a shortcut to worse results. Tavern uses human-centered intelligence to field polls by 9 AM and test hundreds of messages to find the one that actually moves voters.
The SCOTUS Appointment Fight Is a Sleeping Giant. It's About to Wake Up.
Trump's SCOTUS appointment plans are already net -9. Only 6% of voters have heard about them. 49% say it's a major issue. That gap is the whole story — and it closes fast.
What the Bottom of the Iran Message Battery Tells You
Ally trust. Credibility. "Trump looks weak." These are the Iran messages some campaigns reach for first — and the ones that test dead last. The gap between best and worst is 35 points. Tavern's data breaks down exactly what's losing and why.
The Cutting Room Floor – April 17, 2026
Dead-last messages, a 25-point accountability gap, and an immigration bill 68% of voters have never heard of. Seven findings from a heavy week.
Trump's Two Weakest Flanks on Iran — And They Compound Each Other.
Trump's Iran strategy has two singular liabilities this week: a toll proposal voters see as corrupt (net -36, the worst margin tested) and a NATO posture they see as reckless (net -30). They're making the same argument.
The Government Can Search Your Data Without a Warrant. Voters Want That Fixed.
The government can search your data without a warrant. 62% of voters want that fixed — and Congress has 5 days to act before FISA Section 702 expires.
The Tavern Take: Week of April 13, 2026
Civilian harm is now the strongest Iran argument in Tavern's dataset — 72% top performer, 41-point gap from the worst Republican message. The birthright process argument hits as hard as the policy argument. And the ad-making model most campaigns are still running guarantees stale creative before voters ever see it.
The Cutting Room Floor – April 10, 2026
This week's data captures a country that is paying very close attention to the Iran war, has already made up its mind on the most aggressive elements of it, and is quietly storing up opinions on issues it hasn't fully processed yet. The awareness gaps are the tell.
The Human Cost of the Iran War Is Now the Argument That Wins.
Civilian harm is now the single strongest Iran frame in Tavern's message testing data — and the top-performing message scores 72 points against a 30.9-point Republican floor. Here's exactly what the winning messages say and why the accountability-plus-consequences combination is the argument to run right now.
The Playbook: Your Ad Is Already Obsolete. Tavern’s Isn't.
The traditional ad-making process is a slow handoff chain that guarantees campaigns are spending millions on creative built from stale data. Tavern's "working upstream" model runs polling, scripting, and production simultaneously — so voters shape the creative in real time. The result: ads engineered to hold attention and move votes, built on answers instead of assumptions.
Voters Oppose Stripping Birthright Citizenship. They Oppose One Person Deciding It Even More.
New Tavern Research polling finds that opposition to Trump's birthright citizenship executive order runs 25 points deep — but opposition to one person rewriting the 14th Amendment alone runs 26. The procedural argument is pulling its own weight, independently of where voters stand on immigration.
The Tavern Take: Week of April 6, 2026
Voters have moved from coin-flip to firm majority opposition on Iran — and the message testing reveals a costly mistake campaigns are making in how they talk about it. On Medicaid and SNAP, 30% of voters genuinely haven't made up their minds yet, a window that will close. The through-line: the campaigns doing real-time testing right now have a structural advantage that grows every week.
The Cutting Room Floor – April 3, 2026
Five quick findings from the week's polling — NATO, No Kings backlash, birthright citizenship, Patel's email breach, and mail-in voting.
The Issue Campaigns Should Be Defining Before Republicans Do.
30% of voters have no opinion on Medicaid/SNAP eligibility cuts — but 46% already call it a major midterm issue. Here's why that gap is the opportunity.