Wish you could pick the brain of a uniquely defined professional, policy/decision maker or elected official? Peak Insights offers professional In-Depth and Opinion Leader interviews.
Wish you could pick the brain of a uniquely defined professional, policy/decision maker or elected official? Peak Insights offers professional In-Depth and Opinion Leader interviews.
In-depth interviews (IDIs) are a specialized qualitative research method used in a one-on-one setting either by phone or in person. These personalized interviews yield rich, robust information from participants who are hard to reach or maybe hesitant to participate in a traditional focus group setting. IDIs are conducted by highly skilled interviewers specifically trained in single respondent conversational interviewing, rather than a structured survey.
The purpose of in-depth interviews is to understand the underlying motivations, beliefs, attitudes, and feelings of respondents on a particular subject. IDIs are typically implemented in the later stages of a research program, providing a more focused and narrower “lens” through which to explore specific topics and issues to complement research among broader audiences.
Erik Iverson
President and Managing Partner
As President and Managing Partner of Peak Insights, Erik Iverson has more than two decades of political and public affairs experience. Erik brings a strategic approach to opinion research that delivers actionable data to his clients, which include members of the U.S. Senate and House, governors and other state and locally elected officials. A nationally recognized pollster and focus group moderator, Erik also provides strategic counsel and opinion research expertise to corporations, trade associations, hospitals and non-profits across America.
From managing multiple U.S. Senate and House races, to serving as Chairman of the Montana Republican Party, Erik brings unique, hands-on experience to opinion research.
That experience includes serving as lead pollster to Senator Tim Scott’s Presidential campaign and numerous top targeted races around the country for candidates as well as the National Republican Congressional Committee, the Republican Governor’s Association, and the Congressional Leadership Fund. Erik also provides polling services and strategic advice to the National Republican Senatorial Committee as well as multiple Republican state legislative caucuses.
A graduate of Montana State University-Bozeman and the University of Oregon School of Law, Erik is based out of Peak’s Missoula, Montana office where he spends his free time enjoying all that Big Sky Country has to offer.
Hans Kaiser directs research projects for corporate and political clients, ranging from health care and energy companies to U.S. Senate and Congressional campaigns. Hans draws on more than 35 years of experience in business, public affairs and politics to provide his clients with a well-rounded perspective when designing and interpreting research data. Since Hans began working for Peak Insights in 1995, he has been instrumental in expanding the company’s political and corporate client base. He has a wealth of strategic and tactical experience that he combines with an unyielding attention to detail and steadfast commitment to his clients.
Hans applies his expertise to ongoing clients such as U.S. Senator Susan Collins (Maine), Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Congressman Jim Jordan (Ohio) and Congressman Dan Newhouse (Washington).
Before joining Peak Insights, Hans served as Campaign Manager for U.S. Senator Slade Gorton’s successful 1994 reelection effort in Washington State. Hans’ previous political and public affairs experience includes three years as Special Assistant to Senator Gorton and Executive Director of George Bush’s Victory ’92 program in Washington State. He served as Deputy Field Director at the National Republican Congressional Committee and as a Field Coordinator at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He also spent three years in New York City helping to coordinate the production of 38 hours of videotaped interviews with Richard Nixon for Frank Gannon Communications.
Hans is a 1980 graduate of Hobart College and lives in Annapolis with his wife, Anne. His two children, Heinz and Audrey, have successfully left the nest.
Kelly Middendorff oversees the development and completion of all quantitative and qualitative research projects, and personally manages survey and focus group research for numerous Peak Insights clients.
With nearly three decades of experience in research design, analysis and interpretation, Kelly provides valuable insight to her clients, including the Washington Forest Protection Association, Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development, Intel and Stand for Children. By directing successful projects, Kelly enables her clients to make critical decisions about marketing, advertising and communications programs. She has also played key roles in the management of research for numerous ballot measure and candidate campaigns.
Kelly is an experienced and professionally trained focus group moderator. She also regularly presents research findings to the public and the media on behalf of her clients and speaks to local and international groups on research trends and methods.
Kelly is a graduate of Oregon State University, with a degree in Business Administration/Marketing.
As a Vice President at Peak Insights, Evan Wilson has over a decade of expansive political and public affairs experience.
A veteran campaign operative, Evan brings his A game to polling, research and message development. He has served as Campaign Manager for three successful U.S. House races and also served as Political Director in what Politico and RCP dubbed the nation’s #1 contested U.S. Senate race.
In 2016, Evan served as Campaign Manager and Senior Policy Advisor for Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke’s successful reelect campaign, helping guide Zinke to a 16-point win. From there, Evan joined the Trump Administration to assist DOI Leadership in decoupling the Bureau of Land Management out of DC and bringing its headquarters closer to stakeholders.
A graduate of the University of Montana with two degrees in Political Science, Evan is based out of Peak Insight’s Denver office and spent the last cycle polling for Colorado Oil & Gas, the California Republican Party and numerous other statewide-elected officials West of the Mississippi. In his free time, he enjoys fly fishing and watching his two children, battle over who gets out of the family Jeep first.
As a Partner at Peak Insights, Kristina Britton has nearly two decades of operational management experience. At Peak, she is responsible for data management, business planning and company operations.
One of Kristina’s primary roles is to oversee all phases of the data collection process, from project inception, interviewing and sample acquisition, to data processing and tabulation. She also designs and oversees the implementation of both industry standards and Peak Insights quality methods. She ensures every project meets specifications and is delivered on time. Kristina regularly participates in professional education programs to learn about new data collection, analysis technologies and innovations in quality standards, and determines how these innovations can be adapted to best serve our clients.
Prior to joining the Peak team in 2000, Britton held management positions for Protection One and Express Personnel Services, where she was responsible for hiring, training and managing teams of up to 600 employees. In her previous roles at both companies, Kristina established job procedures and expectations and ensured her team’s work met or exceeded quality standards.
Kristina is a graduate of the University of Oregon and is based out of Peak’s Portland, Oregon office. Kristina, her husband and two children live in the Portland area and can be regularly found on their way to a variety of extracurricular competitions.
Robin Kreger works closely with clients to design effective quantitative and qualitative research programs. As a trained focus group moderator, Kreger brings an additional level of expertise to all of the qualitative projects she manages.
Since Robin joined Peak Insights in 2001, she has designed and conducted research projects for a number of non-profit, corporate and political clients. Robin has worked extensively with political candidates and on ballot measures, including Senator Steve Daines (MT) and the No on Prop 1/betting on historical horse racing ballot measure in Idaho. Robin has also contributed to a variety of projects in the education, health care and environmental fields, including work for numerous school districts and hospitals in the Northwest, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Puget Sound Partnership in Washington State.
Robin is also experienced in designing online research for clients who want to learn more about the views of their members, opinion leaders and other specialized audiences that are well-suited to Internet-based surveys.
Robin graduated with honors from Lewis and Clark College and lives with her husband in the St. Johns neighborhood in Portland, where they nearly always have some sort of house project they should be working on.
As Vice President at Peak Insights Jeff Glassburner has a proven track record of organizing and managing high-level campaigns, applying data-driven decision-making, and providing strategic direction to political operations.
As an experienced political operative, Jeff has managed multiple nationally-targeted statewide campaigns and served as the Iowa State Director on a presidential campaign. He has overseen eight-figure budgets and led large teams of vendors, consultants, and staff.
Before joining Peak Insights, Jeff worked on the regional team in the data department at the Republican National Committee. In this role, he oversaw 13 states and interfaced with targeted campaigns and state party organizations, providing them with data advice and servicing data requests.
Jeff’s strategic use of data and translating what data means to real-world decision-making reflects his commitment to optimizing campaign efforts and finding the most effective strategy for winning competitive campaigns.
Jeff lives in DC and is a passionate Oklahoma Sooners football fan. He enjoys hiking, running and attempting to play golf in his free time, in addition to probably spending too much time on Twitter.
Sam Lancaster brings Peak Insights clients an expert approach to voter contact that delivers results. He specializes in planning, organizing, and executing winning grassroots voter contact operations to accommodate the ever-evolving demands of any campaign. His clients include members of the U.S. Senate, U.S. House, State legislative offices and other state and locally elected officials.
Sam works directly with campaigns and organizations to meet their individual needs by crafting and executing unique voter contact plans. This includes facilitating patch-thru communications, persuasion, GOTV, voter ID calls and texts, and microtargeting, all while fully integrating collected data with the clients’ preferred data source. Sam takes great pride in his ability to recognize and overcome the challenges posed by today’s fast paced political environment and a shifting electorate – and deliver big wins.
Sam is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology and is based out of MIG’s Atlanta office. Sam lives in Marietta with his wife, Taylor, and their two dogs, Lucy and Covie. In his free time, he enjoys golfing, playing competitive men’s softball, and cheering on the best team in baseball: The Atlanta Braves.
Larry Jacobs draws from more than three decades of quantitative research expertise to provide Peak Insights clients with comprehensive analysis and actionable results. Larry strives to create maximum value in all phases of the projects he touches, from study scoping, design and execution through delivery of actionable results.
With experience across a broad range of research areas, from public policy and political campaigns to brand strategy, messaging and product innovation, Larry has helped a wide array of clients ranging from public policy and political organizations to Fortune 500 companies. With this broad range of experience, Larry is able to bring a unique perspective to Peak clients.
Since joining Peak Insights Larry has been focusing on a combination of political candidate and issue advocacy projects, as well as attitudinal and satisfaction research among employees, management and other key client stakeholder audiences as he continues to broaden the breadth of his research experience.
Larry graduated with a B.S. in Finance from Lehigh University and an MBA in Marketing from Indiana University – Bloomington. Larry lives with his wife, teenaged son and, on occasion, his college-aged daughter in the East Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, just up the block from Wrigley Field, where he spends his summers enjoying everything Chicago has to offer and his winters lamenting the fact that it is not summer.
Dave Rohmbock coordinates data processing functions and maintains all systems hardware and software for Peak Insights.
Originally joining the Peak team in 1995 as an interviewer, Dave moved quickly to the role of field supervisor and later to data processing assistant. Dave’s knowledge and experience are reflected in the continued ease with which he offers improved solutions and integrates them into the Data Processing and IT Departments.
Prior to joining Peak Insights, Rohmbock worked for Stream International as an IT specialist, providing end-user hardware and operating system support for two major PC manufacturers. Dave also worked at Coast to Coast and Life Partners Group Insurance in Colorado, before moving to Portland in 1994.
A critical part of the Peak Insights sales team, Amy Dupras coordinates business development strategies, focusing on client base retention and expansion. Famous at Peak for her organizational skills and attention to detail, Amy works closely with our Partners and Vice Presidents to research and identify potential new clients, develop marketing materials and track sales goals. In addition to her business development expertise, Amy also helps manage our focus group program and provides other critical support to Project Managers and senior staff.
Prior to joining the Peak Insights team, Amy worked as a licensed property manager. Certified by the Montana Board of Realty Regulation, she dealt with all aspects of property management, including compliance, tenant conflict resolution and even implemented the company’s first electronic rent and application system.
Amy attended the University of Montana and when she is not strategizing about Fantasy Football, can be found attending her boys’ various extracurricular activities.
As Project Manager, Kris provides critical support to Peak Insights colleagues in all six of our office locations across the country and ensures research projects of all sizes and topics are completed in a timely and efficient manner. From project inception to the final deliverables, Peak relies on Kris’s attention to detail and organizational skills to prepare and quality check the meaningful and actionable results Peak clients have come to expect.
Kris comes to us from FP1 Strategies, where she was an Operations Director based in the Washington D.C. area, before being called back home to Montana and joining Peak Insights’ Missoula office. Kris’s other past experience includes working in Phoenix as a high-volume recruiter responsible for maintaining more than 350 positions and Executive Director of a non-profit community center in Montana.
Kris is happy to be back in Montana and enjoys spending time with family and friends, most notably on Flathead Lake.
Brittney Lorengo works alongside Peak Insights principals and senior project staff from start to finish. As a Project Manager, she dives into background project research and assists in developing and preparing survey questionnaires. She is also a Peak “go to” when it comes to preparing data deliverables, presentations and written reports.
Prior to joining Peak Insights, Brittney owned and operated a corporate accounting firm, in addition to managing six tax offices throughout Western Montana. She was responsible for the hiring, training and management of employees as well as performance reviews. She sets organization and office goals and expectations for quality work and office standards of professionalism and integrity.
Brittney brings her 10 years of experience in the accounting world to Peak and contributes widely to the company’s accounting department activities, including tracking and recording accounts payable and receivable and preparing weekly and monthly financial reports.
A graduate from the University of Montana with degrees in legal studies and psychology, Brittney is based in Peak’s Missoula, Montana office. As a native Montanan, she enjoys taking advantage of Montana’s wide variety of year-round outdoor activities with her children – when she can convince them it’s cool to hang out with their mom.
As a Project Coordinator for Peak Insights, Marcy works closely with project managers to execute client deliverables and provide project support. Prior to Peak, Marcy was one of the top Sales Managers for Macy’s, ranking in the top 10 in revenue growth. She was a key member in implementing several new programs which helped advance the sales team to reach that goal.
Most recently, she worked as a Surgery scheduler and Manager for the Chief of Staff of a Vascular Surgery Clinic. Having owned her own salon in Montana for over a decade, Marcy is no stranger to management and business development. This combined experience has helped Marcy gain the skills it takes to work collaboratively, meet deadlines, be flexible and produce quality work. She is always ready to jump in wherever she is needed, bringing outstanding organizational skills, dependability, creativity, and a fresh approach to everyday tasks.
Marcy likes to spend her time listening to music, watching sports, and spending time on Flathead Lake. Being back in Montana surrounded by family and friends is where her heart is.
With more than 25 years in the project management of both quantitative and qualitative marketing research, Tamara Wisinski Wynn joins Peak Insights with a wealth of experience that we are eager to share with our clients. Tamme knows research from the ground up, having managed hundreds of research projects, including a variety of in-depth interviews and focus group research, as well as led global tracking studies.
Peak Insights prides itself on being a national firm with a personal touch – making us the perfect fit for Tamme, as she has worked for both small, independent research firms and companies with a wide global reach. Tamme’s successful leadership of projects of all shapes and sizes, as well as her comprehensive experience means, that Tamme is well versed in multiple methodologies, bringing valuable perspective to Peak Insight clients, while producing customized research results.
Tamme is a University of Illinois at Chicago graduate, with a B.S. in Marketing. She lives in the South Loop neighborhood of Chicago with her husband and cat, and works hard to better her corner of the world through volunteer work.
Peak Insights conducted a multi-phase market assessment study regarding cold weather outerwear for Hoechst Celanese Corp. a manufacturer of a chemical-based synthetic down filler product. This study included surveys spanning 3 continents (North America, Asia and Europe) and included a wide array of key stakeholder audiences, including outdoor apparel manufacturers, sales representatives and outdoor enthusiasts/consumers, to explore market potential and decision factors impacting the cold weather outerwear industry.
Peak Insights implemented a highly impactful research program for this 5th generation family-owned forestry company, with logging, wood products, real estate and international shipping operations in North America and New Zealand. For over 20 years, our team has helped Port Blakely navigate an ever-changing landscape, impacted by shifts in the global economy, consumer behavior and environmental factors by re-branding and listening to their key stakeholders. Comprehensive research among both internal and external audiences (employees, customers, opinion leaders and industry leaders) has allowed the company to grow its business while cultivating healthy forests, and providing sustainable forest products that supplement their local communities.
Since 2004 Peak Insights has helped Intel measure and monitor public perceptions of their operations in its manufacturing sites throughout the country. These Community Perception Studies (CPS) in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Oregon are designed to track Intel’s image, as well as that of other major employers in each area. The CPS surveys are customized for each specific Intel community, examining regional issues and exploring the local political climate to provide Intel with information to further their positive role and impact. Specific issues explored include tax policy, environmental regulations, corporate citizenship and local education issues.
Univision is the leading multimedia company serving Hispanic Americans, and they rely on Peak Insights for research to gain deeper understanding of the values and drivers impacting Hispanic voting behavior, preferences and decision-making.
Immigration policy is an issue we’ve polled on extensively for numerous campaigns and IEs in states such as Florida, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona – and with GROW Elect, a political organization dedicated to electing Latino Republicans in California.
Specifically, in Florida races, we know how to differentiate between key groups like Cubans and Puerto Ricans. This requires a recognition that all Hispanic voters are not and cannot be treated the same in campaign communications, and we take a deeper dive to identify what works with each unique subset of Hispanic voters.
Additionally, we collaborated with a group of GOP pollsters on a national project for FWD.us including focus groups and a national voter study that focused on Hispanic voters specifically, to help determine where America really stands on immigration policy.
Mortgage Lending with the Community in Mind
As a company experiencing a tremendous rate of growth and ready to take the next step in expansion, Hometown Lenders wanted to understand what kind of company homebuyers wants to work with and wanted to explain to people that being a member of a community is of the upmost importance to them. Before moving ahead with a high cost ad campaign, Hometown Lenders worked with Peak Insights to determine which of their creative ideas made the biggest impressions, were the most memorable, most effective and earned the most positive reactions. It may sound as though these are all similar measurements, but ad testing illuminates the nuances of marketing creative – for example, an ad that is memorable, may be memorable for the wrong reasons. We were also able to evaluate each ad for clarity of message and determine, that for mortgage lenders ads, the devil can be in the details.
Peak Insights is proud to have played a critical role in United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI)’s efforts to persuade the Biden Administration to abandon efforts to restore the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal. Through comprehensive national polling and research in politically targeted states, UANI was able to gain understanding of public awareness and perceptions around Iran’s nuclear program and the importance of U.S. policies that seek to dismantle and eliminate those capabilities.
Peak Insights utilized polling and data analytics to help the Montana Chamber develop a “pro-business” score to rank each House and Senate district in the state. We then worked with the MT Chamber to match legislator score cards to the pro-business ranking in order to help their PAC determine which legislator was not as “pro-business” as his/her district. This cutting-edge program completely revamped how the Chamber identifies and targets key legislative races in order to help elect more pro-business candidates.
Peak Insights has been retained by CRED in a long-term partnership to provide public opinion research for their ongoing public and government affairs efforts in the state of Colorado. Our work for CRED includes multiple comprehensive statewide voter surveys, focus groups, ad testing and other research initiatives to assist in development, testing and monitoring of major communications with the goal of providing information to the public about the economic and environmental benefits of safe and responsible oil and gas development.
The Texas Association of Trial Lawyers wanted to gain a better understanding of how to talk to law makers about judicial reform issues. Peak Insights partnered with a prominent Democrat firm to design and implement a comprehensive research program that armed the association with concrete messaging for how to talk about the issue to Republican and Democrat lawmakers.
By working together with a pollster from across the aisle, Peak Insights conducted research among likely voters in six key U.S. Senate Battleground states concerning high drug costs and pharmaceutical companies. These live caller surveys were conducted among likely 2024 General Election voters statewide in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and delved into a variety of issues concerning Battleground state political environments and who voters in these key states will back in the high prescription drug price blame game.
Coalition for Enhanced Marine Resources
Time and time again, clients who want to inform public opinion turn to Peak Insights. In 2019, we worked with a consortium of oil and gas and industry clients to advance the “Rigs to Reef” program in California. By polling both statewide and in Santa Barbara County, we were able to illuminate a messaging pathway for the oil and gas industry to move ahead with plans for the Rigs to Reef program that would provide enhanced marine environment and fish habitat, additional recreational and commercial fishing, and a cost savings for oil and gas companies through the re-use and re-imaging of oil platforms. Our messaging was able to increase support for the program among groups who are not traditional oil and gas industry enthusiasts, including women, younger voters, non-Anglos and Liberals. We were also successful in moving the less informed and those who were undecided, toward support of the program.
Washington I-1631 was a statewide initiative proposed in 2018 that would have established the nation’s first “carbon tax” on greenhouse gas emissions. The “yes” side coalition was formidable, comprised of a laundry list of high-profile environmental groups, labor unions and tribal organizations. Proponents had a lot of things going for them, including solid resources (over $15M) and an electorate that is highly environmentally sensitive and eager to address climate change in the form of public policy. Washington is a deeply blue state, dominated by the Seattle DMA which covers roughly 60% of the state. Peak Insights was hired as lead pollster for the “No on 1631” campaign, headed by the Western States Petroleum Association.
Our initial statewide voter survey showed majority support for I-1631, which was clearly benefitting from favorable ballot language, fawning media coverage and the promise of funding going to a slew of special interest groups. The poll also revealed that one of the major challenges facing the No on 1631 campaign was in how to “frame” the debate – was it a “pollution fee” on big industry designed to reduce carbon emissions and move the state toward clean energy, or was it a poorly designed, unfair “energy tax” that would ultimately be passed on to consumers and hurt those who could least afford it? Through our comprehensive research program, which included in-person focus groups, online ad testing, multiple message refinement surveys and an extensive nightly tracking program, Peak Insights was able to guide the No on 1631 campaign to victory by helping to successfully frame the debate, develop key messages to specific target audiences, and identify the most effective messengers to deliver those messages.
As is often the case with partisan-driven issues like climate change, the “swing” voters in this campaign were made up largely of unaffiliated/Independent voters. This group also tended to fit the description of “cord-cutters” – voters who don’t typically rely on traditional media for news about politics and issues. Our polling, in conjunction with the modeling data, provided a clear path to connecting with these voters. This group had more macro-level than micro-level concerns and, as a result, responded favorably to communications that provided a broad summary of the negative impacts of I-1631. The notion that I-1631 would create a financial burden on individuals and families through higher gas prices and rising energy costs, without a guarantee of meaningful reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, was a compelling argument for this swing audience.
Credibility of message and messenger was critical in defeating I-1631 and our research shaped the narrative and delivery from start to finish. We worked closely with the analytics and modeling teams to ensure that the right messages were delivered to the right audiences, through the right mediums and at the right time.
Montana was one of several states in 2018 that faced statewide ballot questions seeking to fund Medicaid expansion, post-Obamacare. Initiative 185 would have paid for Medicaid expansion through increased tobacco taxes, raising the tax on a pack of cigarettes from $1.70 to $3.70, the third highest rate of any state in the nation, and an 83% tax hike on electronic cigarettes. While promising funding for a laundry list of “certain health-related programs,” I-185 was essentially an unfunded mandate that would tax a declining revenue source and leave Montana taxpayers on the hook for future tax increases. Peak Insights provided a comprehensive research program, including extensive quantitative and qualitative research, which helped develop a highly targeted message strategy to defeat this costly proposal.
I-185 was ultimately defeated, 53-47%.
In 2022, Zach Nunn faced two-term Democratic incumbent Cindy Axne in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional district, a race that had been noted as a highly competitive match-up to watch in a narrowly leaning Republican district. Nunn trusted Peak Insights to help craft messages that appealed to voters in the district, highlighting his conservative, Iowa roots and military service, and asking voters to compare the federal government to Iowa’s own Republican leadership. On election day, Nunn won by a 2,144-vote margin, flipping this blue seat to red and giving Republican control of all four of Iowa’s districts in the U.S. House.
In what was labeled a “toss up” race by the DC media insiders, Peak Insights once again helped incumbent Senator Susan Collins win in a challenging political environment in Maine. Peak polled for Collins in her first campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1996 and has been with her ever since. Maine is a state where Independents make up a plurality of the electorate and appealing to that audience is critical to statewide success. Over the years we have devoted a great deal of time and energy to analyzing these voters and the messages and approaches that best appeal to them. Every campaign is different and the issues that voters care about can change, but Collins has always been able to carry this key voting group by large margins, including her victory in the 2020 General, where she beat opponent Sara Gideon by almost 9 points – despite the Cook Political Report calling the race a toss up as late as October 29th and being vastly outspent.
In CA-21, a Hispanic voter majority district, Democrats hold a double-digit voter registration edge over Republicans, which means winning over Independents and some Democrats is key. Peak Insights tailored a research plan for David Valadao that developed impactful messages to persuade these key swing groups. The result was Valadao pulling off a stunning upset victory over incumbent T.J. Cox in one of the top targeted and most expensive congressional races of 2020.
Incumbent Senator Steve Daines “can’t imagine running an election without Peak Insights,” and his successful 2020 re-election was no exception. In a race labeled by the Cook Political Report as a “toss up,” Peak helped Daines win a decisive victory over Governor Steve Bullock in the most expensive and closely watched race in Montana history. Montana has been reliably Republican at the presidential level but has elected several Democrats statewide, including Governor Steve Bullock, who had record breaking amounts of money streaming in from out of state. But even before the race was called a toss-up, Peak Insights and the Daines campaign were hard at work, conducting a comprehensive polling and research plan, looking at the race from all angles in order to make sure the voters of Montana knew exactly where the candidates stood on issues important to Montanans. And on Election Day, the Daines campaign knew where they stood, no matter what the public polls said, because they were armed with years of Peak Insights research and the most up-to-date data – resulting in a 10-point Daines victory.
Peak Insight’s polling and messaging helped political outsider and former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville pull off an upset victory against a better funded field of opponents in the crowded Alabama GOP Primary for U.S. Senate in March 2020. Tuberville then immediately faced former Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions in a head-to-head runoff election in July. In that runoff, Peak used cutting edge research to help the Tuberville campaign craft winning messages highlighting Coach’s conservative outsider status leading to Tuberville’s victory in 64 of 67 counties, putting an end to Session’s political career with a 61-39% win.
For over a decade, this Washington-based hospital system has relied on Peak Insights to help navigate a rapidly changing landscape, with a continuous pattern of new mergers, acquisitions and partnerships between the region’s many health care systems. Peak’s community-based research program helped CHI establish and grow its brand with each new market, by gaining understanding of local perceptions of health care providers and facilities, establishing a baseline of public opinion and monitoring those perceptions over time. Most recently, Peak Insights provided critical public opinion research around the merger between CHI Franciscan and Seattle-based Virginia Mason which married two of the state’s largest hospital systems, operating 11 hospitals and over 300 sites of care.
University of Washington
Peak Insights served as the lead research provider to one of the oldest universities on the West Coast – one that is currently sitting inside the top five ranking for public universities in the U.S. That impressive ranking was not always the case. Nearly 15 years ago, the University of Washington barely broke into the top 50 rankings and turned to us to improve their public image and identify opportunities for improvement. Our research provided UW with the critical data needed to evaluate changes in public perceptions over time, determine their standing compared to other universities in the region and explore and develop a long-term strategic communications plan.
