It is honestly fascinating how much importance is given to polls come election season in the US. And it’s even more fascinating how they can sway an entire election whether they are accurate or not, and even when they entirely miss the mark.
John Zoghby’s polling firm, however, hardly ever gets it wrong.
John Zogby, an internationally-recognized pollster, aspiring politician, and author, was born on September 3, 1948, in Utica, New York. He is the son of Lebanese Catholic immigrants. His brother, James Zogby, is the founder of the Arab American Institute.
Zogby completed his undergraduate studies in History at Le Moyne College in 1970 and his Master’s degree in History from Syracuse University in 1974.
He went on to do some work toward a Ph.D. in 1978 which he did not complete. He has taught history and political science for 24 years across multiple American universities.
He is the founder, president and CEO of Zogby International, a polling firm known for both phone polling and interactive, and Internet-based polling.
An interpreter of the political scene, Zogby had a brief stint as an aspiring politician himself in 1981, when he ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Utica, New York.
While he describes himself as a Democrat, he describes his polling firm as “independent and non-partisan.”
He first gained attention in the 1992 Presidential Election when he released a survey showing the New York State Governor Mario Cuomo would lose in his home state to incumbent President George H. W. Bush.
That poll is widely thought to have pushed Cuomo from the race. Later, he gained more national attention in the 1996 Presidential Election when his final poll came within a tenth of a point of the actual result.
Zogby also correctly polled the cliffhanger result of the US 2000 presidential election won narrowly by George W. Bush, in contrast to most other pollsters who had expected Bush to win easily.
The highly successful and often accurate political polling of Zogby’s company has led him to conduct polls on behalf of major media outlets.
Namely: Reuters, NBC News, the New York Post, the Miami Herald, the Houston Chronicle, the Buffalo News, and numerous television stations and newspapers across the United States.
He has been featured as a speaker for several associations, including the Food Marketing Association and the Detroit Economic Club, a platform for the debate and discussion of the great business, government, and social issues.
Zogby has also been recognized internationally for his influential social and political roles, often serving as Keynote Speaker at events sponsored by think tanks.
That includes the Center for Strategic and International Studies in DC, Chatham House in London, and the French Institute for International Relations in Paris.
His analysis has been published in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and multiple international outlets and publications.
In 2014 he was honored at the Annual One to World Foundation Fulbright Awards Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria.
In his American home town, he was named “A Living Legend” by the Oneida County Historical Association.
