2008 PPP first entered prominence through its performance in the 2008 Democratic primaries between
Barack Obama and
Hillary Clinton. The company performed well, producing accurate predictions in states ranging from South Carolina to Wisconsin, many of which featured inaccurate results by other pollsters. After the November election, PPP was ranked by the
Wall Street Journal as one of the two most accurate firms, among those who were most active in the presidential swing states.
2011 PPP was praised in two articles from
politico.com for its accuracy in polling the 2011
primaries and
special elections, which are notoriously hard to predict. The contests they accurately predicted include the West Virginia gubernatorial primaries, special elections in New York and California, as well as all eight Wisconsin
recall elections.
2012 A study by
Fordham University found that, of 28 firms studied, PPP had the most accurate poll on the presidential national popular vote, both its independently conducted poll and the one it does in collaboration with the
Daily Kos and the
SEIU. PPP correctly called the winner of the presidential election in all 19 states it polled in the final week of the election, as well as the winners of all the U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races it surveyed.
2014 Political research firm
YouGov found PPP's gubernatorial polls to have the lowest average margin of error among national firms that polled in at least five gubernatorial races in the month preceding the election.
2016 In the
2016 Presidential Election, PPP's final polls widely missed the mark in several key swing states, including
New Hampshire,
North Carolina,
Pennsylvania, and
Wisconsin. Their polls also significantly underestimated
President Trump's lead in
Ohio, and incorrectly predicted
Hillary Clinton to win
Florida. ==Methodology and reception==