The University of Massachusetts Amherst Poll (UMass Poll) combines cutting-edge online polling with academic and professional expertise in the science of politics. The result is accurate, affordable, innovative, and timely polling data that provides insights into the civic health, vitality, and public opinion of citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the nation.
The UMass Poll is led by a team of nationally-renowned experts of survey research methods, American public opinion, race, ethnicity, and immigration, parties, partisanship and polarization, and public policymaking. This expertise enables the Poll to provide accurate snapshots of citizens’ attitudes, beliefs, and vote intentions to better understand future trends, both in Massachusetts and the nation..
UMass Poll results have been featured in prominent state and national media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, WCVB, The Boston Globe, Politico, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC.
Who We Are
Director of the UMass Amherst Poll
Tatishe Nteta
Tatishe Nteta is a leading expert in the area of polling and public opinion. Nteta’s research on public opinion has been published in top peer-reviewed journals, including Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Behavior, Political Psychology, and Political Communication. His work has also been cited in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, NPR, Vox, and Fox News.
Co-Directors
The UMass Amherst Poll’s Co-Directors offer additional expertise on public opinion and a range of political topics.
Ray La Raja
Ray La Raja is a leading authority on political parties, interest groups, elections, campaign finance and state politics. He is the founding co-editor of The Forum, a journal of applied research in American politics, author of Small Change: Money, Political Parties and Campaign Finance Reform, and co-author of the award winning Campaign Finance and Political Polarization: When Purists Prevail. His commentary has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and The Atlantic.
Jesse Rhodes
Jesse Rhodes is a leading expert in social policy, voting rights, inequality, and political behavior. He is the author of An Education in Politics: The Origin and Development of No Child Left Behind and Ballot Blocked: The Political Erosion of the Voting Rights Act, and his work has appeared in Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Behavior, Political Research Quarterly, Quarterly Journal of Political Science, and Presidential Studies Quarterly, as well as in popular venues such as the New York Times and Washington Post.
Alexander Theodoridis
Alexander Theodoridis is a leading expert in American electoral politics, with a focus on political behavior/psychology, campaign effects, policy attitudes to understand the ways in which citizens interact with the political world in an era of hyper-polarization. He published in the Journal of Politics, Political Analysis, Political Behavior, the Journal of Experimental Political Science, Political Psychology, Election Law Journal, Environmental Politics, The Forum, and PS, and has been recognized by the John Sullivan Award, the Elections Public Opinion and Voting Behavior Best Paper Award, and the Society for Political Methodology's Warren Miller Prize. It has also been featured by the New York Times, Washington Post, Scientific American, Time, CNN, The Hindu, The Economist and many other media outlets.
Post Doctoral Fellow
Sara Kirshbaum
Sara Kirshbaum is a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer in the political science department. Her research interests center around American political behavior including political participation, mobilization, and elections.
Graduate Poll Fellows
Adam Eichen
Adam is a PhD student in political science and serves as a graduate fellow of the UMass Poll. He assists with the creation, analysis, and dissemination of all national and Massachusetts polls, and manages undergraduate projects associated with the poll. His polling analysis has been featured in The Washington Post, Newsweek, and The Conversation.
Adam’s academic interests span American public opinion, political psychology, and American political development. He is the co-author of a number of working papers. These include investigations of racial biases in constituent responsiveness in state legislatures, the usage of family imagery in gubernatorial campaigns, and the roadblocks to de-democratization in the American South. His dissertation examines the spread of state policies that empower citizens in the political process.
Lane Cuthbert
Lane is a Ph.D. student studying political science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he serves as a graduate student fellow on the UMass Poll. At the UMass Poll, Lane is involved in the design, analysis, and presentation of public opinion data from Massachusetts and national polls.
Lane's academic focus lies in American public opinion, political psychology, and political behavior. His research addresses the role of affective polarization in American politics and cognitive biases in the mass public. Lane's dissertation investigates public opinion toward and media coverage of transgender people and their rights.
Donny Snyder
Donny Snyder is a graduate student fellow at the UMass Poll. He is a fourth-year PhD student studying political science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. At the UMass Poll, Donny creates data visualizations and performs statistical analyses of nationally representative polls.
Donny's academic research centers around topics of political psychology, polarization, and intergroup relations. He studies interventions into reducing intergroup biases by increasing perceptions of complexity among mass-level partisans. His research also analyzes how different mediums for receiving information about groups may alter the terrain for intergroup relations. Donny's intended dissertation topic links a changing media landscape to perceptual distortions in how partisans comprehend group characteristics across time.
Sydney V. Brake
Sydney V. Brake is a third-year Ph.D. student in the department of political science. Her research lies in political psychology and public opinion, with a focus on political polarization, the psychology of legitimacy in American politics, and the emotional and identity-based foundations of political behavior. Broadly, she is interested in how citizens form and maintain trust in political institutions and how perceptions of legitimacy shape attitudes toward democratic norms and behavior. She is also interested in how perceptions of group status, identity threat, and masculinity shape attitudes toward democratic norms and political violence.
Tim Komatsu
Tim is a third year Ph.D. student in the department of political science. His research centers on public perceptions of democratic legitimacy and the ways that these perceptions are affected by inequality and polarization. He is also interested in exploring how public opinion shapes and is shaped by political institutions and the law. Tim also serves as a fellow in the Center for Justice, Law, and Societies.
Jesse Usher Barrett
Jesse is a 4th year Ph.D. student in the department of political science. His research focuses on political psychology and behavior with a special interest in conspiracy theories and misinformation, political extremism and violence, and the role of the media. He also is interested in judicial politics, exploring polarization, partisanship, and institutional legitimacy of the state and federal courts.
Graham Backman
Graham Backman is a Masters student pursuing a degree in Data Analytics and Computational Social Science. His research tracks the historical evolution of how presidential campaigns use racial rhetoric in television ads to understand how political elites communicate and try to garner support from various racial groups. As an undergraduate at UMass Amherst, Graham was in the inaugural cohort of UMass Poll Undergraduate Fellows. He presented UMass Poll findings at the annual American Political Science Association Conference in September 2024.
Emily DeGowin
Emily DeGowin is pursuing her Masters degree in Data Analytics and Computational Social Science. Her academic interests center on inequality, exploring and identifying remedies to racial, gender, sexual, and economic disparities. She is particularly interested in applying data analytics, quantitative methods, and political theory in her work and throughout her future professional career. As an undergraduate at UMass Amherst, Emily was in the inaugural cohort of UMass Poll Undergraduate Fellows. She presented UMass Poll findings at the annual American Political Science Association Conference in September 2024.
Undergraduate Poll Fellows
Caroline Farley
Caroline Farley is a class of 2026 Political Science major with minors in Business and Art History. She is interested in political behavior, law and governance, and how housing, race, and economic policy shape inequality and the contemporary wealth gap in the United States. She is also interested in the histories of social movements and how policy decisions construct systems of inclusion and exclusion. Caroline serves as a supervisor with the Boltwood Project, where she supports disability communities through service, education on policy and inequality, and advocacy.
Charles Goodchild
Charlie Goodchild (‘27) is a class of 2027 political science and communication major. His research centers on understanding why people think, vote, and act the way they do politically, with a focus on how media, social environments, and identity shape civic behavior. Charlie is especially interested in connecting theory with real-world trends in political participation and public opinion. Outside the classroom, he serves as a delegate for the Massachusetts Democratic Party and remains active in exploring how communication influences democratic engagement.
Hudson Maks
Hudson is a class of 2027 Public Policy major pursuing the DACSS certificate. His interests lie in social welfare policy, childcare policy, and policing. He is passionate about the intersection of data analytics and policymaking, especially when it comes to social policy.
Madison Van Uitert
Madison is a class of 2027 Commonwealth Honors College student (‘27) majoring in Psychology and Political Science. Her academic interests include political psychology, public opinion, and political behavior related to polarization and hyper-partisanship. She is particularly interested in how identity influences group dynamics and conflict, and how these processes relate to partisan violence and extremism. Madison also serves as a research assistant on the American Multiracial Panel Survey with Professor Linda Tropp and in the Human Relations Lab with Professor Brian Lickel.
Ethan Walz
Ethan Walz is a class of 2028 Political Science and Informatics major. He is interested in public opinion, political behavior, socio-economic inequality, and political psychology. He is currently researching the political behavior of rural Americans and issues of race. Ethan is dedicated to learning how to combine data analytics with political science to analyze American politics. In addition to his research, he also writes for the Massachusetts Daily Collegian’s news and opinion section.
PAST FELLOWS
2025
Kaitlyn Soper
Kaitlyn is a Commonwealth Honors College student ('25) majoring in political science. Her academic interests revolve around American politics, specifically political behavior and the relationship between public policy and public opinion. Additionally, she is passionate about the political intricacies of prison reform, educational inequality, and voter suppression.
Bel Corder
Bel is a Commonwealth Honors College student ('25) majoring in Political Science and Psychology from New Mexico. Her academic interests include political psychology, education policy, and attitudes towards immigration. She also serves as research assistant on the American Multiracial Panel Survey with Professor Seth Goldman, which studies public opinion on contemporary demographic change. Bel is often found at Boyden Pool for repeat practices of UMass Club Swimming and UMass Club Water Polo.
CJ Tatsis
CJ is a class of 2025 Political Science major with a minor in History. His academic interests span both American Politics and Comparative Politics. He has a particular focus on political polarization in the United States — its history, causes, impact on our current political climate, and on solutions to reduce hyper-partisanship.
Administrative Director
Crystal Paul
Crystal Paul is a Senior Lecturer in the Data Analytics and Computational Social Science Program and also offers courses in Sociology. In addition to providing administrative support to the poll, she serves as the Executive Director of the School for Public Policy as well as the UMass Women into Leadership program. Crystal also serves as a member of the SBS Migration Working Group.