Patriot Polling — a nonpartisan firm gauging voter sentiment — aims to fill two statistical voids identified by its two founders: faulty analyses and unfocused demographics. Wakisha Bailey covered their solution for CBS Philadelphia.

The firm’s leaders, Arhan Kaul and Lucca Ruggieri, are especially attuned to emerging voting blocs, especially Gen Z.

Their voter insight comes from being members of that demographic themselves.

Kaul, a 16-year-old Collegeville resident, attends Spring Ford High School; Ruggieri, 17, attends school in Chester County.

Driving the Patriot Polling statistical work is cited evidence that the major players often get voter sentiment wrong.

“Big miss in 2016; big miss in 2020. And we thought if these professional pollsters are getting it wrong, we might get it right,” Ruggieri said.

Kaul, chief polling director, is “…more interested in data statistics, but I try to keep up with politics.”

Their company, Patriot Polling, uses a third-party cold-calling system to survey voters nationwide.

One of its highest-profile 2022 successes was the New York gubernatorial race. Patriot Polling was one of the only organizations accurately citing how close it was for Democratic winner Kathy Hochul. She emerged victorious with just a five percent lead, a margin Patriot Polling was most exact in forecasting.

Their work has been lauded by statistical analysis publication FiveThirtyEight and The New York Times.

A full account of the work of Patriot Polling is at CBS Philadelphia.

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Arhan Kaul’s marketing savvy is evident in this video of a class assignment, pitching a common deck of cards for sale.