The Howard University Initiative on Public Opinion (HIPO) is a group of academics who conduct national polls and specialize in collecting data on Black communities’ opinions and experiences. They recently conducted polls pertaining to the current election cycle.
The initiative was started by the late Gary L. Harris, Ph.D., an associate provost for research and dean of the graduate school. With his leadership, a research faculty group came together to delve into academic partnerships and found that African Americans were not adequately represented in national polls and surveys. Thus, the initiative was created. The current director of HIPO is Terri Adams, Ph.D.
“[It’s] not just collecting data for the sake of collecting data, but it’s collecting data to uplift the voices of people who are often overlooked or oversimplified in public discourse,” Adams said while describing the initiative’s mission.
Following the announcement that Vice President Kamala Harris would be the Democratic nominee for the presidential race, HIPO launched a poll asking Black Americans about their views on her. They also conducted a series of focus groups talking to people in swing states. These polls yielded data that allowed them to understand some of the perceptions of the election issues and the candidates.
“Because Vice President Harris actually graduated from Howard, then that gave us kind of an extra significance, and also because there hasn’t been a lot of specific polling just of African-Americans. Our polling kind of stood out because of that,” Lusane said.
As a result of their most recent polls, the team has received media coverage and recognition. Their research has been spotlighted and used across media outlets, such as NBC News, The Hill, MSN and more.
Clarence Lusane, Ph.D., professor of political science and HIPO member, explained that HIPO works to ensure that African American voices are not neglected in discussions on major issues.
“Most of the polling that happens tends to undercount African Americans,” Lusane said. “So what we try to do is attest for that and to make sure that there’s a voice for African Americans on key issues, particularly when it comes to polling around elections.”
Lorenzo Morris, Ph.D., professor emeritus of political science and HIPO member, explained that the teams’ recent work has focused on seeing “to what extent African Americans are influenced by the candidates and to what extent they’re responding positively.”
To gather a deeper understanding of Black voters’ views, they have used a variety of mechanisms including polling people online, by phone and by following up with focus groups.
Dana Williams, Ph.D., professor of African American literature, dean of the graduate school, and HIPO member, emphasized that the team conducted the focus groups to figure out how to show variation within Black communities.
“We have 1,000 Black voters who are giving us their representation of issues that matter to them, and that’s really important because we know that campaign and administrations and legislation is driven by what politicians think matters to people,” Williams said.
The polls have focused on swing states and by gathering 1,000 respondents who are all Black voters, they have worked to figure out what issues Black voters are focused on and which candidates they identify with.
“We saw an increase really in support on the Democratic side in terms of males and females between September and October in terms of their increased support for Harris,” Williams added.
Adams described their recent work surrounding the election during such a critical moment in history as both “stressful and consequential.”
Williams also highlighted Adams’ point, explaining how the team has been working hard conducting their polls. They had to balance working quickly while also maintaining the integrity of the data.
“We had an alum in the race, which meant we had to be exceptionally careful, to avoid any assumptions around partisanship because we wanted people to really trust the authenticity of the poll. So we had to make sure that we were doubly careful checking all of the numbers, like, doing everything that needed to be done to make sure that our representation was accurate and unbiased,” Williams said.
The interdisciplinary team brings together perspectives of scholars with expertise across a range of disciplines. The professors that are involved come from a number of different departments.
“They come from political science, economics, psychology, history, sociology and more. And all of those disciplines have different ways in which they study society,” Lusane said. “And so what we found is that that’s been just extremely helpful in not only how we do our polling and our surveys, but also the interpretation.”
The diversity of studies is a notable point of distinction for the team.
“So we take pride in the fact that when we come together to create a survey or poll, that we’re not relying on one discipline. The interdisciplinarity of the team allows us to really look at things through a lens that we believe that others aren’t,” Adams said.
Copy edited by Anijah Franklin
