America in One Room
Understanding polarization through research and productive discourse
The Challenge
Conduct a “deliberative poll”—a first-of-its-kind political discussion between 500 participants from across the country in “the most representative sample of the American voting electorate in U.S. history,” according to the organizers of the event.
The Strategy
Slingshot was the principal political advisor for this project, working closely with academics and nonprofits, including the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford University, NORC at the University of Chicago, and By the People Productions. These researchers tracked participants’ political opinions over the course of the forum. Slingshot also worked to recruit high-profile political figures such as 2020 presidential candidates Julián Castro and Michael Bennet to speak at the forum as well as helped to maximize media coverage of the event.
The project received widespread media coverage, including a special section in The New York Times that detailed the event and the researchers’ conclusions, which found that polarization decreased throughout the dialogue.
The Result
Media Impact
FiveThirtyEight
What Would Happen If American Voters All Got Together And Talked Politics?
The New York Times
This Experiment Has Some Great News for Our Democracy
CNN
526 people were asked to talk politics. The response tested American democracy
AXIOS
The limits of political tribalism
The New York Times
These 526 Voters Represent All of America. And They Spent a Weekend Together