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The Passion of the Luntz

The legendary G.O.P. pollster apostate discusses the party’s latest apocalyptic turns: the martyrdom of Mike Pence, why voters are souring on DeSantis, and whether Tim Scott (or Joe Manchin!) can win Iowa.

In the MAGA-fied G.O.P., Frank Luntz has found himself on the outside for criticizing Trump and Trumpism, as well as for trying to prop up the conservative principles that once defined the party.
In the MAGA-fied G.O.P., Frank Luntz has found himself on the outside for criticizing Trump and Trumpism, as well as for trying to prop up the conservative principles that once defined the party. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images
Tina Nguyen
August 9, 2023

Frank Luntz was backstage at the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines last month, poring over the results of a focus group he’d just conducted with religious voters, when he heard a shocking sound: Mike Pence, a born-again evangelical Christian, getting loudly booed by his fellow believers. “I poked my head through the curtain because I couldn’t believe it,” the renowned and devilishly effective Republican pollster and messaging guru told me recently. “And it had nothing to do with his positions on values or on religion or on social issues. It had to do with Ukraine.”