A Question of Respect: Bringing Us Together in a Deeply Divided Nation

Life in America has become fractured—in public and private—across ever-widening fault lines of anger and incivility. 

The intensity of disagreement between Americans threatens the nation’s well-being, presenting itself as disrespectful and distrusting in politics, culture, and conversations. Confusion, frustration, and hatred permeate politics, social media interactions, and cable news. The dysfunction and distrust also appear on the streets and at dinner tables.

There is an urgent need for Americans to come together. But how? Pollsters and political strategists Ed Goeas, Republican, and Celinda Lake, Democrat, have worked together on their groundbreaking joint Battleground Poll for more than thirty years and have a shared stethoscope to the pulse of the American public. In their highly respected and widely quoted Battleground Polls, they ask questions and elicit responses that tell us what people think and feel about the most pressing issues of the day. 

While they often use relevant poll results in this book to illustrate their arguments, A Question of Respect is not about polling—nor does it contain a magic antidote for America's woes. Instead, it’s a political resource that depicts a compelling case for how the nation reached this moment and, more importantly, where it needs to go and what it might take. Though Ed is a Republican and Celinda is a Democrat, they have reached across the great divide to make the case that the only way for America to claw its way out of this mess is through mutual respect. They posit that respect is the foundation upon which we can again trust one another as Americans. 

For the last three decades, Ed Goeas has served as President and C.E.O. of The Tarrance Group, one of the most respected and successful Republican survey research and strategy teams in American politics. The Tarrance Group serves as the pollster for 30 current Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, 12 U.S. Senators, and five Governors. Over the last thirty years, the team has elected hundreds of Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, dozens of U.S. Senators, and numerous Governors, along with countless statewide officeholders, State Senators, and State Representatives. In recognition of the number of winning campaigns conducted by The Tarrance Group, Ed and his partners Brian Tringali and Dave Sackett were honored as “2010 Republican Pollster of the Year” and “2014 Republican Pollster of the Year” by the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC).

Ed is also widely recognized as one of the country’s leading political strategists. He was Program Director for the 2008 Republican National Convention for John McCain. On the Board of Directors for the American Association of Political Consultants for twenty-five years, he was the longest-serving member of the Board, focusing his efforts on Campaign Ethics and promoting increased youth participation in the industry.

In addition to his campaign work, Goeas works in partnership with Democratic pollster Celinda Lake on the nationally recognized “Georgetown University Institute of Politics and Public Service Battleground Poll,” one of the country’s most respected national political research programs. In 2011, Lake and Goeas were awarded the “Distinguished Service to the Profession Award” for their body of work on the Battleground Poll over the last twenty years.

Celinda Lake is one of the Democratic Party’s leading political strategists, having served as one of the top two pollsters for the Biden campaign and continuing to work for the DNC. She works for the national party committees and dozens of Democratic incumbents and challengers. Celinda and her firm, Lake Research Partners, are known for cutting-edge research on issues including the economy, health care, the environment, and education, and have worked for several institutions, including the Democratic Attorneys General Association, AFL-CIO, SEIU, NRDC, ecoAmerica, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, EMILY’s List, and the Barbara Lee Family Foundation. Her international work has included work in Liberia, Belarus, Ukraine, South Africa, and Central America. During the 1992 election cycle, Celinda oversaw focus group research for the Clinton-Gore campaign. In 2005, she and Kellyanne Conway published What Women Really Want, which examines the ways women are changing the political landscape in America. Celinda is one of the nation’s foremost experts on framing issues for women voters and has elected more women to office than any other firm in the country. 

Celinda, a native of Montana—born and raised on a ranch—and one of the political world’s most avid whitewater rafters, holds a master’s degree in Political Science and Survey Research from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and a certificate in Political Science from the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Celinda received her undergraduate degree from Smith College in Massachusetts and was recently awarded the Distinguished Alumna Medal. She received the lifetime achievement award from the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) with Republican Ed Goeas for her work on the Battleground Poll.