Keynote address

David Mermin, a pollster and political strategist for over 20 years, is a partner at Lake Research Partners and heads the firm’s west coast office in Berkeley, California. He advises incumbents and challengers at all levels of the electoral process, as well as a wide range of advocacy organizations, foundations, and policymakers, in the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries. David and his team at LRP conduct innovative opinion and message research on issues including immigration, health care, voting rights, housing, financial regulation, and retirement security. He polls for 5 current members of Congress and has advised Senators, Governors, Mayors, state legislators, and ballot initiative campaigns. His issue clients at LRP have included America’s Voice, the Brennan Center for Justice, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, ACLU, Americans for Financial Reform, Every Voice, AFL-CIO, SEIU, UFCW, Public Citizen, California Association of Nonprofits, Wikimedia Foundation, and the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems.

David joined LRP in 1996. He has also worked at The Harwood Group and the Health Care Financing Administration. He has presented research findings to audiences across the country, is a frequent guest lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, and has published articles in The American Prospect, Health Affairs, Aspenia, and The Polling Report.  A native of Atlanta, Georgia, he holds an M.A. in Geography from the University of Minnesota, and a B.A. in Political Science from Brown University.