Brent Buchanan

President & Founder / Travel Snob

Brent Buchanan is an international pollster and messaging strategist based in Washington, DC. He was recognized by the American Association of Political Consultants as a 40 Under 40 and by Campaigns & Elections as a Rising Star, has served in multiple polling, communication, and strategy roles for governors, presidents, legislative leaders, and major corporations. Brent is founder and president of Cygnal, an award-winning polling, public opinion, and predictive analytics firm also based in Washington, DC, whose clients include Fortune Global 500 companies, heads of state, U.S. senators, congressmen, dozens of state legislative caucuses, and trade associations. The company is recognized by Inc. 5000 as the fastest growing private research company in the U.S. and in the top third of growth for all private American companies. Cygnal conducted more than 800 surveys in 2020 and is on track to develop, field, and analyze more than 1400 surveys in 2022 in U.S. and foreign countries. He helped create Cygnal’s proprietary Emotive Analysis which quantitatively analyzes voter emotions, allowing campaigns to bypass the logical brain and tap directly into the heart of what voters are feeling, not just thinking. Brent does not have any free time because his most important priority is his wife of 13 years and five children ranging from age 12 to age 5.

What was your first job?
My first real job was working as a waiter at Steak ‘n Shake. There’s not much better than a SnS patty melt. Best story while working at the restaurant…I was serving milkshakes to full table of really cute girls. As I took the milkshakes off the tray, they got unbalanced (rookie mistake!) and I dumped one on a girl at the table. Talk about feeling dumb! Years later my wife was telling me a story about this goofy waiter who dumped a milkshake on her friend when she was at Steak ‘n Shake. 🙄

Who is someone you admire?
President John F. Kennedy. He wasn’t the chosen son. His dad meddled in his career. He had immense physical challenges that he worked hard to hide from the public. Moral of the story is that challenges build us, and Kennedy had more than his fair share of obstacles.

If I were a superhero, my superpower would be…
Flying. Is there another choice? Patience isn’t a virtue of mine, so being able to fly anywhere, any time, in no time would be incredible. Now I take that back–teleportation.

What problems do you consistently solve for your clients?
Why. Too often people focus on the “what” without seeking to understand the “why.” Answer “why” is much more powerful. Take for example a message testing question. The “what” is that 52% of people believe X. But understanding the “why” behind the 52% is how you move that number to 72%. This is where Cygnal excels!

Posts Featuring Brent

Listen – Brent Buchanan Joins Steve Scully on SiriusXM P.O.T.U.S. Radio, February 2024

Listen to the SiriusXM interview of our President & Founder Brent Buchanan who joined Steve Scully on the P.O.T.U.S. channel February 15th, 2024. Learn more on polling numbers and strategy, how the news cycle impacts voter perception of top issues, Biden v. Trump, and just how accurate our latest Cygnal poll was on the Chiefs victory in this year's Super Bowl 👀.

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Hungarian Conservative – ‘A lot of my conservative friends in the US now look to Hungary as a blueprint’ — An Interview with Brent Buchanan of Cygnal Polling & Analytics

Brent Buchanan has been an international pollster and messaging strategist for the successful Washington DC-based polling and analytics firm Cygnal for over 15 years. He was gracious enough to sit down for an exclusive interview with Hungarian Conservative, in which he talked about the 2024 US Presidential election, the Hungarian government’s National Consultation, and more.

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Listen – Brent Buchanan Joins Steve Scully on SiriusXM P.O.T.U.S. Radio

Listen to the SiriusXM interview of our President & Founder Brent Buchanan who joined Steve Scully on the P.O.T.U.S. channel Friday, July 14th, 2023. Learn about our recent national poll, how Congressional Republicans are currently performing, the state of the race for the GOP primary nomination, and more.

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Daily Caller – BUCHANAN: Voters Are Clearly Telling Republicans How To Win Them Over

The old newsroom maxim, “If it bleeds, it leads,” still proves to be true in today’s 24-hour news cycle, but it’s no longer just cable news deploying that strategy. An analysis of the midterm election shows it’s especially true of Republican candidates who leaned heavily into advertising focused on crime while glossing over voters’ top […]

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2022 Polling Retrospective 

Coming off what most would consider an odd election cycle, we wanted to reflect on lessons learned as one of our core values is Never Settle: We are curious, always learning, and growing.  It was a cycle where we had amazing wins with incredible clients like Governors Kemp and Abbott, Senator Mullin, Congressmen Molinaro, Congresswoman Hageman, and Congressman Miller, CLF, NRCC, RGA, RAGA, and RSLC – just to name a few among the 405 general election races we conducted polling in for 2022.

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Michigan – A Polling Experiment Explained 

Gretchen Whitmer dominated the Michigan governor’s race, winning by a large margin. Our polling firm, Cygnal, set out with an experiment to test our Momentum tracking methodology against traditional tracking polls. 

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Poll: Trump holds commanding lead in potential 2024 GOP presidential primary

A survey of 1,204 likely Republican presidential primary voters, conducted by the international polling and predictive analytics firm Cygnal, shows former President Donald Trump with a strong hold on the presidential primary ballot, and a GOP base motivated by inflation and pocketbook issues. 

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Brent Buchanan on Spicer & Co. Discusses Biden Image, Top Issues, & More Just A Few Weeks Out From Midterms

Check out this awesome interview with Cygnal’s President and Founder, Brent Buchanan, featured on Spicer & Co. on Newsmax! 

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Brent Buchanan on Spicer & Co. Discusses New Survey on Masks and Travel

Check out our President and Founder, Brent Buchanan, featured on Spicer & Co. on Newsmax! He responds to the surprising data from our recent poll on masks and explains Covid’s 2-year impact on Americans’ freedoms and decision-making.Watch the full episode!

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Poll: Westerners Feel Like Ukrainians – Do More

New Cygnal/Gradus/Response:AI international poll shows support for increased involvement  WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new international poll released today showed significant Western support for financial and armament aid to Ukraine but limited appetite for a no-fly zone or all-out war. In a joint effort between Cygnal, Gradus, and Response:AI, more than 3,500 citizens of Ukraine, the […]

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