White House Correspondents Insider

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WHCInsider Mourns the Passing of Louis Harris

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Louis Harris, known to thousands of political insiders as the ground-breaking public opinion analyst throughout the 1950s through 1990s, passed away Saturday at his home in Key West, Florida at age 95.

Founding Louis Harris & Associates in 1956s, Harris built a reputation as a remarkably accurate forecaster, predicting the election of presidents, governors, members of Congress and scores of other public officials.

Rejecting the title “pollster,” Harris preferred to be called a public opinion analyst, believing the former title trivialized his efforts into gathering data. Instead, Harris was an innovator and entrepreneur who set the stage for generations of analysts and political consultants around the globe in polling methodology and analysis.

Harris was also very active in the media. Throughout the 1960s, he penned columns for The Washington Post and Newsweek, and from 1969 through 1988 he wrote for The Chicago Tribune-New York Daily Syndicate. His columns were printed in over 100 newspapers. Harris also appeared as a commentator on ABC News.