David Shor (born 1991)
is an American
data scientist
Data science is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge from potentially noisy, struct ...
and
political consultant
Political consulting is a form of consulting that consists primarily of advising and assisting political campaigns. Although the most important role of political consultants is arguably the development and production of mass media (largely televi ...
known for analyzing political polls. He serves as head of data science with Blue Rose Research
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, and is a senior fellow with the
Center for American Progress
The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy think tank, research and advocacy organization which presents a Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal viewpoint on Economic policy, economic and social issues. CAP is headquarter ...
Action Fund. A self-described
socialist
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
, Shor has been described as a
center-left
Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commonl ...
"data guru" and advised a number of liberal
political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The l ...
s during the
2020 United States elections
Elections in the United States, Elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party's nominee, former Vice presidents of the United States, vice president Joe Biden, defeated incu ...
.
He operated the
Future Forward PAC, the
Harris campaign's main
Super PAC
Independent expenditure-only political action committees, better known as super PACs, are a type of political action committee (PAC) in the United States. Unlike traditional PACs, super PACs are legally allowed to fundraise unlimited amounts of m ...
and leading fundraising vehicle, along with
Anita Dunn and
Kara Swisher
Kara Anne Swisher ( ; born December 11, 1962) is an American journalist. She has covered the business of the internet since 1994. As of 2023, Swisher was a contributing editor at ''New York (magazine), New York Magazine'', the host of the podcast ...
in the
2024 presidential election.
Early life
Shor grew up in
Miami
Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
,
Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
, in a
Sephardic Jewish
Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
family of
Moroccan origins. He holds a mathematics degree from
Florida International University
Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in Westchester, Florida, United States. Founded in 1965 by the Florida Legislature, the school opened to students in 1972. FIU is the third-largest univ ...
. Shor was a precocious child and gifted in mathematics, starting his undergraduate degree at the age of 13 and finishing at the age of 17.
Shor was awarded the
Math in Moscow scholarship in fall 2009.
Career
Shor joined the
Barack Obama 2012 presidential campaign
On April 4, 2011, Barack Obama, the List of presidents of the United States, 44th president of the United States, announced his candidacy for re-election as president. On September 5, 2012, he again became the nominee of the Democratic Party ...
at the age of 20, working on the
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
-based team that tracked internal and external polls and developed forecasts. The team Shor worked with developed a polling forecasting model, known as "The Golden Report", that projected Obama's vote share within one percentage point in eight of the nine
battleground state
In United States politics, a swing state (also known as battleground state, toss-up state, or purple state) is any state that could reasonably be won by either the Democratic or Republican candidate in a statewide election, most often refer ...
s.
''New York Magazine'' described Shor as the "in-house
Nate Silver
Nathaniel Read Silver (born January 13, 1978) is an American statistician, political analyst, author, sports gambler, and poker player who Sabermetrics, analyzes baseball, basketball and Psephology, elections. He is the founder of ''FiveThirty ...
" of the Obama campaign.
Shor then worked as a senior data scientist with
Civis Analytics in Chicago
for seven years, where he operated the company's web-based survey. On May 28, 2020, Shor
tweeted a summary of an academic study by
Omar Wasow
Omar Tomas Wasow (born December 22, 1970) is an assistant professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Political Science. He is co-founder of the social networking website BlackPlanet.
Life
Wasow grew up in a multi-ethnic family. His father, Berna ...
, a black political scientist at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
, that argued
riots following Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination likely tipped the
1968 presidential election in
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
's favor. Some critics argued that Shor's tweet, which was posted during the height of the
George Floyd protests
The George Floyd protests were a series of protests, riots, and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as Reactions to the mu ...
, could be interpreted as criticism of the
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...
movement.
Jonathan Chait
Jonathan Chait () is an American pundit and writer for ''The Atlantic''. He was previously a senior editor at ''The New Republic'' and an assistant editor of ''The American Prospect'' and wrote for '' New York'' magazine. He writes a periodic c ...
wrote in ''New York Magazine'' that "At least some employees and clients on Civis Analytics complained that Shor's tweet threatened their safety."
Shor apologized for the tweet on May 29, and he was fired from Civis Analytics a few days later.
Shor's firing has been cited as an example of "the excesses of so-called
cancel culture
Cancel culture is a cultural phenomenon in which an individual thought to have acted or spoken in an unacceptable manner is ostracized, boycotted, shunned or fired, often aided by social media. This shunning may extend to social or professio ...
." Political scientist and journalist
Yascha Mounk wrote that Shor had been "punished for doing something that most wouldn't even consider objectionable." ''
Vox'' editor and columnist
Matthew Yglesias
Matthew Yglesias (; born May 18, 1981) is an American blogger and journalist who writes about economics and politics. Yglesias has written columns and articles for publications such as ''The American Prospect'', ''The Atlantic'', and ''Slate''. I ...
condemned the idea "that it's categorically wrong for a personor at least a white personto criticize on tactical or other grounds anything being done in the name of racial justice," which he claimed was common among Shor's progressive critics.
Since 2020, his work at Blue Rose Research aims to develop a data-based model to predict the outcome of future elections on the basis of simulations, designed in particular to advise the
Democratic Party in
campaign strategies.
Shor is an advocate for what he terms "popularism", the idea that Democrats should campaign on a strategy of focusing on issues that enjoy electoral popularity, such as focusing on economic issues over polarizing social and cultural issues.
Some political analysts, including
Michael Podhorzer, have criticized his work for a lack of transparency regarding his methods and data sources.
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
David Shoron Bluesky
Website of Blue Rose Research"Noah Smith interviews David Shor" an hour-long interview with Bloomberg opinion writer Noah Smith
"Democrats Need to Face Why Trump Won , The Ezra Klein Show" an hour-and-a-half long interview with New York Times writer Ezra Klein
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shor, David
1991 births
American Orthodox Jews
American people of Moroccan-Jewish descent
American political consultants
Barack Obama 2012 presidential campaign
American data scientists
Florida Democrats
Florida International University alumni
Living people
Scientists from Miami
Scientists from Florida
21st-century American Jews