National Political Courage Test Creation
Research on the Federal PCT commences two years prior to the Presidential general election. Constructing the PCT is an exhaustive process that demands impartiality, keen attention to detail, and a breadth of understanding of the most salient and controversial issues of the day. The length of the full Political Courage Test will be determined at a future date, but should be as succinct as possible.Where to Start
Researchers must first determine what categories, broadly, should be included on the Test. Based on trusted sources, researchers should evaluate recent polling on the priorities of the American people. Exceptional polling sources include: ABC, Washington Post, CBS News, New York Times, CNN, Fox News/Opinion Dynamics, The Gallup Poll, The Harris Poll, NBC, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Pew Research Center, Polling Report.com, Public Opinion Strategies, Reuters, Zogby, Tarrance Group, Time, USA Today. The Pew Research Center typically releases a report at the beginning of each Congressional session that thoroughly details the major issues facing Congress and what the public believes should be prioritized. Researchers should consider these sources and determine a standard threshold for including issues on the Political Courage Test. When a standard threshold for including issues on the Test has been determined, researchers will complete issue area reports, which provide detailed evidence of the issue's national salience, to construct specific questions.
Although the standard threshold enables researchers to methodically select among limitless issue areas, some issue areas will likely be overlooked by these national polls. Some issues should be included simply because they are perennial in American politics. These issues will be considered exceptions and justification for their inclusion will be based on the strength of the issue area report.
It would also be helpful to ask for staff input on the Federal PCT. Send out a google form like this one with each question and ask if it should stay, be removed, or be reworded and ask for any further thoughts. Provide between 2-4 weeks for staff to give feedback, and maybe coincide this with the research the PCT team and the Elections Director are doing.
Finding Sources and Supporting Evidence for the Top Issues You Identified
Each question proposed must have research and a persuasive argument to back it up. There are standards to finding the level of issue salience of the key issues you pin-pointed in your beginning research. For each question or issue to be strong enough to stand on its own, you must have some from of the following supporting evidence:
- 2-3 polls that show that the issue is of importance to the average voter.
- 2-3 party platforms that officially declare the issue to be a part of the party's main goals over the next few years.
- 1-3 news articles that address the issue and put it into national context, proving that the issue is prevalent in more than a few states.
A good rule to keep in mind when finding supporting evidence for potential questions is to gather a good mix of the sources listed above, making sure to collect at least 4 pieces of evidence per question. This is flexible, but it can sometimes be easier to have a research standard.
Writing a Justification Paper
Beyond the other two documents (spreadsheet to capture data, word doc to explain data), a document with your justifications should be kept. This will categorize how many pieces of evidence you collected and what they are, along with a short description of the issue, and why the researcher thinks that it is important to keep the question or get rid of it. This will help during the initial process of weeding out questions because the data capture will give you a quick look at how much attention the question really is getting. Here is what we did for the 2024 Federal PCT. We organized it by questions we cut, re-word, and add to the current test. Below is the format we used:
Edits and Justifications
Current Question:
(New Question if reword):
Justification:
Evidence:
