HARRIS, LOUIS

HARRIS, LOUIS (1921– ), U.S. pollster and author. Harris was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He was educated at the University of North Carolina where he received his B.A. in economics (1942) and then entered the Navy. He was later trained in polling by Elmo Roper of Roper Poll fame, drafting columns and newspaper articles and learning the craft of the then emerging science. Harris formed his own firm, Louis Harris and Associates in 1956 and served as the pollster and political advisor for John F. Kennedy's presidential bid of 1960. In the next few years his influence broadened as he became the chief pollster for cbs News, later switching to abc News. He simultaneously served as a newspaper columnist for such publications as the Washington Post, Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, and New York's Daily News. The Harris poll became widely recognized, while polling itself became an indispensable and increasingly precise part of every political campaign and essential to business planning and marketing. With the advent of the computer, the processing of information became easier and the availability of information to process ever greater. Louis Harris and Associates advised candidates for public office at every level; both Democrats and Republicans are among clients who made use of their marketing services.

Harris left Louis Harris and Associates in 1992 and formed his own research firm, lh Research. He wrote many books and countless studies, some public and some quite private. From his publications one can note a particular interest in the racial issues that gripped the United States in the 1960s and the strained ties between the African American community and the Jews.

[Michael Berenbaum (2^nd ed.)]