Kristen Soltis Anderson
At FREOPP, we rely on Kristen Soltis Anderson’s expertise as the nation’s leading authority on Millennial public opinion.
For all the talk of avocado toast, Millennials face distinct challenges as the generation that grew up during 9/11, entered the workforce during the Great Recession, and raised kids during the COVID-19 epidemic.
“It’s tough to be young these days,” Kristen told the New York Times in 2013. “The economic concerns are very great, and a lot of what you hear out of Washington is not addressing those concerns. There are a lot of questions: Does either party really have my best interest at heart? And I think the answer to that is, ‘No.’”
Kristen has been profiled in more magazines than any other member of FREOPP’s Board of Advisors, including Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and Elle, the last of which named her one of “the 10 most compelling women in Washington now.”
Kristen grew up in Orlando and attended the University of Florida, “because it had a great deal for in-state tuition.” Her fondness for spreadsheets and political science took her in 2006 to Washington, where she joined the Winston Group, a polling firm. While working her way up to the title of Vice President at Winston, she attended Johns Hopkins at night, where she earned a master’s degree in Government. “In a town like D.C.,” she observes, “a master’s degree feels like the equivalent of a high school diploma.”
In 2014, she co-founded her own polling firm, Echelon Insights, along with Patrick Ruffini. That fall, she served as a Resident Fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics. In 2019, she left ABC News to join Fox News as a Contributor. She co-hosts of The Pollsters, a bipartisan weekly podcast. In 2015, she published her first book, The Selfie Vote, which discusses her extensive work surveying Millennial voters.
Millennials are particularly oriented toward making the world a better place, she concludes. “We have to talk about shared values, most important the shared value of equal opportunity…This means acknowledging areas where equal opportunity does not exist today and seeking to create it in those areas…The goal should not be that we all end up in the same place but rather that we all have a chance to make it across the finish line.”
“I’m excited to be a part of FREOPP and the effort to eliminate barriers to opportunity, wherever they may be,” says Kristen. “FREOPP brings a much-needed focus on mobility, and on making sure that success is possible for everyone, without being stuck in old, top-down models of how to achieve that goal.”
Kristen and her husband Chris live in Washington, D.C.
