American Research Group

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American Research Group, Incorporated is an American opinion polling and marketing research company based in Manchester, New Hampshire.

During the 2008 presidential primaries in the United States, American Research Group (often abbreviated ARG) polling met with mixed results. ARG's final Missouri polls showed Barack Obama beating Hillary Clinton by 2%, which was very close to the actual result, an Obama win of 1.4%. However, they showed Mike Huckabee winning Missouri with 31% of the vote to John McCain's 29% and Mitt Romney's 27%; the final result was McCain 33.0%, Huckabee 31.5%, and Romney 29.3%. In Connecticut, ARG's final Democratic poll had Clinton winning by 13%, but Obama won by 4%, a difference of 17% in Clinton's favor. In Delaware, ARG's poll showed Clinton up by 2% in a state that Obama won by 10.8%, which is 12.8% off in Clinton's favor. ARG's result in Florida overestimated Clinton's support by 11%, while the difference between their Illinois poll and the final result was nearly 19%, once again in Clinton's favor. In South Carolina, where the result was Obama 55.4% to Clinton 26.5% to Edwards 17.6%, ARG's final poll had Obama at 39%, Clinton at 36%, and Edwards at 22%. On the other hand, ARG's final Texas poll was within 1% of the actual Democratic primary result, although their poll of the Republican primary overestimated McCain's support by 10.6%.