MATT A. BARRETO, PH.D.
Founding Partner & President
Matt A. Barreto, Ph.D., is President and co-founder of BSP Research, and formerly was the co-founder of the research firm Latino Decisions. Matt holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and is also Professor of Political Science and Chicana/o & Central American Studies at UCLA, where he also directs the research center, Latino Policy & Politics Initiative (LPPI) and the UCLA Voting Rights Project (VRP).
In 2020 Barreto was hired by the Joe Biden presidential campaign to direct polling and focus group research for Latino voters, and his research was credited with informing critical Latino mobilization efforts in states such as Arizona, Pennsylvania and Nevada, among others. In 2020 Barreto pushed the Biden campaign to conduct large-sample Latino-specific statewide polling in 9 states, the most comprehensive research effort in a presidential campaign.
Time Magazine called Barreto's work the “gold-standard in Latino American polling." Barreto’s research was recognized in the 30 Latinos key to the 2012 election by Politic365, listed in the Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2012 by the European Politics Magazine LSDP, and was named one of the top 15 leading Latino pundits by Huffington Post which said Barreto was “the pollster that has his finger on the pulse of the Latino electorate.”
In 2018 Barreto was one of the earliest consulting firms hired by the DCCC as part of their year-of-engagement plan which conducted extensive research and messaging strategy to understand the best ways to communicate and engage with Latino voters across dozens of competitive battleground districts. In a 2018 post-election article, the New York Times wrote that Barreto “conducted nationwide focus groups to better identify the needs of Latino voters and to tailor a proper message.” And NBC News added “For the election, several Democratic political fundraising committees commissioned the polling firm Latino Decisions to conduct polling and focus groups and try out some messaging of Latinos. According to DCCC chair Congressman Ben Ray Lujan, “Latinos showed up to the polls because we talked to them, we listened to them, our candidates connected with their personal stories, we knocked on their doors we reached out online.”
Barreto also directed research for groups such as Priorities USA, House Majority PAC, and CHC BOLD PAC in 2018 to understand Latinos views in the midterm, challenges and opportunities to mobilizing the Latino vote and message testing. In prior cycles, Barreto conducted polling and focus groups for the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. That same year, he also directed Latino outreach research for the U.S. Senate campaigns of Catherine Cortez-Masto (NV) and Michael Bennet (CO).
In 2010 Barreto implemented the first ever weekly tracking poll of Latino voters during the 2010 election, which continued every election year through 2020. Working closely with Gary Segura, he has also overseen large multi-state election eve polls, battleground tracking polls, extensive message testing research and countless focus groups. He has been invited to brief the U.S. Senate, the White House, Congressional Committees, and has been a keynote speaker at many of the major Hispanic association conferences including NALEO, LULAC, CHCI, NCLR and others.
Contact:
909-489-2955