America’s best known pollster, celebrated on the right for coining the phrase climate change instead of global warming and estate tax rather than death tax had a stroke earlier this week.
Frank Luntz posted to X on Thursday he “suffered another stroke Monday night that was hidden by all the vertigo and vomiting.”
Luntz continued: “Three days later, I’m finding it very difficult to walk, even with assistance. That’s why I’ve been canceling public events for a few days, I walk like an old man.”
The GOP communications guru added that his “thinking and strategizing are still as sharp as ever. So, I will hopefully resume my role as a commentator very soon.”
Reaction from across the political spectrum poured in. (RELATED: Report: House Democrat Remains Hospitalized After Medical Emergency)
This is the second stroke Luntz has suffered in recent years. He blamed his first stroke on political tension. After decades of sampling opinion for conservative Republicans, the 62-year-old used the medical emergency to moderate and express his discontent with the direction of the Republican Party under Donald Trump.
Reflecting on the change, Luntz explained: “The loudness of my voice has changed. The speed in which I speak is changed. I’m slower and I’m quieter and I think about what I say. It’s not that I’m trying to be careful, it’s that I really analyze stuff that comes out.”
“If I didn’t die, I’m not afraid any more, so you will hear me criticize people I never would have two years ago,” he told The Guardian in 2022. “What are they going to do to me? It can’t be any worse than what I’ve been through and, when you become more fearless, it makes life easier to navigate.”
Often seen on TV as ebullient and garrulous, Luntz has felt tired all the time following the stroke. He is visibly so as he holds court with half a dozen British newspaper journalists in his downtown Washington luxury condo, a kitsch affair with faux classical columns, built-in saloon bar (“Frank’s sports bar”) and busts of presidents George Washington (wearing a mask) and Abraham Lincoln.
Luntz’s motivation for this unusual gathering, it seems, is to express gratitude to Britain. He is one of those old school American conservatives who says, “I believe in the special relationship very much,” and is tickled by how the nations rhyme and how they don’t. Last year he went to the UK for a month and ended up staying nearly eight, finding an antidote to American’s poison.
“I was in real trouble when I got to Britain, in real emotional trouble,” he admitted.
Luntz, who studied British voters for a conservative thinktank, the Centre for Policy Studies, also invited UK journalists to disseminate a warning: don’t let British politics become as polarised and debased as the American system.
“You still like each other, you still respect each other, you still value public debate: your democracy is still functioning,” he warned. “Ours has seized up and I don’t know how to get ours flowing again. Be thankful that you don’t have our poison … I’m very afraid of the American system being hopelessly damaged.”
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
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Patrick Houck is an avid political enthusiast based out of the Washington, D.C., metro area. His expertise is in campaigns and the use of targeted messaging to persuade voters. When not combing through the latest news, you can find him enjoying the company of family and friends or pursuing his love of photography.
