Scott W. Rasmussen (born 1955 or 1956) is the founder and president of Rasmussen Reports. He is an American political analyst, author, speaker, and public opinion pollster. Earlier in his professional life he co-founded the sports network ESPN. He is the former president of the Methodist Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, where he resides.

From an early age, Rasmussen was exposed to the broadcasting business through his father, Bill Rasmussen, who had worked for radio stations and was a communications director for the New England Whalers ice hockey team. With the help of his father, Scott taped his first radio commercial at the age of seven. He spent summers with his grandparents at the Jersey Shore and got his first job at age 14 as an umbrella boy. He later served as an announcer for the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association. During that time he was emcee for hockey legend Gordie Howe's 50th birthday celebration in 1978, which Rasmussen cites as a career highlight: "nothing in my professional career will ever equal the thrill...". In 1979, Scott and Bill Rasmussen founded ESPN, the cable sports network. Their stake in ESPN was bought out by Texaco in 1984. They went on to found the Enterprise Radio Network.

Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States in the 2012 election. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts (2003–07).

The son of Lenore and George W. Romney (Governor of Michigan, 1963–69), he was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. In 1966, after one year at Stanford University, he left the United States to spend thirty months in France as a Mormon missionary. In 1969, he married Ann Davies, and the couple had five children together. In 1971, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Brigham Young University and, in 1975, a joint Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration from Harvard University as a Baker Scholar. He entered the management consulting industry, which in 1977, led to a position at Bain & Company. Later serving as Chief Executive Officer, he helped bring the company out of financial crisis. In 1984, he co-founded the spin-off Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm that became highly profitable and one of the largest such firms in the nation. His net worth is estimated at $190–250 million, wealth that has helped fund his political campaigns. Active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he served as Ward Bishop and later Stake President in his area near Boston. He ran as the Republican candidate in the 1994 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, losing to long-time incumbent Ted Kennedy. In 1999, he was hired as President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics and Paralympics; and he helped turn the fiscally troubled games into a success.