Polling Firm Cited for Far-Left Candidates Admits It Made Up Its Numbers; Democrats Call It Fraud
Wedgewood Polling says its data was an 'experiment.' The New York Times pulled 15 of its polls and Decision Desk HQ pulled 17. Mallory McMorrow says the numbers dried up her donations.
A polling outfit whose surveys favored far-left Democrats has admitted that it fabricated its data, and Democrats are furious.
Wedgewood Polling put out a statement Tuesday night saying it used "fabricated numbers" in an "experimental project" meant to show how little oversight the polling industry has. Fox News reports the group's numbers were cited by the campaign of Abdul El-Sayed during his Michigan Senate primary against state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Rep. Haley Stevens. The aggregator Political Polls also cited Wedgewood in the Wisconsin governor's race, where it showed socialist Francesca Hong ahead of Rep. Tom Tiffany. Hong lost her primary. El-Sayed won his and now faces Republican Mike Rogers.
The damage. McMorrow said the numbers made her donations dry up and had reporters hounding her to quit. "Sure, a point was proven. Polling is broken," she wrote on X, but she said people had put in a year and a half of work "and it was treated like a game." Democratic strategist Jennifer Holdsworth said donors to a super PAC backing McMorrow used the poll to pull funding while the PAC was being outspent by $80 million.
The cleanup. The New York Times says it removed 15 Wedgewood polls released between June and October. Decision Desk HQ removed 17 and says its Senate and House projections did not change.
The anger. Mike Nellis, a Democratic strategist and former Kamala Harris adviser, called the people behind it "absolute scumbags" and said they "committed fraud." He said they should be "run out of American politics" and prosecuted if possible. Former Obama staffer Tommy Vietor called it "lying and fraud." G. Elliott Morris of FiftyPlusOne said his outlet was investigating Wedgewood and had asked it for comment that morning, and that the "social experiment" explanation is a cover-up.
The fundraising. A group called Wedgewood Polls ran a GoFundMe for polling in Nebraska, raising $500 of a $5,000 goal. Nellis asked whether it would return the money.
The other side. Wedgewood says it never meant to sway an election and wanted to raise a "wake-up call" about data standards.
Caveats. Whether any law was broken has not been decided, and the report does not say anyone is under investigation. Fox says Texas polling attributed to Wedgewood also appeared in the mix, including a July poll showing James Talarico far ahead among Hispanic voters. We have not independently checked any of the polls.