Democrats are up in arms after a so-called polling firm that projected far-left candidates as strong contenders in several primaries admitted that it had fabricated its polling data.
Wedgewood Polling, which billed itself as an election survey company, released a statement Tuesday night admitting it used “fabricated numbers” for an “experimental project to demonstrate the vulnerabilities, lack of oversight, and overall low barrier to entry in the modern political polling industry.”
The group’s polls were cited by Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign amid a high-profile primary race against Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich. The nonpartisan polling aggregator Political Polls also cited Wedgewood in the Wisconsin gubernatorial race, showing socialist Francesca Hong having an edge over Republican candidate Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis.
McMorrow said Wedgewood’s numbers led to her donations drying up and reporters having “hounded” her with calls to drop out of the race.
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“Sure, a point was proven. Polling is broken. But tens of thousands of people poured their hearts, time, energy, hard-earned money into something they believed in – for a year-and-a-half, and it was treated like a game,” she said in a statement on X. “Trust is already at an all-time low. We don’t get out of this mess without rebuilding trust. And media – who loves to ride the drama of a pollercoaster – needs to take a hard look at what’s legitimate and what’s not.”
Unlike El-Sayed, who advanced from Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, Hong lost Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary to the establishment-backed candidate. El-Sayed, a former Michigan public health official, is currently locked in a tight race against former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., for Michigan’s open Senate seat.
Democrat strategist Jennifer Holdsworth said she ran a super PAC that raised money for McMorrow and that “this poll was used by several donors to pull back funding at a time we were being outspent by $80 million.”
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Wedgewood’s numbers were cited by high-profile outlets like The New York Times and Decision Desk HQ, which both said they have since removed them from their projections.
The Times said it removed 15 polls released by Wedgewood between June and October after it admitted to fabricating data. The outlet said Wedgewood had “answered a series of questions regarding the identities of the pollsters; the methods they were using to draw their sample, contact respondents and weight their polls; and the source of their funding” during its vetting process.
Decision Desk HQ said it removed 17 Wedgewood polls from its projections but that it “has not changed the projected seat totals or chamber control probabilities in the Senate or House.”
Wedgewood Polling’s statement said it “was never intended to sway an election” but rather was aimed as a “wake-up call” about data integrity and vetting standards.
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“These people are absolute scumbags,” veteran Democratic strategist and former Kamala Harris advisor Mike Nellis told Fox News Digital. “They can try to claim that they have some moral high ground here, but they lied about their polling data, got caught, and are freaking out because they’ve committed fraud.”
“The people responsible for this should be run out of American politics, and if they can be, they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” Nellis said. He added that both Democrats and Republicans, as well as the media, should reflect on how polling is verified “because there’s likely other people that are doing things like this.”
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Independent outlet FiftyPlusOne said it was investigating Wedgewood when it had released its statement. Co-founder G. Elliott Morris wrote on X, “We were investigating Wedgewood for faking their data and emailed them for comment this morning, ahead of publishing the findings tomorrow. They are trying to cover up their fraud with the ‘we were doing a social experiment’ excuse.”
Former Obama staffer Tommy Vietor said on X that Wedgewood’s actions amounted to “lying and fraud.”
A group called “Wedgewood Polls” had also previously created a GoFundMe to raise money for polling in Nebraska’s gubernatorial and Senate races. It raised $500 of its intended $5,000.
“I know they crowdfunded, I believe, a good chunk of their polls,” Nellis told Fox News Digital. “Are they going to return that money? And if not, are they going to be prosecuted?”
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Other Wedgewood surveys showed Democrats with significant edges over Republicans in states like Texas, where a July Wedgewood poll showed James Talarico leading state Attorney General Ken Paxton among Hispanics by 64% to 30%.
Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have long heaped doubt on the veracity of polls.
Polls notably showed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with an edge over Trump in 2016 — far from the actual result.
And with the fight for control of Congress coming to a head in November, every data point is being scrutinized as political tea leaves.
Fox News Digital reached out to McMorrow’s state Senate office, Stevens’ campaign and strategist Lis Smith for further comment.