Trump calls for an investigation into a pollster who indicated Kamala Harris was leading in Iowa
J. Ann Selzer’s survey from November 1 revealed Kamala Harris ahead of Donald Trump in Iowa, 47% to 44%. Trump ultimately won the state by 13 percentage points.
WASHINGTON − On Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump requested an investigation into an Iowa pollster following a surprising pre-election poll that showed Vice President Kamala Harris in the lead in traditionally Republican Iowa.
In a statement on his Truth Social platform, Trump criticized the November 1 poll results, claiming they fostered “great distrust and uncertainty in a crucial period.”
“She was fully aware of what she was doing,” Trump said, referring to pollster J. Ann Selzer, 68, who announced her exit from the political polling scene on Sunday.
Trump won Iowa against Harris by a margin of 13 points, with a final tally of 56% to 42.7%. However, Selzer’s poll conducted for the Des Moines Register, which is part of the YSL News Network, upset the Republican party and provided unwarranted optimism for Democrats just before what ended up being a significant Republican victory across the nation.
Trump characterized the poll as “potential ELECTION FRAUD by Ann Selzer and the now discredited ‘newspaper’ she represents,” asserting a need for a complete investigation.
Errors in surveys do not typically breach legal statutes. When asked if Trump was advocating for a criminal inquiry into the pollster, spokesperson Steven Cheung responded: “President Trump was very explicit in his Truth Social post.”
‘It’s fulfilling to discover what went wrong’
In a detailed review of the poll she published on Sunday, Selzer stated: “I will always be baffled by the largest miss of my career.” This comprehensive analysis covered seven possible reasons that might have led to the incorrect results, which showed Harris ahead of Trump, 47% to 44%.
However, Selzer admitted she could not pinpoint where the polling had gone so significantly astray.
“It revolves around the theories we can validate with data and the ones that remain speculative without sufficient data for testing, at least for now,” she noted. “Nothing is more satisfying than determining what went wrong.”
In a separate statement on Sunday, Carol Hunter, Executive Editor of the Des Moines Register, indicated that “there hasn’t been a clear single reason identified to explain the significant difference” between Selzer’s polling results and the final outcome on Election Day.
Cheung remarked that Selzer “embarrassed herself in the final days of the campaign with what appeared to be a deliberate effort to mislead the public for the benefit of Kamala Harris.”
Selzer did not immediately respond to requests for her thoughts on Cheung’s criticism or Trump’s apparent call for a criminal probe.
In what she described as a long-anticipated exit from public opinion polling, Selzer mentioned in the Register on Sunday that her field is “a discipline of estimation, and science has a way of humbling even the most accomplished scientists.”
She reflected on how her reputation as a highly respected pollster and her “history of accuracy” might have made her overly confident in the flawed survey that showed Harris in the lead.
“Wouldn’t I have preferred delivering this news following a poll that matched the Election Day results?” Selzer questioned. “Certainly. It’s ironic that this is the opposite of what I am announcing.”
