Mysterious Group Admits To Faking Polls — One Showed Socialist Up Big Before Loss

A mysterious entity behind a poll showing leftist Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong with a double-digit lead admitted to faking its polls as part of a “social experiment.” 

Median Strategies directed media outlets on Monday to discount the polls it released this election season, claiming it was conducting an experiment on trust in unverified polling. The group released polls on the Los Angeles mayoral race and Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary, which it now says were fabricated. 

“All previously published polling releases have been withdrawn and should not be cited or treated as genuine polling data,” the entity said. “Median Strategies was created as a short-term social experiment examining how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification.”

The group added that the “experiment” was not funded by any candidate, campaign, PAC, or media entity. It also said no one received any financial benefit from the project or had any ties to betting markets. 

Hong narrowly lost the bid to be the Democrats’ nominee in the Wisconsin governor’s race to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. While the poll from Median Strategies showing her up by 23 points turned out to be fake, numerous other polls, including from Marquette University Law School, showed her up by over 20 points as well. 

The Los Angeles Times first reported on the fake polling after reaching out to Median Strategies about one of its polls showing incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass with a 12-point lead over leftist Councilwoman Nithya Raman. According to the poll, most of those who backed Spencer Pratt in the June election were shifting to Bass. 

“Faced with a choice between the incumbent and a Democratic Socialists of America-aligned challenger, most Pratt voters appear to be treating Bass as the more familiar, more moderate option rather than sitting out the race,” a memo from Median Strategies said. 

The poll purported to be a survey conducted between July 30 and August 5 of 560 Los Angeles voters. When pressed by the L.A. Times, Median Strategies admitted to faking the poll. That did not come before Bass cited the poll in a now-deleted post on X.

“Doing the work, showing up, and gaining momentum. Let’s do this, LA!” the Bass campaign posted. 

After learning of the revelation, Bass called for a criminal investigation. 

“Any bad faith attempts to influence elections should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” a spokesman for Bass told the L.A. Times. 

Before its website was scrubbed and replaced with the announcement that its polls were fake, Median Strategies billed itself as an “independent polling and research” firm. 

“Polling has a credibility problem. Ours is the fix: no partisan clients, no campaign or party money, numbers that go wherever the data takes them even when it’s inconvenient. Trustworthy polling, rebuilt,” the website said. 

The Daily Wire reached out to Median Strategies, asking if it will release the results of its experiment or provide any further information.