{"id":2646567,"date":"2026-08-18T14:37:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T18:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignpollster-that-put-francesca-hong-karen-bass-in-lead-admits-its-a-fake-firm\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T14:37:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T18:37:02","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignpollster-that-put-francesca-hong-karen-bass-in-lead-admits-its-a-fake-firm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignpollster-that-put-francesca-hong-karen-bass-in-lead-admits-its-a-fake-firm\/","title":{"rendered":"Pollster That Put Hong, Bass In Lead Admits It&#8217;s A Fake Firm"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignpollster-that-put-francesca-hong-karen-bass-in-lead-admits-its-a-fake-firm%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2646567&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-body body-md bdr-top-black pt-30\">\n<div class=\"row justify-content-center\">\n<div class=\"col-12\">\n<figure class=\"article-thumbnail mb-30 mb-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-thumbnail-caption d-flex align-items-center justify-content-md-end label-xs mt-15\">         <i class=\"mdi mdi-camera me-10\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Image Credit<\/span><a href=https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7FB6Iv0wowg>The National Desk \/ Youtube <\/a>       <\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-share text-center article-share-simple\">\n<h5 class=\"label-sm mb-10\">Share<\/h5>\n<ul class=\"article-share-list list-unstyled m-0 p-0\">\n<li class=\"article-share-facebook m-0\">       <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/08\/18\/pollster-that-put-francesca-hong-karen-bass-in-lead-admits-its-a-fake-firm\/\" target=\"_blank\">         <i class=\"mdi mdi-facebook\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Share Article on Facebook<\/span>       <\/a>     <\/li>\n<li class=\"article-share-twitter m-0\">       <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=Pollster That Put Francesca Hong, Karen Bass In Lead Admits It\u2019s A Fake Firm&#038;url=https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/08\/18\/pollster-that-put-francesca-hong-karen-bass-in-lead-admits-its-a-fake-firm\/\" target=\"_blank\">         <i class=\"mdi mdi-twitter\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Share Article on Twitter<\/span>       <\/a>     <\/li>\n<li class=\"article-share-truth-social m-0\">       <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/share?title=Pollster That Put Francesca Hong, Karen Bass In Lead Admits It\u2019s A Fake Firm&#038;url=https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/08\/18\/pollster-that-put-francesca-hong-karen-bass-in-lead-admits-its-a-fake-firm\/\" target=\"_blank\">         <svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" fill=\"currentColor\" style=\"width:36px;height:auto;\" viewbox=\"0 0 92 93\"><path d=\"M69.444 55.716H56.772v10.37h12.672zM64.487 37.795V27.32H38.666v38.664h13.18v-28.19zM21.05 27.321h12.653v10.471H21.051z\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/><\/svg>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Share Article on Truth Social<\/span>       <\/a>     <\/li>\n<li class=\"article-share-link m-0\">       <button data-clipboard-text=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/08\/18\/pollster-that-put-francesca-hong-karen-bass-in-lead-admits-its-a-fake-firm\/\" data-tooltip-content=\"Copied!\" class=\"clip tooltip\">         <i class=\"mdi mdi-link-variant\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Copy Article Link<\/span>       <\/button>     <\/li>\n<li class=\"article-share-email m-0\">       <a href=\"mailto:?subject=Pollster That Put Francesca Hong, Karen Bass In Lead Admits It\u2019s A Fake Firm&#038;body=%20https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/08\/18\/pollster-that-put-francesca-hong-karen-bass-in-lead-admits-its-a-fake-firm\/\" target=\"_blank\">         <i class=\"mdi mdi-email\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>         <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Share Article via Email<\/span>       <\/a>     <\/li>\n<li class=\"article-share-email m-0\"><span class=\"printfriendly pf-button  pf-alignleft\">                     <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/thefederalist.com\/#\" rel=\"nofollow\" onclick=\"window.print(); pfTrackEvent(&#039;Pollster That Put Francesca Hong, Karen Bass In Lead Admits It\u2019s A Fake Firm&#039;); return false;\" title=\"Printer Friendly, PDF &#038; Email\">                     <span id=\"printfriendly-text2\" class=\"pf-button-text\"><i class=\"mdi mdi-printer\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/span>                     <\/a>                 <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<div class=\"pf-content\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Francesca Hong, the failed communist candidate in the Wyoming gubernatorial primary race, was supposed to shellac David Crowley. After all, she had a 23-point lead over her opponent, according to data from Median Strategies. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But it turns out Median Strategies was a fake polling company that just wanted to run a \u201csocial experiment\u201d and observe the effects of deceptive polling in a political race.<\/p>\n<div id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-3095509776\" class=\"d-flex justify-content-center fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2 fdrlst__b89e9-entity-placement\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1463670073398-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMedian Strategies has concluded its polling project and will not publish additional polls,\u201d a statement from <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BrettLoGiurato\/status\/2089549375664013768?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Median Strategies<\/a> read. \u201cAll previously published polling releases have been withdrawn and should not be cited or treated as genuine polling data.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMedian 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,\u201d the statement continued. \u201cThank you for your understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And Median Strategies didn\u2019t just release fake polling data for the Wisconsin gubernatorial race \u2014 the Los Angeles mayoral race was also the victim of fabricated polling data. Median Strategies released a poll that indicated Mayor Karen Bass was \u201cleading Raman by nearly 12 percentage points ahead of the Nov. 3 mayoral runoff.\u201d The poll was purportedly conducted between July 30 and Aug. 5 amongst 560 voters in Los Angeles with a 4.1 percent margin of error. The company later revealed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2026-08-17\/poll-showing-bass-leading-raman-by-double-digits-was-bogus-company-says\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Los Angeles Times<\/a> that the poll was also fake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The admission by Median Strategies that its polls were entirely made up leaves Americans with even less trust in polls. Pollsters get it wrong, sometimes for obvious reasons. But skepticism in the polls has only grown as pollsters routinely get it wrong \u2014 very wrong. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As The <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/11\/12\/trumps-pollster-corporate-media-polls-guided-by-bias-missed-again\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Federalist\u2019s Matt Kittle chronicled<\/a>, in the final PBS\/NPR\/Marist election\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/politics\/harris-has-4-point-lead-over-trump-in-final-pbs-news-npr-marist-election-poll\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">poll<\/a>\u00a0of 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris led by 4 percentage points, \u201coutside the poll\u2019s 3.5-point margin of error.\u201d The Washington Post\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2024\/10\/31\/polls-show-harris-with-big-early-vote-lead-despite-gop-gains\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>\u00a0days before Election Day that Harris had a \u201cbig early-vote\u201d lead over Trump. On Nov. 2, Fortune ran a <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2024\/11\/02\/election-odds-donald-trump-lead-kamala-harris-madison-square-garden-rally-electoral-votes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">headline<\/a>\u00a0stating: \u201cOctober Surprise: Trump just blew a huge lead, and the Madison Square Garden Rally started the drop, says top data scientist.\u201d Another pollster assessed Harris as leading Trump by 3 points in Iowa \u2014 before Trump won the state by double digits. The pollster later admitted it was a \u201cbig miss.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It didn\u2019t matter that the Biden administration <em>and<\/em> Harris had low approval ratings, or that the country was suffering from a mass invasion, high inflation, and unrest. The polls showed Harris winning, and those polls were taken at face value. Skeptics of those polls harkened back to the 2016 election when Americans were all but guaranteed to see a President Hillary Clinton \u2014 with The New York Times infamously giving her a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/newsgraphics\/2016\/10\/18\/presidential-forecast-updates\/newsletter.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">90 percent chance<\/a>\u00a0of beating Trump in mid-October. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pollster John McLaughlin later told Kittle that some \u201cmedia pollsters let their bias determine what they see in the polls, and it didn\u2019t have to go that way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now the reality that Median Strategies\u2019 polls were a bunch of baloney calls into question whether other pollsters are also just engaging in a \u201csocial experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">   Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-author mt-30 mt-sm-60 pt-30 bdr-top-bold-black\">\n<div class=\"row g-0 align-items-center\">\n<div class=\"col-12 col-md-6\">\n<div class=\"article-author-profile d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center justify-content-md-start\">\n<div class=\"article-author-details\">\n<div class=\"label-md\">Brianna Lyman<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-author-twitter label-sm d-flex align-items-center mt-10\">             <i class=\"mdi mdi-twitter me-5\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>             <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Visit on Twitter<\/span>            <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/briannalyman2\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"text-decoration-none\">@briannalyman2<\/a>           <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 col-md-6 d-flex justify-content-center justify-content-md-end mt-15 mt-md-0\">        <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/author\/briannalyman\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">More Articles<\/a>     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-tags no-print bdr-top-black mt-30 mt-sm-60 pt-15 pt-md-45\">\n<ul class=\"list-unstyled d-flex flex-wrap align-items-center mb-0 mx-n10 p-0\">\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Donald Trump<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/election-integrity\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">election integrity<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/elections\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Elections<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/francesca-hong\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Francesca Hong<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/kamala-harris\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Kamala Harris<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/karen-bass\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Karen Bass<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/nithya-raman\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Nithya Raman<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/political-polling\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">political polling<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/polling\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Polling<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/wisconsin\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Wisconsin<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image Credit The National Desk \/ Youtube Share Share Article on Facebook Share Article on Twitter Share Article on Truth Social Copy Article Link Share Article via Email Francesca Hong, the failed communist candidate in the Wyoming gubernatorial primary race, was supposed to shellac David Crowley. After all, she had a 23-point lead over her<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2646570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-18-at-1.27.51-PM-scaled-e1787074254461.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2646567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-18-at-1.27.51-PM-scaled-e1787074254461.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2646567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2646570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2646567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2646567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2646567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}