The head of Fox News’ decision desk has predicted that the 2024 presidential election might not be called for days after Election Day.
“The over/under is Saturday,” Arnon Mishkin, the person who might end up calling the winner, told Politico. The 69-year-old, who has led Fox’s decision desk on presidential elections since 2008, noted that “was when the call was made last time” and it’s also “when Pennsylvania is likely to come in.”
“The race seems very, very close,” Mishkin said when asked about when he believed he would be able to call the election. “It is dependent on a number of states, like Pennsylvania, that we believe are going to be reporting in a pattern similar to the way they have reported in the past.”
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In 2020, the result was ultimately called for Joe Biden on Nov. 7—four days after the election. Media outlets projected Biden as the winner after the Democrat won Pennsylvania, with the state’s 20 electoral votes putting him over the 270 threshold required to become president. Moments later, Donald Trump released a statement claiming that Biden was “rushing to falsely pose as the winner” and claimed the election was “far from over.”
The 69-year-old Mishkin, who works for Fox as a consultant rather than as an employee, also told Politico he doesn’t feel any particular pressure on his work being caused by Fox’s conservative-leaning audience.
“I think the pressure the team feels is: Focus on the numbers, and focus on who’s going to win, and let us know,” Mishkin said. “And I don’t feel any sort of pressure like, ‘Call it our way. Make our audience happy.’”
In 2020, Fox’s decision desk called the key battleground state of Arizona for Biden before the Associated Press or any other TV networks—a momentous decision that has since been criticized by some as having been made too early, even though Biden did ultimately win Arizona.
Mishkin said that despite the controversy that came after the decision, he didn’t consider not returning to the decision desk in 2022 or this year. “I enjoy it. It is very tension-provoking,” he said. “But I guess I’m a stress junkie. So I did not think of that.”
