Last minute polling out of Iowa appears to have rattled Donald Trump, who was initially projected to win the deep-red Hawkeye State.
The GOP presidential nominee slammed unfavorable numbers for his campaign released Saturday and accused the pollster Ann Selzer, who is regarded as being highly accurate with last-minute polling in Iowa, of being a “Trump hater.”
“No President has done more for FARMERS, and the Great State of Iowa, than Donald J. Trump. In fact, it’s not even close! All polls, except for one heavily skewed toward the Democrats by a Trump hater who called it totally wrong the last time, have me up, BY A LOT,” he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Sunday. “I LOVE THE FARMERS, AND THEY LOVE ME.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Trump’s online rant comes after the nationally respected poll by The Des Moines Register/Mediacom reported Kamala Harris leading the former president 47 percent to 44 percent.
His campaign also issued its own dismissal of the Des Moines poll, which they called a “bluff” shortly after its release. They instead pointed to polling numbers out of Emerson College, published the same day, which favored the former president by 10 points.
“Des Moines Register is a clear outlier poll. Emerson College, released today, far more closely reflects the state of the actual Iowa electorate and does so with far more transparency in their methodology,” a Sunday night campaign statement read.
Others in Trump’s camp shared similar criticism of the Selzer’s poll, with senior Trump adviser Jason Miller reportedly calling it an “idiotic survey,” and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk claiming the data was “fake” and a “media-designed tactic to suppress turnout.”
Selzer brushed off her naysayers and Trump specifically, telling Newsweek, “These are the kinds of comments seen for virtually any poll, including mine. The Des Moines Register includes a methodology statement with each story they publish. It’s the same methodology used to show Trump winning Iowa in the final polls in 2016 and 2020. It would not be in my best interest, or that of my clients—The Des Moines Register and Mediacom—to conjure fake numbers.”
In 2016, Trump won Iowa by 9 points, and then by 8 points in the 2020 election. Yet, despite the former president’s positive track record of winning the state, the Republican candidate has plummeted in election betting odds since the shock poll numbers.
If Harris were to turn Iowa blue, she would be the first Democratic nominee to do so since 2012.
