Iowa pollster mercilessly mocked as Trump wins state days after her results had Harris ahead
Social media ridiculed an Iowa pollster whose results showed Donald Trump losing the deep-red state just days before the 2024 presidential election.
According to the Associated Press, Trump easily won the Hawkeye State on Tuesday with a 12.6 percent lead over Vice President Kamala Harris after more than 80 percent of the votes were tallied.
“Wow, that Iowa poll was really accurate!” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sarcastically wrote to X after the state called for Trump.
Ann Selzer has built a reputation as “Iowa’s Polling Queen” and the “best pollster in politics” over decades of conducting political surveys at the Des Moines Register.
Donald Trump easily won Iowa in Tuesday’s presidential election – just as he did in 2016 and 2020. Pictured: Voters arrive to cast their ballots in Sioux City, Iowa on Tuesday, November 5
Senator Marco Rubio ripped into the Des Moines Register poll released just days before the presidential election that showed Trump losing to Vice President Kamala Harris
But sports media host Jake Crain wrote, “I’m not overtly political, but the people who released the Iowa poll should never be taken seriously again.”
The presidential poll released the weekend before the 2024 election showed Harris ahead of Trump by three percentage points. Although the results were within the margin of error, it gave Harris supporters hope that she could turn around the state they had previously written off.
The Register investigation sent shockwaves through the market and prompted a flood of bets on Harris to win the US election. On the other hand, Trump’s odds fell on a range of betting and prediction markets, including Kalshi, Polymarket and Predictit, just days before the November 5 election day.
But as in 2016 and 2020, Iowa voted again this cycle for Trump to enter the White House — and the state’s six Electoral College votes will go to the former president.
“Remember that Iowa poll that came out yesterday? That was twenty fun minutes,” wrote Michael Ian Black on X.
And political scientist Ian Bremmer wrote, “wow, that Iowa poll was wildly wrong.”
Sports media host Jake Crain said Iowa pollster Ann Selzer ‘should never be taken seriously again’
Trump and former First Lady Melania visit campaign officials at headquarters in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday, November 5
Selzer’s credibility in the Iowa polls was already in question before the results on Tuesday night, but Trump’s impressive victory only helped increase the flak against her.
Trump addressed the investigation, calling Selzer a “Trump hater” and emphasizing that Iowa farmers “love him.”
“All the polls, except one heavily skewed to the Democrats by a Trump hater who called it completely wrong last time, have me WAY positive,” he said on his social media website Truth Social.
Iowa has not voted for a Democrat in the presidential election since Barack Obama in 2012.