A polling company that showed democratic socialist Francesca Hong with a massive lead in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary has shut down after Hong ultimately lost the race and another survey from the operation was revealed to be “bogus.”
Median Strategies had projected Hong holding a staggering 23-point advantage over David Crowley in the Democratic contest to become Wisconsin’s next governor.
The actual election produced a dramatically different result, with Crowley narrowly defeating Hong in last week’s primary.
Median Strategies acknowledged its major miss in an Aug. 12 post on X.
“We got Wisconsin wrong- and by quite a margin too,” the company wrote.
That post has since been deleted.
But Wisconsin wasn’t the company’s only polling controversy.
The Los Angeles Times reported Monday that Median Strategies had distributed a “bogus” poll in the Los Angeles mayoral race showing Democratic Mayor Karen Bass with a nearly 12-point advantage over democratic socialist Nithya Raman.
Bass touted the favorable numbers on X on Aug. 14.
“Doing the work, showing up, and gaining momentum. Let’s do this, LA!” Bass wrote in a post that has since been deleted.
Median Strategies claimed its Los Angeles survey was based on responses from 560 voters between July 30 and Aug. 5.
But when the Los Angeles Times began pressing the company for answers about the poll, Median Strategies reportedly refused to answer questions.
The operation subsequently shut down and offered an unusual explanation for its existence, claiming it had been created as a short-term experiment designed to demonstrate how polling information could spread through the political world without being independently verified.
“Median Strategies was created as a short term social experiment to examine how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification,” the company said in an email to the newspaper.
“We are not seeking publicity or attribution for the individuals involved and are declining interviews,” it added.
Information about exactly who operated Median Strategies remains scarce.
The company’s X account has just 23 followers, while its website was registered on Aug. 10. There is no available information about where the company was based or how many people worked for the operation.
Following its Wisconsin miss, Median Strategies also posted another message on Aug. 12 promising to improve its methods.
“Median Strategies is committed to continuously refining our methods and presenting a clear image of elections and movement,” the company wrote. “Though it hasn’t occurred this time, we will truly learn and improve from this. Please stay tuned.”
That is now the only post remaining on the company’s X account.
Median Strategies’ X biography states that the company has “concluded its polling project” and directs users to a statement posted on its website.
There is one significant problem for anyone trying to read that statement, however.
As of Tuesday morning, the Median Strategies website was no longer working, leaving few additional details about the mysterious polling operation after its Wisconsin prediction spectacularly missed the mark and its Los Angeles poll was exposed as bogus.
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