Staff Reports
Ann Selzer, once hailed as a superstar among pollsters, is making her exit from the polling stage amid enough controversy to fill a political debate. Her retirement announcement comes hot on the heels of a poll that inflated Vice President Kamala Harris’s popularity in Iowa to a staggering lead over Donald Trump, just in time for the election. The claims of a 47-44 split were greeted with snickers from Republican circles, and even her so-called peers in the polling arena seemed less than convinced. It is almost as if her final act was a desperate cry for help from the left.
The reality check came swiftly as Selzer’s dubious predictions missed the mark by a jaw-dropping 14 points. A reminder for those forgetting their math—just a few months prior, Iowa was Trump territory with an impressive 18-point lead. Those calculations weren’t just a flash in the pan; they suggested a steady Republican stronghold that would have been hard to erode. If Harris truly had momentum, it would have made sense for Democrats to dive into the state with endless campaign cash and event appearances. Yet, as the campaign wore on, the Democrats seemed to treat Iowa like a bad blind date they couldn’t wait to escape.
Trump Demands Something Before Famed Iowa Pollster Retires
Shouldn’t the FBI be kicking in her door and stealing all her electronics like they did to Shayne Coplan? https://t.co/pvV1FZbBwD
— Jim Ryals (@RyalsJim) November 18, 2024
Two weeks after her catastrophic forecasting, Selzer revealed her decision to retire from election polling, parting ways with the Des Moines Register after nearly three decades. It would seem that instead of a glorious sendoff, Selzer got a one-way ticket to the land of miscalculations. She claimed that she had informed the Register of her retirement plans well before the disastrous poll, suggesting that this decision was in the works long before her credibility went up in flames.
Selzer’s legacy may have once been entrenched in her ability to predict Iowa’s enigmatic electoral whims, but it certainly took a turn for the worse. From triumphing in earlier caucuses to facepalming alongside the rest of Iowa’s electorate, her polling finesse appears to have been lost in translation. In fact, one could argue that the only thing that surged this election cycle was the skepticism towards Selzer’s methods.
President-elect Donald Trump is not one to let the incompetence of a pollster slide lightly. He has called for an inquiry into why Selzer’s prediction was not just slightly off but laughably far from reality. The publication behind her polling, Gannett, is now conducting an internal audit, though many speculate the whole charade was just another strand of liberal propaganda attempting to paint a rosy picture that simply wasn’t there. With polling like this, it’s no wonder the left is eating their own, battling skepticism from within and making every attempt to spin the narrative that simply can’t be spun.
