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Mysterious polling firm behind fake election surveys closes after admitting ‘social experiment’
By Paul Steinhauser, William La Jeunesse
Published August 18, 2026
A polling outfit that admitted surveys it released on the Los Angeles mayor's race and the Democratic gubernatorial primary in Wisconsin were fake is now out of business.
Median Strategies, the company that released polls indicating Democratic Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles and Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong leading their rivals by wide margins, announced this week that the surveys were a hoax and that it has closed its doors.
The fabricated polls by Median Strategies entered the political information ecosystem and were reported on social media, by some local TV newscasts and by online reporting outlets.
"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 posted on its website. "Median Strategies has concluded its polling project and will not publish additional polls."
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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, right, will face off with city council member Nithya Raman in the city's general election for mayor. (Ronaldo Bolaños/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images; Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The company told Fox News the organization was not affiliated with any candidate, political action committee or party.
Median Strategies first released a poll showing Bass with a 12-point lead over Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman, a rival in the June mayoral primary and a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member. The poll cited the responses of 560 Angelenos, with a 4.1% margin of error.
Bass ended up edging Raman by five points in the primary, with Republican Spencer Pratt, who was running as an independent in the Democrat-dominated city, coming in third. The mayor and Raman will face off in the general election.
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state Rep. Francesca Hong of Wisconsin, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, arrives to vote on in Madison, Wis., Aug. 11, 2026. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)
In Wisconsin, a Median Strategies survey indicated Hong, a state representative and a DSA member, leading Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley by 20 points ahead of last week's primary. It was largely in line with a couple of other public opinion polls that had Hong with a large lead.
Crowley ended up defeating Hong by a razor-thin margin. The result in Wisconsin came a week after polls in Michigan widely inflated far-left candidate Abdul El-Sayed's lead over more moderate Rep. Haley Stevens. Abdul ended up edging Stevens by a narrow margin to win the nomination.
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Democratic Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate David Crowley greets supporters at a campaign rally Aug. 10, 2026, in Milwaukee. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
In last week's Democratic Senate primary in Minnesota, polls underestimated progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan's lead over more moderate Rep. Angie Craig. Flanagan ended up capturing the Senate nomination by roughly 20 points.
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The incorrect surveys in recent weeks grabbed widespread media attention and sparked fresh criticism of public opinion polling.
Median Strategies told the Los Angeles Times, which was first to report the story, that it was "not seeking publicity or attribution for the individuals involved and are declining interviews."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mysterious-polling-firm-behind-fake-election-surveys-closes-admitting-social-experiment