Abdul el Sayed wasn’t the only progressive Democrat helped by a survey from Wedgewood, the fraudulent pollster that is roiling Michigan’s Senate race.
Wedgewood also produced a July “poll” that showed Troy Jackson leading Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) as Democrats in Maine were deciding who should replace their embattled Senate nominee, Graham Platner.
The purported survey, as noted by election forecaster Nate Silver, was the first to give a picture of how someone other than Platner, who had just been accused of rape, would perform against Collins as several Democrats jockeyed behind the scenes for the nomination.
Wedgewood not only reported that 75% of “respondents” wanted Platner to drop out if his campaign continued to be engulfed in scandal, but also that Jackson, who eventually took over the nomination, had a 5-percentage-point lead over Collins.
The report was one of more than a dozen revealed to be fraudulent earlier this month in a scandal that has rocked the polling and news industries. Wedgewood had been regarded as legitimate by polling aggregators and was heavily cited during the 2026 election cycle.
In Michigan, Wedgewood’s reports apparently contributed to Mallory McMorrow’s decision to drop out of the Senate race and consolidate support behind el Sayed, who will face Republican Mike Rogers on Nov. 3.
Both Jackson and el Sayed are progressive Democrats, and Wedgewood’s reports consistently reflected a bias toward left-leaning candidates. Wedgewood maintains that it was conducting a social experiment and that it “never intended to sway an election or permanently mislead the public.”
“We wanted to test a simple hypothesis: How easy is it for an entirely fabricated polling firm to gain traction, be taken seriously, and expose how little scrutinization exists in media and public commentary?” Wedgewood said in a since-deleted statement.
Its Maine Senate “poll” roughly tracked with two legitimate surveys produced over the next week or two, including a University of New Hampshire poll that found Jackson ahead by 3 points.
Wedgewood’s report contradicted the polling of one of Jackson’s opponents, however. That survey, produced for allies of public health official Nirav Shah, found him behind Collins by 2 points.
POLLS HAVE BEEN WRONG BEFORE. COULD THEY BE WRONG AGAIN IN 2026?
In addition to Shah, Jackson initially faced competition from Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former House candidate Jordan Wood, and other Democrats before he was chosen at a party convention held in late July.
A spokesperson for Jackson did not respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
