Polling firm closes down after it faked Hong, Bass polls

Median Strategies, the company that released polls showing Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) and former Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong ahead with wide margins in their respective races, on Monday announced that it has closed. A message on the company’s website reads that it has “concluded its polling p

Median Strategies revealed that recent polls from the firm were intended to expose how easily false results can be spread.

Francesca Hong, the failed communist candidate in the Wyoming gubernatorial primary race, was supposed to shellac David Crowley. After all, she had a 23-point lead over her opponent, according to data from Median Strategies. But it turns out Median Strategies was a fake polling company that just wanted to run a “social

August 18, 2026 12:08 PM ET A polling company that showed former Democratic Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong leading by over 20 points admitted to faking polls, then shut down Monday.Median Strategies announced that its data was a “short-term social experiment” after releasing several polls related to t

A fake polling firm that drew headlines for a poll showing Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in the lead in her mayoral primary was also behind a poll showing Francesca Hong far ahead in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in Wisconsin. In the days before the Wisconsin gubernatorial Democratic primary, a viral poll from a

A fake polling firm projecting Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Wisconsin Democrat socialist gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong with leads over their opponents admits these were fake polls as part of a "short-term social experiment."