Politico admitted on Thursday that they were scammed by the fake Wedgewood polls, as you can read in a story by Andrew Howard, "How a fake pollster may have moved some 2026 elections."
Well, congratulations to Politico for that admission, but was this merely a modified limited hangout on their part? Of all the polls that Wedgewood Polls conducted, only ONE (Nebraska gubernatorial and Senate races) was valid. The rest were completely FAKE. So did Politico perform due diligence by checking the underlying data?
Here is the partial admission by Politico, which does not mention the due diligence of fact-checking the polls or of basing its stories on fake polls, whether by Wedgewood or other sources:
A new company whose polls had influenced campaign decisions and helped shape the midterms narrative admitted that it was faking its polling data on Tuesday night, setting off a firestorm in the electionsphere.
Wedgewood Polls, facing an imminent publication of an investigation from FiftyPlusOne showing it was fabricating its numbers, declared late Tuesday night that it had been an “experimental project” to show how an “entirely fabricated polling firm” could sway public opinion while painting themselves as the good guys. They’d left an impact and been included by multiple credible polling aggregators including The New York Times — and mentioned twice in POLITICO’s Morning Score polling roundup.
...Mallory McMorrow, the unsuccessful Michigan Democratic Senate candidate who dropped out before her primary, said a fake Wedgewood poll that showed her crashing to single-digit support against Abdul El-Sayed and Rep. Haley Stevens “dried up” donations, “devastated” volunteers and led to numerous calls to exit the race.
“It killed us,” McMorrow wrote on X. “These were some of the absolute worst days on the campaign. Especially for my team. There are no words to explain the morale blow, and nothing I could do or say to my team to fix it.”
Jennifer Holdsworth, a Democratic operative who ran a super PAC supporting McMorrow, said the Wedgewood poll “was used by several donors to pull back funding at a time we were being outspent by $80 million.”
...They also posted a poll showing the Mississippi Senate race within reach, just before Democrats plowed money into the state. Scott Colom, the Democrat running for the seat, blasted the poll to his press list as proof there was “massive momentum” behind him.
Conveniently unmentioned by Politico was its own part in validating the Wedgewood poll, which led to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) diverting $1.2 million in campaign funds to the Mississippi Senate campaign, as explained in an October 18 story, "Can Scott Colom win Mississippi Senate? Warnock is making a big bet on it.":
JACKSON, Mississippi — Raphael Warnock is racing to get Democrat Scott Colom elected in deep-red Mississippi. It’s part of his bigger bet on the South.
Colom, a charismatic local prosecutor, is within striking distance in the polls of unseating Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. And in the absence of more dedicated resources, Warnock himself is trying to fill the gap by directing money and donors to the race.
"Striking distance" in the article links to the X.com account of Wedgewood Polls, which was subsequently been taken down.
Oh, and try to not laugh when you read Schumer's reaction to the Politico/Wedgewood Polls news that the Democrat candidate was suddenly within "striking distance" of winning the U.S. Senate seat in Mississippi:
Scott Colom is the senator Mississippi deserves – and he can win.
— Chuck Schumer (@chuckschumer) October 20, 2026
Another toxic example of how Wedgewood Polls, abetted by Politico, might have harmed Democrat chances for taking control of the Senate came last July 6.
There was this suspiciously coordinated attack on Maine Democrat Senate candidate Graham Platner, with Politico publishing an attack piece, "Exclusive: Woman who dated Graham Platner says he sexually assaulted her". That was the same day the fake Wedgewood Polls showed him losing to Susan Collins (in contrast to a couple of other Maine Democrats), which was the argument at the center of the left forcing Platner to withdraw from the race.
The homework assignment for Democrats should be to find out what other toxic polls by Wedgewood Polls, with an important assist from Politico, caused them severe damage in this election season.
