The Midwest Polling Disaster

Wisconsin was supposed to be a cakewalk for the DSA. The establishment Democratic Party had a miserable election cycle where their leading candidate had to drop out, their backup candidate had to drop out and then jump back in, and the former Lt. Governor dropped out just weeks before the election, all but conceding to the DSA-backed candidate.

Polls going into the election had Hong with a commanding double-digit lead, and many progressive activists were already thinking about November.

Then the unthinkable happened: Hong lost.

This comes just a week after polls massively overestimated the support for another DSA candidate, Abdul El-Sayed. He won his primary by a single point after polls said he would bury Rep. Haley Stevens.

So what happened? Well, there’s good news for Democrats and good news for Republicans.