Pollster Frank Luntz is calling for a “complete shutdown of primary polling in the Midwestern United States until we can figure out what the hell is going on,” after Tuesday night’s Wisconsin primary delivered a result that upended every public survey.
Luntz’s frustration stems from the Democratic gubernatorial primary in Wisconsin, where Assemblywoman Francesca Hong was leading by margins of 18 to 22 points in the five most recent polls. Yet when the votes were counted, Hong lost by half a point to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.
A Pattern of Midwestern Misses
This Wisconsin shock follows a similar miss in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary last week. There, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed led by ten to 16 points in the five most recent polls — but only squeaked out a single-point win.
Luntz’s call for a polling shutdown is not new. He has been skeptical of all Midwest polling since Senator Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in Michigan’s 2016 Democratic presidential primary. Every single poll showed Clinton crushing Sanders by double digits, with margins ranging from 11 to 37 points. The RealClearPolitics average had Clinton up by 21.4 points. Sanders won the state by 1.5 points.
This track record, Luntz argues, suggests something systemic rather than accidental.
Critics Say Polling Is Rigged
Luntz goes further than just questioning accuracy. He asserts that “with rare exceptions, the entire system is rigged to shape rather than measure public opinion, to influence rather than predict an outcome, to manipulate rather than inform.” He points to the corporate media, saying most polls are “created by, paid for, or associated with media outlets that all have a far-left agenda.”
He recalls the 2024 presidential election, when a week before Election Day, polls showed President Trump losing to Kamala Harris by three points in Iowa. The media seized on that “A+ pollster” to weave a narrative that Trump’s campaign was collapsing. Trump ended up winning Iowa by 13 points.
“It’s all rigged. It’s all bullshit,” Luntz said. “And there is no incentive to fix polling because no one who does polling believes polling is broken.”
Allegations of Deliberate Distortion in Wisconsin and Michigan
Luntz charges that the Wisconsin polls showing Hong up by 20 points were deliberately faked to make it seem as though communists were gaining popularity in mainstream America—and the Midwest is about as mainstream as it gets. He levels the same accusation at the Michigan polls around El-Sayed.
Moreover, he argues these rigged polls may have directly affected the outcome in Michigan. By showing El-Sayed with a double-digit lead, the polls could have suppressed turnout for his opponent, whose supporters might have stayed home believing the race was hopeless.
No Reforms Coming
“Pollsters have had decades to reform. Not reforming is a choice, a choice they made long ago,” Luntz said.
While no one expects an actual halt to polling, Luntz’s demand highlights a growing frustration among voters and political observers who see repeated, glaring discrepancies between polls and election results in the Midwest.
As the 2026 midterms approach, the reliability of polling in battleground states will remain under scrutiny. For now, Luntz’s call for a shutdown underscores a deeper crisis of confidence in the polling industry.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/08/12/nolte-frank-luntz-calls-for-complete-shutdown-of-midwest-polling-after-wisconsin-disaster/