With Donald Trump's obvious decline over the last few months and his multiple October surprises spilling over into November, the MAGA panic has completely set in with barely 48 hours until Election Day.
The panic grew worse when legendary Iowa pollster Ann Selzer announced that Vice President Kamala Harris has a three-point lead over Donald Trump, who won Iowa over Joe Biden in 2020--and by just one point higher than Selzer had said he would.
Selzer has a history of defying conventional political wisdom by simply reading the data.
Thanks to her pragmatic approach to polling, her predictions over the decades have earned her accolades, with fans calling her "Iowa’s polling queen,” “the polling Cassandra of Des Moines”, and “the best pollster in politics”.
Selzer first gained national attention when she accurately predicted Sen. Barack Obama would beat Hillary Clinton, then the front-runner, in the 2008 Iowa caucuses. Like Cassandra, people scoffed at her data-based arguments, and a member of the Clinton campaign called her to complain.
But she was right.
Selzer says she keeps her prejudices out of the equation and does not care who wins or loses – as long as she is right. “I like to say, “Keep your dirty hands off your data,’” she told FiveThirtyEight.
Trump attacked Selzer on Sunday at his rally in Pennsylvania, clearly shaken by the impending loss to Vice President Harris in Iowa--and not just there.
Selzer's been getting pushback from MAGA after Trump bullied her on Truth Social, which she takes in stride. In an email to Newsweek, she wrote, "It would not be in my best interest, or that of my clients—The Des Moines Register and Mediacom—to conjure fake numbers."