But even now, Democratic pollsters disagree about how important the red wave polls are. Guy Molyneux, the veteran Democratic pollster at Hart Research, agrees that some pollsters are lower quality and “intentionally biased,” but thinks Rosenberg is overstating their impact. “They should either be ignored or heavily weighted in the polling averages – which is at least largely the case,” Molyneux said. “But I’m not sure how much impact they really had in 2022. Campaigns and parties rely mostly on their own polls, which have been largely accurate.” Molyneux added that if Democrats felt unsettled by the red polls in 2022, it was more likely due to the results of the off-year elections and “a Democrats’ “general tendency to be concerned.”

But Cornell Belcher, the Democratic pollster who often appears on MSNBC, says it's obvious that the polls are being manipulated and that this is very important. “Are you kidding me?” he said. “I said that a few years ago. I'm glad it's getting traction.” In his view, Republican companies use polls not only to provide accurate assessments of the state of race, but “to drive fundraising and external narratives as well as internal strategies.”

Michael Steele, the former Republican Party chairman who strongly opposes Trump but has retained his GOP registration, agrees that some of these polls are fraudulent. “I know they are,” he said. “I've talked to enough people on this side of the street to know that they are.” The way he does it is that “you find different ways to weight the participants, and that changes them Results you get.” That's a remarkable claim coming from such a long-time senior GOP insider.