Wedgewood Polls said it fabricated its polling data and described the operation as an “experimental project” meant to show how a fake firm could sway public opinion.
FiftyPlusOne had been preparing to publish an investigation into the fabricated numbers, and Wedgewood disclosed the scheme late Tuesday night before that report appeared.
The fake pollster had already influenced campaign decisions and the 2026 midterm narrative, with its numbers picked up by major aggregators including The New York Times and cited in POLITICO’s polling roundup.
Key questions remain unresolved: who was behind the effort, whether it aimed to help progressive Democrats, manipulate betting markets or guide ad spending, and how weak vetting let the data spread.
Wedgewood’s listed email now bounces back and poll PDFs tied to its X account have disappeared, underscoring how little public information exists about a firm that also crowdfunded thousands of dollars.