Poll pushed by Colom claiming Senate race with Hyde-Smith is “tied” was fake, fabricated
Frank Corder
Magnolia Tribune
October 21, 2026
Last week, Democrat Scott Colom’s campaign for U.S. Senate in Mississippi pushed a poll produced by Wedgewood Polls, saying the race with incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith is “tied.”
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On Tuesday, Wedgewood Polls admitted its polling was fabricated in a stunt “to demonstrate the vulnerabilities, lack of oversight, and overall low barrier to entry in the modern political polling industry.”
“Having previously worked in the polling and research sector, we watched as the public’s trust in polling eroded alongside a rise in unverified, low-quality methodology,” the group posted on X. “We wanted to test a simple hypothesis: How easy is it for an entirely fabricated polling firm to gain traction, be taken seriously, and expose how little scrutinization exists in media and public commentary? The short answer: Far too easy.”
The statement from Wedgewood went on to say that despite having no history, formal credentials, or real data behind the vast majority of our releases, Wedgewood Polling was added to major polling aggregators, including The New York Times, FiftyPlusOne, and VoteHub, and repeatedly treated as a legitimate data source.
“Our fabricated numbers were given instant credibility across national media platforms-including being cited on air and in reporting by outlets such as MS NOW,” the group wrote. “The ease with which unverified figures were absorbed into mainstream political narratives highlights a systemic breakdown in media vetting and data aggregation.”
Wedgewood said their “experimental project” was never intended to sway an election or permanently mislead the public; “it was designed as a wake-up call.”
“If a fictional entity run by a small group of industry veterans can be integrated into major polling averages and cited by major news organizations, the standards for how polling data is vetted, aggregated, and reported must change,” the group added.
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Read more here.
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