'It's called suppression:' Trump lambastes Iowa Poll that shows him trailing Kamala Harris
Former President Donald Trump joined a chorus of Republicans criticizing the Des Moines Register’s latest Iowa Poll that showed him trailing Democrat Kamala Harris by 3 percentage points.
At a campaign rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania, Sunday, Trump tried to discredit the poll results released Saturday evening, calling them “suppression.”
“It’s called suppression. They suppress,” Trump said. “And it actually should be illegal.”
J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co., the firm that conducts the Iowa Poll, said in a statement Sunday that it’s common for candidates to question unfavorable polling.
“I think this poll stands a good chance of motivating Republicans to get out and vote,” Selzer said. “They may have thought they’d win easily. So, it's hard to think it’s suppression.”
More: How is the Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll conducted? We answer your top questions.
The Iowa Poll showed Harris leading Trump 47% to 44% among likely Iowa voters ― those who have already voted or who say they will "definitely" vote. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
It was a surprising result in a state that Trump previously carried twice. The poll set the internet ablaze Saturday night and provided fodder for Sunday talk shows as analysts picked apart the results and observers churned out social media memes.
On Truth Social Sunday morning, Trump touted his support for Iowa farmers and denigrated the poll for being conducted by "a Trump hater who called it totally wrong the last time."
But the Iowa Poll has a long history of accurately assessing the state of the race on the weekend before a general election, including the last two presidential races.
In 2016 and 2020, the Iowa Poll was one of few polls that picked up on Trump’s unexpected strength going into Election Day.
In 2016, the Iowa Poll showed Trump up 7 percentage points over Democrat Hillary Clinton before he ultimately won the state by 9 percentage points.
And in 2020, it showed him leading Democrat Joe Biden by 7 points before he won the state by 8 percentage points.
More: How do past Iowa Poll results compare with presidential election results in Iowa?
Earlier this year, the Iowa Poll showed Trump leading Biden by 18 percentage points.
Despite that, the former president discounted the results Sunday. His team pointed to a separate poll conducted by Emerson College that shows him leading in Iowa.
“And we even have the polls up," Trump said at his rally in Pennsylvania. "But I think it’s much more than the polls. You know the polls, I’m telling you, you can make those suckers sing. You get the right pollster you can do — and you do — you really do inflict damage. You know when you do like this person from Iowa. Today, the election essentially is really, we’re talking turkey, comes out with a poll — different from every other poll. Because it wasn’t even in question. It’s really the opposite way. I’m way up.”
Iowa’s Republican leaders joined his dismissals, calling the Iowa Poll an outlier.
“Iowa Republicans are leading in early voting for the first time in decades, and have increased our voter registration advantage by 130,000+,” Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds tweeted Saturday night. “President Trump will win Iowa if we vote and turnout our friends. Let’s prove the Des Moines Register wrong again!”
The final Iowa Poll of the 2018 governor’s race showed Reynolds down 2 percentage points against her Democratic challenger — a result that also was within the poll’s margin of error. She ended up winning by about 3 percentage points.
Democrats in Iowa cheered the result while cautioning their supporters that they need to continue volunteering, knocking doors and turning out to vote.
“The fact that Vice President Harris now leads Donald Trump in the latest Des Moines Register poll is obviously very exciting for us,” Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said in a Saturday night news conference. “But I recognize that the folks here in Iowa are smart, and they know the difference between a poll and the results of an election. We have three more days before this election. So remember, this is just a poll, and what really matters is that Iowans show up and make their voices heard.”
House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, said she is “pleasantly surprised, but not shocked” by the results.
She said the results match what she’s hearing on the ground from women across the political spectrum after the state's GOP-backed six-week abortion ban took effect earlier this summer.
“They are sick and tired of politicians interfering in their doctor's offices and are looking for people up and down the ballot who are going to actually fight for their freedoms,” Konfrst said. “And this issue is salient and real, and the fact that Vice President Harris all the way down to candidates for the Iowa House are talking about the same rights and freedoms, shows that this is what Iowans are looking for.”
Election Day is Tuesday, and polls are open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.
More: Two days left until the 2024 election. How to vote early or on Election Day in Iowa
Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register. She is also covering the 2024 presidential race for USA TODAY as a senior national campaign correspondent. Reach her at [email protected] or 515-284-8244. Follow her on Twitter at @brianneDMR.
This story was updated to add a video.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Trump claims 'suppression' after Iowa Poll has Kamala Harris winning