Hmmmm I wonder who was behind the mystery polling scam?

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The Median Strategies fake polls, none of which appeared in Associated Press coverage, claimed to evaluate support in the Democratic primary for governor in Wisconsin, the gubernatorial race in Nevada, and the mayoral race in Los Angeles.

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The Los Angeles poll, which purported to show Bass, an incumbent Democrat, leading councilmember Nithya Raman, a progressive Democrat, by about 12 percentage points in the mayoral race, was shared by the Bass campaign on social media and covered by the California Post before it was revealed to be bogus.

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Median’s “findings” were shared by polling aggregation accounts on social media. They were not, however, included in the databases of major independent aggregators, including The New York Times, Real Clear Politics or FiftyPlusOne.

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On Kalshi, the price of a “yes” contract on Bass winning the Los Angeles mayoral election rose two cents, from about 63 cents to about 65 cents, within fifteen minutes of Median’s post. On Polymarket, roughly twenty separate accounts traded thousands of contracts in Bass’s favor six minutes after the tweet.

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Who funded and ran Median Strategies Polling?

Unknown individuals ran it as an anonymous short-term project; it claimed no external funding from candidates, campaigns, parties, PACs, media, or other outside entities, and no compensation or financial benefit for those involved.

medianstrategies.com

Median Strategies presented itself briefly as an independent polling/research firm (website and social media activity starting around early/mid-August 2026) and released purported polls on races including the Los Angeles mayoral runoff (showing Karen Bass leading Nithya Raman) and the Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary (showing Francesca Hong with a large lead). After inquiries (notably from the Los Angeles Times), it admitted the surveys were fabricated.

foxnews.com

Its website now states it has discontinued the project, withdrawn all prior releases (which “should not be cited or treated as genuine polling data”), and describes the effort as “a short-term social experiment examining how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification.” It adds a financial disclosure denying any candidate/campaign/party/PAC/media funding or direction, any compensation to participants, and any prediction/betting-market positions or intent to influence them.

medianstrategies.com

The operators explicitly declined interviews or attribution for the individuals involved. The domain was registered anonymously via a privacy service. Reporting from outlets including the AP, Los Angeles Times, Fox News, and others confirms that who is behind it remains unidentified, with no public evidence contradicting the self-described lack of external funding or political direction.

usnews.com

In short, it was run anonymously by unidentified people who framed it as an unpaid social experiment with no outside funders, and those details have not been publicly contradicted or further revealed as of the latest available reporting.

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