President-elect Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register, pollster J. Ann Selzer, her firm Selzer & Co., and Gannett, the newspaper's parent company, alleging the publication of a misleading poll ahead of the 2024 election. The lawsuit, filed Monday in Iowa state court, accuses the defendants of violating the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act and claims their polling amounted to "election interference."
The legal challenge stems from a pre-election survey released in late October by Selzer & Co. on behalf of the Des Moines Register. The poll showed Vice President Kamala Harris leading Trump by 3 percentage points in Iowa, a state Trump was widely expected to win. On Election Day, Trump secured a resounding victory in the state, defeating Harris by a decisive 13-point margin.
Trump's attorneys argue that the poll was deliberately skewed to influence voter perception in the final days of the campaign.
"Defendants and their cohorts in the Democrat Party hoped that the Harris Poll would create a false narrative of inevitability for Harris in the final week of the 2024 Presidential Election," Trump's legal team wrote in the complaint. "Instead, the November 5 Election was a monumental victory for President Trump in both the Electoral College and the Popular Vote."
The lawsuit accuses Selzer and her firm of manipulating polling methodologies to produce inaccurate results. It seeks an unspecified amount in damages and demands an injunction preventing Selzer & Co. from publishing future polls deemed deceptive.
Selzer, a respected figure in the polling industry often praised for her accuracy, has not publicly responded to the lawsuit. However, the Des Moines Register defended its reporting and polling methods.
"We have acknowledged that the Selzer/Des Moines Register pre-election poll did not reflect the ultimate margin of President Trump's Election Day victory in Iowa by releasing the poll's full demographics, crosstabs, weighted and unweighted data, as well as a technical explanation from pollster Ann Selzer," said Lark-Marie Anton, a spokesperson for the newspaper. "We stand by our reporting on the matter and believe this lawsuit is without merit."
The lawsuit underscores Trump's escalating legal offensive against media outlets and pollsters, a trend that has defined his post-election strategies. Just last week, Trump secured a $16 million defamation settlement from ABC News in a separate case. He has also pursued lawsuits against CBS, journalist Bob Woodward, and the Pulitzer Prize board, alleging bias and defamation.
Trump, who previewed the lawsuit during a press conference on Monday, called the Iowa poll fraudulent.
"In my opinion, it was fraud, and it was election interference," Trump said. "Pollsters like Selzer think they can manipulate the system, and we're not going to let it happen anymore."
Legal and media experts remain skeptical about the lawsuit's success. Rick Hasen, an election law professor at UCLA, noted the inherent difficulty of proving intentional wrongdoing in polling.
"I don't expect this lawsuit to go anywhere," Hasen said
The Selzer poll's results were particularly surprising given Iowa's consistent Republican tilt in recent elections. Trump's commanding victory in the state has further fueled his allegations that the poll was designed to suppress Republican turnout or create false momentum for Harris.
Media analysts have expressed concern over the broader implications of Trump's lawsuit. Critics argue that such legal challenges could have a chilling effect on political polling, deterring firms from publishing results for fear of litigation.
