Trump Claims 'Oppression' After Iowa Poll Shows Kamala Harris Winning

Former President Donald Trump joined a chorus of Republicans criticizing the Des Moines Register latest Iowa poll which showed him trailing Democrat Kamala Harris by 3 percentage points.

At a campaign rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, Trump tried to discredit the polls released Saturday evening by calling them “suppression.”

‘It’s called oppression. They oppress,” Trump said. “And it really should be illegal.”

J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co., the firm that conducts the Iowa Poll, said in a statement Sunday that it is common for candidates to question unfavorable polls.

“I think this poll has a good chance of motivating Republicans to vote,” Selzer said. ‘Maybe they thought they would win easily. So it’s hard to think that it’s oppression.”

The Iowa poll showed Harris leading Trump 47% to 44% among likely voters in Iowa — those who have already voted or who say they “definitely” will 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 talk show material on Sunday, as analysts picked apart the results and observers spread memes on social media.

About truth social On Sunday morning, Trump expressed support for Iowa farmers and denigrated the poll because it was conducted by “a Trump hater who called it completely wrong last time.”

But the Iowa Poll does a long history of accurately assessing the state of the race the weekend before the general election, including the last two presidential races.

In 2016 and 2020, the Iowa Poll was one of the few polls that showed Trump’s unexpected strength on Election Day.

In 2016, the Iowa Poll showed Trump increased by 7 percentage points about Democrat Hillary Clinton before he finally won the state by 9 percentage points.

And in 2020, it showed him Democrat Joe Biden leads by 7 points before winning state by 8 percentage points.

Earlier this year, the Iowa Poll showed Trump Biden leads by 18 percentage points.

Despite this, the former president ignored the results on Sunday. His team pointed to a separate survey from Emerson College show him as a leader in Iowa.

“And we actually have the polls up,” Trump said at his rally in Pennsylvania. “But I think it’s much more than just the polls. You know the polls, I’m telling you, you can make those fools sing. If you get the right pollster that you can do – and you do – then you are doing real damage. You know when you like this person from Iowa. Nowadays the election is actually, we’re talking turkey, with a poll – unlike any other poll. Because it wasn’t even up for discussion. It’s really the opposite way. I’m all the way up.”

Iowa Republican leaders joined his dismissals, calling the Iowa Poll an outlier.

“Iowa Republicans are leading the way in early voting for the first time in decades, expanding our voter registration advantage by more than 130,000,” said Republican Governor Kim Reynolds. tweeted Saturday evening. “President Trump will win Iowa if we vote and our friends stand up. Let’s prove the Des Moines Register wrong again!”

The final Iowa poll from the 2018 governor’s race Reynolds showed a 2 percentage point loss to her Democratic challenger — a result that was also within the poll’s margin of error. She ended up winning by approx 3 percentage points.

Iowa Democrats cheered the outcome and warned their supporters to keep volunteering, knocking on doors and voting.

“The fact that Vice President Harris is now leading Donald Trump in the latest Des Moines Register poll is obviously very exciting for us,” Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said at a news conference on Saturday evening. “But I recognize that people here in Iowa are smart, and they know the difference between a poll and the outcome of an election. We have three days left until these elections. 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 following the Republican Party-backed six-week abortion ban. came into effect earlier this summer.

“They are tired of politicians meddling in their doctors’ offices and are looking for people up and down the ballot box who will 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 the 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. to 8 p.m.

Brianne Pfannenstiel is the Des Moines Register’s chief politics reporter. She also covers 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.