President-elect Donald Trump sued the Des Moines Register and a pollster on Dec. 16 for publishing a poll ahead of the 2024 election that showed Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of Trump in Iowa.
The poll, conducted by the Register and a polling partner, found that 47 percent of respondents chose Harris, compared with 44 percent for Trump. The poll drew widespread attention because Iowa typically chooses Republicans, and other polls done in the state had Trump ahead.
Trump ended up winning Iowa with 56 percent of the vote.
According to the lawsuit, the poll amounted to “brazen election interference,” in violation of state law.
Trump’s suit pointed to the divergence between other recent polls conducted by pollster Ann Selzer and her company, which carried out the Trump-Harris poll, and the actual election results. The pollster, for instance, released a poll in 2022 in the Iowa attorney general race showing Republican Brenna Bird behind incumbent Democrat Tom Miller by 16 points. Bird ultimately defeated Miller by two points….