(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass celebrated a shocking poll that showed her leading her reelection opponent by nearly 12 points. But on Monday, that celebratory mood at her campaign quickly came crumbling down after the poll turned out to be fake.
Bass, a former Democratic member of Congress, is facing a rocky reelection following her first term leading Los Angeles. Most recently, her administration has faced scrutiny over its handling of the wildfires that savaged the city.
Her campaign team was thrown a lifeline after an entity identified as Median Strategies released a purported poll of 560 voters that showed Bass leading her opponent, Councilmember Nithya Raman, by nearly 12 points. The poll, which Headline USA reviewed, claimed Bass had 50% support compared with just 39% for Raman.
Bass even boasted about the poll in an X post, writing: “Doing the work, showing up, and gaining momentum. Let’s do this, LA!”
LA Times: Karen Bass cheered the results after the fake survey was released last week.
“Doing the work, showing up, and gaining momentum. Let’s do this, LA!” Bass posted on Twitter from her campaign account, citing Median Strategies as the source.
The post has since been… https://t.co/oLnUTIK7A4 pic.twitter.com/UbJjq6ZBQr
— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) August 17, 2026
But when the Los Angeles Times said it repeatedly demanded to speak with Median Strategies’ pollster, the company claimed the poll was nothing but a social media experiment.
“Median Strategies was created as a short term social experiment to examine how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification,” the company told the outlet.
Median Strategies added that it was “not seeking publicity or attribution for the individuals involved and are declining interviews.”
NEW: I reached out repeatedly last week to Median Strategies, asking to speak with their head of polling.
After reaching out repeatedly, they told me they were discontinuing their polling operation, then they admitted their poll was fake. https://t.co/yE8GNuzG6Q
— Noah Goldberg (@Noah__Goldberg) August 17, 2026
The individuals behind the fabricated poll are unknown. Critics online have questioned whether the stunt may have run afoul of state law, while others said the fake poll may have boosted Bass by giving her reelection campaign the appearance that it was doing well.
For instance, donors could potentially have been compelled to give money to her campaign rather than Raman’s based on the perception that Bass was gaining momentum.
In response to the embarrassing blunder, Bass’ team implied it believed the poll was real because it had received coverage from the California Post.
“This poll was reported on by a news outlet. Any bad faith attempts to influence elections should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” one of her campaign’s spokespeople claimed, as quoted by the Los Angeles Times.
The fake poll also included a section that proclaimed that the disenchanted Los Angelinos who backed the unconventional Pratt campaign were backing Bass after he didn’t make the open primary earlier this year.
“Faced with a choice between the incumbent and a Democratic Socialists of America-aligned challenger, most Pratt voters appear to be treating Bass as the more familiar, more moderate option rather than sitting out the race,” the poll claimed.
Bass has since deleted the X post celebrating the poll, but the episode came as she faces a difficult path to reelection.
The runoff election is set to for Nov. 3. The open primary, which included Pratt, was held June 2. Bass received a plurality of the vote, though a majority voted for other candidates. She specifically received 292,593 votes, or 34.3%; Raman received 247,781, or 29.0%; and Pratt received 217,977, or 25.5%.
