RALEIGH, U.S., November 10. In the closing weeks of the campaign, the polls are probably overstating Republican support, and that's why it doesn't explain the outcome, but it explains why we were surprised by it.
Asher Hildebrand, associate professor of the practice at the Sanford School of Public Policy, said November 9, answering Trend’s question during the briefing on the midterm elections held November 8.
He was commenting on the reasons why Republicans got lower-than-expected results, while Democrats have outperformed.
“In recent cycles, we've seen polls systematically biased towards Democrats. But beyond that you also saw what appears to be a pretty concerted effort by Republicans to flood the zone by releasing a lot of polls, which are now used by many observers and to influence the media narrative. And that effort seemed to pay off the media narrative that Republicans are going to march to victory, there will be a red wave or even a red tsunami,” he said.
But that narrative was disconnected from the reality on the ground in many states, which had a lot of Democratic voters with great intensity and enthusiasm, added Hildebrand.
“Maybe they weren't fans of Joe Biden, but they were willing to vote for Democrats, because they thought that was better than the alternatives,” he explained.