Bass Posted a Poll Showing a 12-Point Lead. Its Author Says the Poll Was Fake.

Median Strategies claimed a survey of 560 Angelenos, then said the whole thing was a “short term social experiment.” The Los Angeles mayor’s campaign has deleted the post.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass posted, and later deleted, a poll that showed her leading Nithya Raman by nearly 12 percentage points ahead of the November mayoral runoff — a poll the firm behind it has since said was fabricated. TheWrap reported on August 17, 2026 that the firm, Median Strategies, described the survey as a “short term social experiment” rather than genuine polling data.

The fake poll claimed its results came from a survey of 560 Angelenos conducted between July 30 and Aug. 5, 2026, according to TheWrap’s account of the released numbers. It also claimed that 16% of respondents said they had voted for Spencer Pratt in the primary election. Of that group, the fake poll said, roughly 85% planned to vote for Bass in the general election and roughly 7% for Raman.

What Median Strategies says it was doing

Median Strategies, whose origins remain unclear, said in a statement first covered by the Los Angeles Times and reported by TheWrap that the operation was designed to test the spread of unverified numbers.

“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. We are not seeking publicity or attribution for the individuals involved and are declining interviews.”

Representatives for Median Strategies did not respond to additional inquiries from TheWrap about the firm’s origins and mission, the outlet reported. Financial disclosures on the firm’s website said no individual involved received compensation or financial benefit from the project, and that the project was not funded, commissioned or directed by any candidate, campaign, political party, PAC, media organization or other outside entity, according to TheWrap.

The Median Strategies website now states that it has “concluded its polling project and will not publish additional polls,” and that all previously published polling releases should not be cited or treated as genuine polling data.

How far the number traveled

Several outlets and media personalities treated the poll as real when it was released the week before the disclosure, including Bass, TheWrap reported.

“Doing the work, showing up and gaining momentum. Let’s do this, LA!” the mayor wrote in a post on X from her campaign account, citing Median Strategies as the source. The post has since been deleted.

A Bass campaign spokesperson pointed to the coverage the fake numbers received. “This poll was reported on by a news outlet,” the spokesperson told TheWrap. “Any bad faith attempts to influence elections should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Raman’s office responded to both the fake poll and the mayor’s promotion of it. “The Mayor’s campaign promoted a fake poll without properly vetting the source,” a spokesperson told TheWrap. “It is the latest example of an administration that too often struggles to get the basics right — from promoting a pothole repair before the pothole was fixed to repeatedly giving Boyle Heights residents a Lineage cleanup deadline the company now disputes. Angelenos deserve a mayor who gets the facts right, communicates clearly, and does the work before announcing the result.”

What is still unknown

The reporting available to this desk does not identify who created Median Strategies, who paid for the website, or how many people saw the figure before it was withdrawn. The firm has declined interviews, and its stated financial disclosures are self-published. What is established is the sequence: a number with no verifiable source entered the Los Angeles mayoral race, was repeated by outlets and by the sitting mayor’s own campaign account, and was disowned by its author roughly a week and a half after the survey window it claimed.