Democrats are up in arms after a so-called polling firm that projected far-left candidates as strong contenders in several primaries admitted that it had fabricated its polling data.

Wedgewood Polling, which billed itself as an election survey company, released a statement Tuesday night admitting it used "fabricated numbers" for an "experimental project to demonstrate the vulnerabilities, lack of oversight, and overall low barrier to entry in the modern political polling industry."

The group's polls were cited by Abdul El-Sayed's campaign amid a high-profile primary race against Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich. The nonpartisan polling aggregator Political Polls also cited Wedgewood in the Wisconsin gubernatorial race, showing socialist Francesca Hong having an edge over Republican candidate Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis.

McMorrow said Wedgewood's numbers led to her donations drying up and reporters having "hounded" her with calls to drop out of the race.

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"Sure, a point was proven. Polling is broken. But tens of thousands of people poured their hearts, time, energy, hard-earned money into something they believed in - for a year-and-a-half, and it was treated like a game," she said in a statement on X. "Trust is already at an all-time low. We don't get out of this mess without rebuilding trust. And media - who loves to ride the drama of a pollercoaster - needs to take a hard look at what's legitimate and what's not."

Unlike El-Sayed, who advanced from Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, Hong lost Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary to the establishment-backed candidate. El-Sayed, a former Michigan public health official, is currently locked in a tight race against former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., for Michigan's open Senate seat.

Democrat strategist Jennifer Holdsworth said she ran a super PAC that raised money for McMorrow and that "this poll was used by several donors to pull back funding at a time we were being outspent by $80 million."

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Wedgewood's numbers were cited by high-profile outlets like The New York Times and Decision Desk HQ, which both said they have since removed them from their projections.

The Times said it removed 15 polls released by Wedgewood between June and October after it admitted to fabricating data. The outlet said Wedgewood had "answered a series of questions regarding the identities of the pollsters; the methods they were using to draw their sample, contact respondents and weight their polls; and the source of their funding" during its vetting process.

Decision Desk HQ said it removed 17 Wedgewood polls from its projections but that it "has not changed the projected seat totals or chamber control probabilities in the Senate or House."

Wedgewood Polling's statement said it "was never intended to sway an election" but rather was aimed as a "wake-up call" about data integrity and vetting standards.

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"These people are absolute scumbags," veteran Democratic strategist and former Kamala Harris advisor Mike Nellis told Fox News Digital. "They can try to claim that they have some moral high ground here, but they lied about their polling data, got caught, and are freaking out because they've committed fraud."

"The people responsible for this should be run out of American politics, and if they can be, they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law," Nellis said. He added that both Democrats and Republicans, as well as the media, should reflect on how polling is verified "because there's likely other people that are doing things like this."

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Independent outlet FiftyPlusOne said it was investigating Wedgewood when it had released its statement. Co-founder G. Elliott Morris wrote on X, "We were investigating Wedgewood for faking their data and emailed them for comment this morning, ahead of publishing the findings tomorrow. They are trying to cover up their fraud with the 'we were doing a social experiment' excuse."

Former Obama staffer Tommy Vietor said on X that Wedgewood's actions amounted to "lying and fraud."

A group called "Wedgewood Polls" had also previously created a GoFundMe to raise money for polling in Nebraska's gubernatorial and Senate races. It raised $500 of its intended $5,000.

"I know they crowdfunded, I believe, a good chunk of their polls," Nellis told Fox News Digital. "Are they going to return that money? And if not, are they going to be prosecuted?"

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Other Wedgewood surveys showed Democrats with significant edges over Republicans in states like Texas, where a July Wedgewood poll showed James Talarico leading state Attorney General Ken Paxton among Hispanics by 64% to 30%.

Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have long heaped doubt on the veracity of polls.

Polls notably showed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with an edge over Trump in 2016 — far from the actual result.

And with the fight for control of Congress coming to a head in November, every data point is being scrutinized as political tea leaves.

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Fox News Digital reached out to McMorrow's state Senate office, Stevens' campaign and strategist Lis Smith for further comment.

Four in 10 college students believe people should face criminal prosecution for expressing opinions they find offensive, according to a new poll that raises questions about the next generation's attitudes toward free speech and the First Amendment.

"Four in ten (40%) agree that offensive speech should be subject to criminal prosecution, while 52% disagree. Agreement is up seven points from last year and is the highest in the three years this question has been asked," a recent survey from the Buckley Institute found.

The survey also found that 45% of students believe violence is acceptable to stop offensive speech.

"Forty-five percent (45%) agree that physical violence can be justified to prevent a person from using hate speech or making racially charged comments, while 50% disagree," the survey states. "Agreement is up six points from last year and ties the all-time high of 45% set in 2023. In 2017, the first year this question was asked, agreement was 30%."

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The survey also found that 42% agree that political comments they disagree with can be harmful to their mental health, while 53% disagree, up four points from last year and is the highest reading in the five years this question has been asked.

The survey polled 803 undergrads at four-year colleges across the country in mid-September.

The survey included full-time undergraduate students under the age of 25 attending four-year public or private colleges and universities. It excluded part-time students, those 25 and older, and students enrolled in community colleges, technical schools or trade schools.

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Lauren Noble, the executive director of the Buckley Institute, told Fox News Digital in a statement Tuesday that the support among undergraduates for prosecuting free speech is a red flag for the country.

"The high levels of undergraduate support for censorship should serve as a warning to America," Noble said. "The 40% of undergraduates who support criminalizing offensive speech will bring that perspective into their communities and workplaces after they graduate. Two hundred fifty years after America’s founding, defenders of the First Amendment should be worried about what the future holds when these censorious students assume positions of leadership."

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She added that institutions of higher learning have dropped the ball when it comes to educating students on why the First Amendment is a crucial right.

"The survey data shows that America’s colleges and universities are clearly not doing enough to impress upon their students why free speech is so critical to a free society," Noble added. "When significant numbers of college students accept violence and shout downs as appropriate responses to speech they disagree with, alarm bells should be ringing for Americans across the political spectrum."

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DES MOINES, Iowa — House Republicans are pinning hopes of keeping their majority on a state that President Donald Trump won by roughly 13 points in November 2024.

And while Iowa has leaned red in recent years, Republicans are now finding themselves defending three of its four congressional districts as polls give Democrats more hope by the day that the key to a blue wave runs through the Midwest.

But Republicans are dismissing public perception surveys as a political cudgel used by the media and the left to discourage GOP voters, while insisting the results will come down to one thing.

"Nobody knows what's going to happen on November 3. But I'm here to tell you, if our people show up, we win. If our people don't show up … then we're going to be scratching and clawing to hang on to every inch that we've got," House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told a room of GOP supporters in Dubuque, Iowa, on Thursday.

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Fox News Digital joined Emmer and several other House Republicans on a two-district swing in Iowa late last week. The No. 3 House GOP leader spent his afternoon at an event for congressional candidate Joe Mitchell in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, followed by a fundraiser for Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, in Des Moines in the evening.

At both events, he argued that polling showing Democrats with a growing advantage was incorrect, but he and others are still warning that getting Republicans out to vote will be key to the party’s success.

"Republicans do not like to participate in surveys," Emmer told people Thursday evening in Des Moines. "We are very suspicious of the people who are giving the information to and the databases they’re putting us in. By the way, there are Republicans who answer these surveys who may tell exactly the opposite of what they actually stand on, because again, we don’t trust them."

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Fox News Power Rankings show all but one of Iowa’s four congressional districts are in play. Nunn’s district and the one represented by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, both "lean Democrat." The seat Mitchell is vying to take over from retiring Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, is ranked a "toss-up."

Republicans across the country are privately worrying that Trump’s low approval numbers coupled with some of his more unpopular policies could drag down the GOP. Add in the overall high cost of living and gas prices, some on the right are bracing for a 2018-style blue wave.

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Two of the policies that could sandbag Republican candidates in Iowa in particular are Trump’s tariffs and his decision to import foreign beef. The agriculture-heavy state has been hit particularly hard so far, with tariffs making farm equipment and other materials more expensive, while Trump's trade war with China has hit American farmers hard with Beijing's retaliation.

Trump has sought to mitigate the impact of his steel tariffs in particular, announcing plans last month for a $15 billion steel plant in Lee County, Iowa.

But both Nunn and Mitchell are confident in the races they are running.

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"We feel very confident about the race. And that's because we've talked to every voter we can, asked for their vote on November 3, and we've been traveling the district for the last 13 months — all 22 counties, rural and suburban and urban, telling people, this is an election of common sense versus crazy," Mitchell told Fox News Digital. "We have the hardest workers on the ballot."

Nunn told attendees at his event, "Not only is Iowa at the front line of the entire country when it comes to making sure we've got three competitive House seats, Des Moines, Iowa, the third district, our proud district, is now one of the most competitive in the country."

"So not only are we on the front line, we get to be at the tip of the spear," Nunn said, weeks after he led a bipartisan bill aimed at curbing Trump's imports of foreign beef.

And despite the national-level outlook on Trump, turning out the president’s supporters could be the difference between narrowly keeping the GOP majority and losing control of the House.

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Trump, for his part, is doing what he can to motivate the base.

Nunn kicked off his Thursday evening event shortly after a phone call with Trump, during which the president said he "is committed to making sure we remain here in Iowa," the congressman said.

Trump is also set to descend on the state later this week for a rally in Sioux City, though it’s taking place in the only safe district for Republicans in the state.

"I'm always competing. I don't care if it's Iowa, I don't care if it's Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nevada, Texas, Florida, they're all important to this midterm," Emmer told Fox News Digital. "This midterm, to me, will come down to about 10 seats. Everybody talks about 20-plus. No. It's going to be a very narrow end, and for Republicans, Iowa is a great example. If the Republicans come out to vote, we're going to be just fine."

If the fate of the House majority did come down to the results of just 10 seats, that would mean Iowa would be responsible for roughly one-third of that success.

And while not all Republicans are as confident in the GOP’s chances in Iowa, they do agree that the final results will come down to turnout.

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"This goes one of two ways — and both aren’t great for Republicans. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Joe Mitchell, and Zach Nunn either win by the skin of their teeth or it’s complete and total obliteration on November 3," a GOP operative familiar with campaigns in Iowa told Fox News Digital. "There is no in-between. If Republican voters turn out to the polls, there’s hope. If not, it’s going to be bad."