Some pollsters get it right

Polls sometimes underestimate Democrats, new Cook ratings, vibe-coding gone wild, AI-proofing your job, TV shows in decline, the age of information laundering, the disappearing urban middle class

No. 387 | January 16, 2026

📈 Nate Silver’s latest pollster rankings are out

Echelon Insights once again scores in the top-tier of pollsters nationally in Nate Silver’s latest pollster ratings.

Lots of pollsters will tell you that accuracy is only a small piece of the puzzle. After all, if the point of polling is to help clients improve their position, you hope your clients will do better on Election Day than they do in your polls.

Nevertheless, we welcome the opportunity to be judged for whether we ultimately got it right. Even if polls are a snapshot in time, clients are much better off with an accurate snapshot than one that’s too optimistic or pessimistic.

And we’re particularly proud to have next to no bias — meaning we don’t systematically overestimate one side or the other.

Lots of pollsters and forecasters can become hot commodities by shading their numbers towards a certain outcome that then comes to pass in any given election. Statistically, polls and forecasts will tend to miss i…