Johnson Rejects Polls Favoring Democrats in House Midterms

House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected forecasts showing Democrats favored to control the House in the November 3 midterm elections, arguing that polling undercounts Republicans who are less likely to participate in surveys. In a Sunday interview with Shannon Bream, Johnson called the polls flawed and said Republicans were no longer responding to them. He cited a CNN report that he said found 14 of 16 October polls had undersampled Republicans by an average of four points. That figure was Johnson’s description of the report, and his argument does not establish that polling overall is inaccurate. Bream presented Fox News Power Rankings listing 219 House seats as solidly Democratic, 198 as Republican and 18 as toss-ups. The forecast’s scenarios gave Democrats either 219 seats or 237, leaving them with a majority in both. Johnson rejected those projections, saying the surveys were based on faulty analysis. To support his view, Johnson described asking rally attendees to raise their hands if they had answered a poll in the previous six months. He said that at one event, about three people in a crowd of 300 did so. He also said he had visited 21 states and 39 districts over the...