The Democratic National Committee (DNC) recently rejected Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s request for new early-state polls ahead of the looming deadline for the January debate. The call led to supporters spreading #PollThePeople and many — including Yang and his campaign manager, Zach Graumann — questioning why it has been over a month since a qualifying poll in early states like Nevada, New Hampshire, and Iowa.
American polling company Rasmussen Reports took the opportunity to take shots at the DNC on Twitter and revealed one of their new polls with favorable data for Yang and his supporters.
“FYI, Zach, we have Andrew Yang at 6% among National Democratic Likely Voters this morning. Too bad for U.S. Democratic Voters the @DNC doesn’t ‘approve,’” the company tweeted, linking to their recent poll of the Democratic field.
The same poll revealed that 9 percent of respondents said Yang would represent the Democratic Party best and be the ideal candidate to take on Donald Trump in 2020.
“You guys should write something up about not being accepted as ‘qualified’ by the DNC,” one user responded. “A lot of us plebs are really curious about the politics of all this.”
“We did,” Rasmussen responded, linking to a Twitter thread that covered their analysis of the accuracy of polls used by the DNC, noting that the majority of 2016 pollsters did not predict a clear path to victory for Trump.
“Most never showed Mr. Trump leading Mrs. Clinton. Ever,” the pollster wrote.
Later in the thread, Rasmussen noted that it consistently showed the 2016 race “changing frequently,” claiming that only two of their competitors promoted a similarly tight race.
“But don’t forget, the MSM now insists that 2016 U.S. election polling was not at all misleading,” the pollster ended the thread.
One user praised the polling company and offered them chocolates, to which Rasmussen took a final shot at the DNC.
“Send our love to the @DNC,” they wrote, suggesting the governing body is “allergic” to “independent accuracy.”
Andrew Yang just outraised in Q4 ($16.5M) what Joe Biden raised in Q3 ($15.7M). Yang’s growth from Q3 to Q4 was also 65%, which is almost double Bernie’s growth of 36%. These numbers are massive for someone few knew about when he started running in 2017 and who MSM didn’t prefer. pic.twitter.com/lWrBkuDAKH
— Scott Santens (@scottsantens) January 2, 2020
Yang’s supporters have long pointed out the lack of mainstream media coverage the 44-year-old serial entrepreneur receives, notably from MSNBC, which the candidate boycotted for some time . The recent lack of polls has ignited a similar backlash against the DNC, which some suggest is — like some mainstream media outlets — not giving Yang’s campaign a fair shake. Fellow Democratic presidential candidates Tom Steyer and Cory Booker, who have also yet to qualify for the seventh debate, both expressed support for Yang’s call for more polls.
The clash comes as Yang’s campaign announced its $16.5 million fourth-quarter fundraising haul, which is more than primary frontrunner Joe Biden’s third-quarter fundraising.