The founder and editor-in-chief of FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver, called out Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Twitter for misrepresenting several of the polling group’s 2022 Senate midterm projections Tuesday.
Silver responded to screenshots of an email reported to be from Pelosi’s reelection campaign. The email, originally shared by RealClearPolitics’ Sean Trende, stated that Pelosi and her team were in “disbelief” because “Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight just announced that Democrats are poised to win SIX Senate seats this November,” according to the email.
Silver responded to the tweet, stating that the claim made in the email was “straight-up misinformation,” and that FiveThirtyEight projects Democratic candidates in Florida and Ohio to be “heavy underdogs.” (RELATED: Pelosi Says Biden Polls Poorly Because Americans Simply Don’t Know How Good He’s Been)
Yeah, this is straight-up misinformation from Pelosi. We have Democrats as heavy underdogs in Florida and Ohio. https://t.co/7IZmaxVRYR
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) July 5, 2022
FiveThirtyEight gives Democratic Florida Rep. Val Demings of Florida a 6% chance of defeating incumbent Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. FiveThirtyEight also estimates Democratic Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan has an 11% chance of winning against Republican candidate J.D. Vance in November.
Of the six races mentioned in the email, FiveThirtyEight currently forecasts only New Hampshire as “leaning Democrat.” The other races are labeled as “toss-up,” while the races in Florida and Ohio “likely Republican” victories.