J. Ann Selzer

J. Ann Selzer is a public opinion researcher and president of the Iowa research firm Selzer & Company. From 1987 until 2024 she conducted the Iowa Poll for The Des Moines Register, a survey watched nationally because of Iowa’s early place in the presidential nominating calendar. Her final 2024 election poll became the subject of a lawsuit by Donald Trump that an Iowa court dismissed in 2026.

Background

Selzer was born in Rochester, Minnesota, and grew up in Topeka, Kansas. She earned a bachelor’s degree in speech and dramatic arts from the University of Kansas in 1978 and a doctorate in communication theory and research from the University of Iowa. She began running the Register’s Iowa Poll in 1987 and later conducted it on contract through her own firm, which also carries out audience research, surveys and focus groups for private clients.

The Iowa Poll

Her 2008 Iowa caucus poll, which forecast Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton, drew national attention when the result matched it. Before the 2024 election she held an A+ pollster rating.

On 2 November 2024, three days before the presidential election, the Register published her final Iowa Poll, which showed Kamala Harris leading Trump by 3 points in the state. Trump carried Iowa by 13 points. Selzer later called the result a miss while saying she had followed her established methodology. Two weeks after the election she announced that she was ending her election polling; she said the decision had been made in 2023 and communicated to the Register’s executive editor before the poll was published, and that her firm would continue its private research work.

Lawsuit

Trump publicly accused Selzer of “possible election fraud,” which she rejected, noting that her earlier polls had shown him leading in Iowa in 2016 and 2020. She said West Des Moines police had advised her on personal safety after criticism of her on social media, while reporting no credible threats.

On 16 December 2024 Trump sued Selzer, Selzer & Company, the Register and its owner Gannett, alleging that the poll violated the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act and describing it as “brazen election interference.” The Register said it stood by its reporting. On 30 June 2025 Trump, Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks and former state Senator Brad Zaun filed a version of the suit in Iowa state court, one day before an Iowa anti-SLAPP law directing early dismissal of suits over speech on matters of public concern took effect. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression represented Selzer without charge. On 23 September 2026 Polk County District Judge Scott Beattie dismissed the case with prejudice, holding that the poll and its reporting were protected political speech. Trump’s lawyers said they would appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court.