Polling is not evil voodoo magic

In his unsuccessful bid to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz last fall, Beto O’Rourke tried a variety of unorthodox campaign tactics. He live-streamed himself cooking a chicken in his kitchen. He was perfectly fine dropping profanity into public remarks. And he promised Texas voters that he would not hire a pollster to guide his campaign.

“My heart’s in it, I want to do this, I’m driven to do it. I’m not poll-testing it,” said O’Rourke in early 2017 as he launched his campaign. Though O’Rourke was not successful, the pledge to eschew polling lives on. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, having moved firmly into the top tier of Democratic presidential contenders, has also opted against hiring a pollster.