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Race observation
Jon Ossoff (D) / Mike Collins (R)
▲ YES● NO■ UNVERIFIEDRecalled 2024 vote used in weighting
Averaging stratum: NA / FULL / LV.
Unit statuses: FAILED 3 · MISSING_TRANSCRIPT 2 · SCORED 26 · SKIPPED_BUDGET 42.
exploratory: the meter was validated on debate answers and historical speeches, not ads. Gap: 0.80 pH.
Polls say · weighted average
Jon Ossoff leads by 7.1 points
Based on 2 comparable polls
Newest poll finished Oct 17 · 10 days old · snapshot Oct 27
The pull is how far recent polling error and outside money move this race off its polls. The ± is our margin of error, like a poll’s.
Spending counts at half weight, because its track record is thin and nothing else confirms it. Graded against the results alongside the polls.
The record so far. Applied to 282 past Senate and governor races from 2010 to 2024, this lean did not beat the polls: an average miss of 4.2 points against 4.1. Spending did not either, in 43 past Senate races. The bet is that 2026 is different: last fall’s 7.5-point miss is the largest off-year miss in the archive, which goes back to 1999.
The adjustment starts from the polling read above and adds two terms. Recent polling error: a lean toward Democrats, sized for each state. Spending: outside money in the two weeks to 2026-10-26, compared with what a race this close usually draws, read against the state’s 2024 presidential result. Rhetoric is scored but not counted: it has no track record yet, so it is frozen on November 2 and graded on its own.
Spending counts 1.58 points per standard deviation of extra money, a starting assumption of 1.5 updated with 43 Senate races from 2020 and 2022. Rhetoric counts 0.75 points per point of heat gap, a starting assumption with no history behind it, capped at 1.5 points. The national polling-error lean is 2.5 points, give or take 1.8: in every off-year since 1999, about a third of that year’s polling miss repeated in the next year’s elections, and the 2025 miss was 7.5 points toward Democrats. That history is thin, so the range above includes this uncertainty, along with the race-by-race error of a final polling average, about 4 points once the year’s shared miss is set aside. The true result should land inside the range about two times in three. Each state then moves by 0.69 times its own average miss against the national miss over the last 12 years; here that is +0.6 points across 6 election cycles.
Outside spending is FEC independent expenditures only; campaigns’ own ad budgets and reservations are not included. Heat scores hyperbole, which stands in for attack rhetoric. Experimental. Recent polling error and outside spending are read as signs of where campaigns' internal polls stand. It is a bet, frozen on November 2 and graded against certified results beside the polls. Rhetoric is scored and graded separately, not counted.
▲ YES● NO■ UNVERIFIEDRecalled 2024 vote used in weighting
Averaging stratum: NA / FULL / LV.
Unit statuses: FAILED 3 · MISSING_TRANSCRIPT 2 · SCORED 26 · SKIPPED_BUDGET 42.
exploratory: the meter was validated on debate answers and historical speeches, not ads. Gap: 0.80 pH.
STALE_FLAG · returned edition 2026-10-08; expected 2026-10-25. Query match: ZERO.
Coverage pH describes outlet framing, a different unit from candidate rhetoric. Partial candidate matches and stale results are context only.
▲ YES● NO■ UNVERIFIEDRecalled 2024 vote used in weighting
All non-quarantined stored variants. Principal selection and primary verification are separate from recall classification; a displayed estimate need not enter an average. Quarantined rows appear only on Excluded.
| Pollster / field dates | D / R share | Margin | Recall | Stratum | Selection / source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ActiVoteOct 6–Oct 20 | 54.0 / 46.0 | D +8.0 | ● NO | NA / LV / TWO_WAYBOTH | Principal · primary YESSource ↗ |
| University of Georgia School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA Survey Research Center)Oct 7–Oct 15 | 47.7 / 40.3 | D +7.4 | ● NO | NA / LV / FULLBOTH | Principal · primary YESSource ↗ |
| Big Data PollSep 21–Sep 23 | 52.2 / 41.0 | D +11.2 | ● NO | NA / LV / FULLHOUSE_ONLY | Principal · primary YESSource ↗ |
| Big Data PollSep 21–Sep 23 | 55.4 / 44.6 | D +10.8 | ● NO | NA / LV / LEANERSHOUSE_ONLY | Alternate · primary YESSource ↗ |
| Big Data PollSep 21–Sep 23 | 51.0 / 40.1 | D +10.9 | ● NO | NA / RV / FULLHOUSE_ONLY | Alternate · primary YESSource ↗ |
| InsiderAdvantageSep 22–Sep 23 | 50.0 / 42.0 | D +8.0 | ● NO | NA / LV / FULLHOUSE_ONLY | Principal · primary YESSource ↗ |
| Quantus InsightsSep 14–Sep 16 | 48.2 / 44.4 | D +3.8 | ● NO | NA / LV / FULLHOUSE_ONLY | Principal · primary YESSource ↗ |
| Quantus InsightsSep 14–Sep 16 | 49.0 / 44.9 | D +4.1 | ● NO | NA / LV / LEANERSHOUSE_ONLY | Alternate · primary YESSource ↗ |
| Quantus InsightsOct 15–Oct 17 | 51.8 / 44.9 | D +6.9 | ● NO | NA / LV / FULLBOTH | Principal · primary YESSource ↗ |
| Quantus InsightsOct 15–Oct 17 | 52.7 / 45.4 | D +7.3 | ● NO | NA / LV / LEANERSBOTH | Alternate · primary YESSource ↗ |
| Quantus InsightsOct 15–Oct 17 | 53.6 / 46.4 | D +7.2 | ● NO | NA / LV / TWO_WAYBOTH | Alternate · primary YESSource ↗ |
| Rasmussen ReportsSep 14–Sep 14 | 51.0 / 42.0 | D +9.0 | ■ UNVERIFIED | NA / LV / FULLHOUSE_ONLY | Principal · primary YESSource ↗ |
| Trafalgar GroupSep 10–Sep 12 | 49.4 / 42.8 | D +6.6 | ■ UNVERIFIED | NA / LV / FULLHOUSE_ONLY | Principal · primary YESSource ↗ |
| Trafalgar GroupOct 7–Oct 9 | 51.0 / 43.0 | D +8.0 | ■ UNVERIFIED | NA / LV / FULLBOTH | Principal · primary YESSource ↗ |
| YouGovSep 15–Sep 18 | 52.0 / 42.0 | D +10.0 | ▲ YES | NA / LV / FULLHOUSE_ONLY | Principal · primary YESSource ↗ |
| YouGovSep 15–Sep 18 | 51.0 / 43.0 | D +8.0 | ▲ YES | NA / LV / FULLHOUSE_ONLY | Alternate · primary YESSource ↗ |
| YouGovSep 15–Sep 18 | 51.0 / 41.0 | D +10.0 | ▲ YES | NA / RV / FULLHOUSE_ONLY | Alternate · primary YESSource ↗ |