“We don’t want to be ahead. Because if we are ahead all of the sudden the psychology changes, the media focus attack on us even more so than they were doing,” McLaughlin said in an interview with radio host John Catsimatidis.
“But there is an idea that when you are a little bit behind, all of the sudden your supporters get more energized. And we knew they were … very energized to begin with,” he continued.
McLaughlin, one of the few pollsters who predicted a Trump victory, also said that part of the reason Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton lost the election was because she did not have strong nationwide support like President Obama.
McLaughlin said that most pollsters made the mistake of looking at the 2016 election “like through a rearview mirror.”
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