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President Donald Trump filed a new lawsuit against Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer and the Des Moines Register as he continues to claim “brazen election interference” surrounding the final 2024 Iowa presidential poll.
Trump, along with U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and former state Sen. Bradley Zaun, filed a notice of dismissal “without prejudice” in the Southern District of Iowa regarding a previous federal lawsuit and refiled the suit in Polk County District Court on Monday.
The Trump legal team had previously requested that the case be returned to state court in May after the defendants had moved it to federal jurisdiction, but a judge rejected that motion.
An attorney representing Trump confirmed to Fox News Digital that the dismissal applies only to the federal case, saying it remains “very much alive.”
Selzer released a final Iowa poll three days before the election, showing then-Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of Trump by three points. The survey appeared to mark a significant shift from a September poll that had Trump up by four points. Trump ultimately carried the state by more than 13 percentage points.
The suit, first filed in Polk County in December 2024, accused Selzer and the Register of intentionally influencing the election in favor of Harris. It alleged the poll was manipulated and leaked “to create a false narrative of inevitability for Harris in the final week of the 2024 Presidential Election.”
Lark-Marie Anton, spokesperson for the Des Moines Register, accused Trump of attempting to avoid a likely dismissal.
“After losing his first attempt to send his case back to Iowa state court… President Trump is attempting to unilaterally dismiss his lawsuit from federal court and re-file it in Iowa state court,” Anton said. “Although such a procedural maneuver is improper… it is clearly intended to avoid the inevitable outcome of the Des Moines Register’s motion to dismiss.”
She added that the newspaper “will continue to resist President Trump’s litigation gamesmanship” and expects to prevail on First Amendment grounds regardless of jurisdiction.
Selzer later wrote in an op-ed that she was stepping away from political polling to pursue other interests, following intense public scrutiny after the 2024 election.
