Iowa  ·  Ledger

The polling average

Our poll-of-polls for Iowa's 2026 statewide and congressional races, built the plain way RealClearPolitics always did it: a simple, unweighted average of the recent public polls — no pollster ratings, no house-effect nudges, no black box. Every poll in the average is listed below — with a link to the pollster's own release wherever one is public — so you can add it up yourself.

Statewide · Governor and U.S. Senate

U.S. Senate

2026 general election · 5 polls in the average · Aug 4–Sep 1, 2026

Ashley Hinson (R) 47.6
Josh Turek (D) 46.6
Hinson +1.0

5.8% undecided or other, on average.

40 45 50 55 Jan 11Mar 16Apr 9Jun 4Jun 19Aug 4Aug 23Aug 29 47.6 46.6

Faded dots are individual polls. The bold line is the running average, built on each date the same way as the headline figure (polls from the previous 30 days, or the three most recent when fewer fell inside that window), so it ends at the figure above.

Pollster Dates Sample HinsonTurek Source
Emerson College August 31 – September 1, 2026 750 (LV) 50% 45% link ↗
Wedgewood Polls August 27–29, 2026 600 (LV) 50% 48% link ↗
Abacus Data August 26–28, 2026 323 (LV) 45% 54% link ↗
Suffolk University August 20–23, 2026 500 (LV) 45% 41% link ↗
Emerson College August 2–4, 2026 712 (LV) 48% 45% link ↗
Beacon Research (D)/ Shaw & Co. Research (R) · older June 23–27, 2026 1,003 (RV) 46% 50% link ↗
New York Times/Siena University · older June 15–27, 2026 600 (LV) 48% 46% link ↗
Cygnal (R) · older June 16–19, 2026 600 (LV) 46% 44% link ↗
Global Strategy Group (D) · older June 8–11, 2026 1,000 (LV) 45% 47% link ↗
Public Policy Polling (D) · older June 3–4, 2026 557 (RV) 46% 46% link ↗
Echelon Insights (R) · older April 3–9, 2026 377 (LV) 45% 46% link ↗
GQR (D) · older March 10–16, 2026 1,200 (LV) 47% 43% link ↗
Change Research (D) · older January 8–11, 2026 1,108 (LV) 44% 41%

Bold = poll leader. Dimmed rows fell outside the 30-day averaging window. A dash in the source column means that pollster's own release isn't public — the poll is cited in the list below. Poll list and citations: Wikipedia.

Governor

2026 general election · 4 polls in the average · Aug 4–Sep 1, 2026

Rob Sand (D) 49.0
Zach Lahn (R) 44.8
Sand +4.2

6.2% undecided or other, on average.

45 50 55 Jun 19Jun 27Aug 4Aug 23Aug 29 44.8 49.0

Faded dots are individual polls. The bold line is the running average, built on each date the same way as the headline figure (polls from the previous 30 days, or the three most recent when fewer fell inside that window), so it ends at the figure above.

Pollster Dates Sample LahnSand Source
Emerson College August 31 – September 1, 2026 750 (LV) 46% 49% link ↗
Wedgewood Polls August 27–29, 2026 600 (LV) 46% 51% link ↗
Suffolk University August 20–23, 2026 500 (LV) 44% 48% link ↗
Emerson College August 2–4, 2026 712 (LV) 43% 48% link ↗
Beacon Research (D)/ Shaw & Co. Research (R) · older June 23–27, 2026 1,003 (RV) 44% 53% link ↗
New York Times/ Siena University · older June 15–27, 2026 600 (LV) 47% 48% link ↗
Cygnal (R) · older June 16–19, 2026 600 (LV) 43% 48% link ↗

Bold = poll leader. Dimmed rows fell outside the 30-day averaging window. A dash in the source column means that pollster's own release isn't public — the poll is cited in the list below. Poll list and citations: Wikipedia.

U.S. House · the four congressional districts

U.S. House · IA-01

2026 general election · 2 polls in the average · Jun 19, 2025 – Jul 16, 2026 · spans 13 months, not the usual 30 days — too few polls for a tight window

Christina Bohannan (D) 41.5
Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) 37.0
Bohannan +4.5

21.5% undecided or other, on average.

35 40 45 Jun 19Jul 16

Faded dots are individual polls. No running-average line is drawn for this race: too few polls fell inside the usual 30-day window, so the figure above is the plain average of the 2 most recent polls, Jun 19, 2025 – Jul 16, 2026.

Pollster Dates Sample Miller-MeeksBohannan Source
The Bullfinch Group/Independent Center July 13–16, 2026 705 (LV) 35% 40% link ↗
Public Policy Polling (D) June 18–19, 2025 555 (V) 39% 43% link ↗

Bold = poll leader. Dimmed rows fell outside the 30-day averaging window. A dash in the source column means that pollster's own release isn't public — the poll is cited in the list below. Poll list and citations: Wikipedia.

U.S. House · IA-02

2026 general election · 2 polls in the average · Apr 14–Jul 19, 2026 · spans 3 months, not the usual 30 days — too few polls for a tight window

Lindsay James (D) 41.0
Joe Mitchell (R) 39.0
James +2.0

20.0% undecided or other, on average.

35 40 45 Apr 14Jul 19

Faded dots are individual polls. No running-average line is drawn for this race: too few polls fell inside the usual 30-day window, so the figure above is the plain average of the 2 most recent polls, Apr 14–Jul 19, 2026.

Pollster Dates Sample MitchellJames Source
Global Strategy Group (D) July 14–19, 2026 not announced 45% 46% link ↗
Public Policy Polling (D) April 13–14, 2026 675 (RV) 33% 36%

Bold = poll leader. Dimmed rows fell outside the 30-day averaging window. A dash in the source column means that pollster's own release isn't public — the poll is cited in the list below. Poll list and citations: Wikipedia.

U.S. House · IA-03

2026 general election · one poll only, not an average · field work ended Mar 14, 2026 · Ragnar Research Partners (R)

Zach Nunn (R) 48.0
Sarah Trone Garriott (D) 42.0

10.0% undecided or other in this poll.

Pollster Dates Sample NunnGarriott Source
Ragnar Research Partners (R) March 12–14, 2026 400 (LV) 48% 42% link ↗

Bold = poll leader. A dash in the source column means that pollster's own release isn't public — the poll is cited in the list below. Poll list and citations: Wikipedia.

U.S. House · IA-04

No public head-to-head polling yet. The candidates and their money are on the race page →

Not polled · the down-ballot statewide races

No public head-to-head polling exists for these 5 races — pollsters rarely cover them. The candidates and their money are on each race page.

How this is built. The average is a simple mean of every poll whose field work ended within 30 days of the most recent one. When that window holds fewer than three polls we fall back to the three most recent polls whatever their age, and where a race has only one public poll we show that poll alone — labeled, with no lead figure, because one poll is not an average and may be many months old. When the top two are level we say tied rather than naming a leader. A poll announced before its results are public is listed, marked, and left out of the average until the numbers exist. We don't weight by pollster, sample size, or recency, and we don't adjust for a pollster's partisan lean — sponsored polls are labeled and counted the same as everyone else's, exactly as RCP did. Only statewide and congressional races are here: there is no reliable public polling at the individual state-legislative-district level, so the district terrain leans on registration and money instead. Numbers transcribed from Wikipedia's cited polling tables; each row links to the original release. Generated 2026-09-07.