--- title: Trump Campaign: Polls Not Tracking 'Undercover Trump Voter' description: Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway says that polls are ignoring a "hidden Trump vote" that will affect November. canonical: https://time.com/4464547/donald-trump-polls-kellyanne-conway-undercover/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-24T16:49:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:42.582Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Campaign: Polls Not Tracking 'Undercover Trump Voter' og:description: Trump's campaign manager is confident of a "hidden Trump vote." og:url: https://time.com/4464547/donald-trump-polls-kellyanne-conway-undercover/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte85682808a7c2c96/6988a376428a9e8d4dcd4013/donald-trump-24.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Holds Campaign Rally In Fredericksburg, VA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Campaign: Polls Not Tracking 'Undercover Trump Voter' twitter:description: Trump's campaign manager is confident of a "hidden Trump vote." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte85682808a7c2c96/6988a376428a9e8d4dcd4013/donald-trump-24.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Campaign: Polls Don't Account for 'Undercover Trump Voter' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Aug 24, 2016 4:49 PM UTC  Donald Trump speaks to voters during a campaign rally, on Aug. 20, 2016 in Fredericksburg, Va. Donald Trump speaks to voters during a campaign rally, on Aug. 20, 2016 in Fredericksburg, Va. Alex Wong—Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Aug 24, 2016 4:49 PM UTC Donald Trump’s new campaign head argued that many supporters aren’t showing up in polls because they are shy about making their support public. In an interview with the U.K.’s Channel 4, [recently hired campaign manager](http://time.com/4462283/donald-trump-kellyanne-conway-campaign-manager/) Kellyanne Conway argued that the Republican nominee is doing better in online polls than traditional landline- and cell phone-based polls. “Donald Trump performs consistently better in online polling where a human being is not talking to another human being about what he or she may do in the election. … It’s become socially desirable, especially if you’re a college-educated person in the United States of America, to say that you’re against Donald Trump. The hidden Trump vote in this country is a very significant proposition.” Conway, a veteran pollster, would not specify how many “undercover Trump voters” she thinks exist, saying that it is an internal project of the campaign. In the interview, she also blamed “the American media” for not reporting on these voters by using “cherry-picked polling numbers” because they are “also bent on his destruction.” In the [RealClearPolitics average of general election polls](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/general%5Felection%5Ftrump%5Fvs%5Fclinton-5491.html), Clinton is up 5.4 percentage points over Trump, with recent polls of both registered voters and live voters showing leads ranging from two to eight points. That margin [remains steady at 5.3 points](http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-general-election-trump-vs-clinton/edit#!minpct=25&maxpct=60&mindate=2014-01-01&maxdate=2016-08-24&smoothing=moderate&showpoints=yes&showsplines=yes&hiddenpollsters=emerson-college-polling-society,gravis-marketing-oann,abc-post,arg,bloomberg-selzer,cbs,cbs-times,cnbc,cnn,fox,gqr-d-democracy-corps,gqr-d-democracy-corps-women-s-voices-women-vote,gwu-battleground,ibd-tipp,msnbc-telemundo-marist,mcclatchy-marist,monmouth-university,nbc-wsj,normington-petts-associates-d-end-citizens-united,psrai,pew,quinnipiac,schoen-d,suffolk-usa-today,university-of-delaware-psrai&hiddensubpops=A%20-%20D,A%20-%20R,A%20-%20i,RV%20-%20D,RV%20-%20R,RV%20-%20i,LV%20-%20D,LV%20-%20R,LV%20-%20i&partisanship=S,P,N&parties=D,R,I,N&selected=clinton,trump&fudge=1&except%5Fquestions%5Fwith=johnson) when only online polls are counted. The [HuffPost Pollster average](http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-general-election-trump-vs-clinton) shows Clinton up by 7.4 points. The [FiveThirtyEight polls-only forecast](http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/?ex%5Fcid=rrpromo) currently predicts Clinton will win by 7.2 points. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4464547/donald-trump-polls-kellyanne-conway-undercover/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4464547/donald-trump-polls-kellyanne-conway-undercover/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Campaign: Polls Don't Account for 'Undercover Trump Voter'","datePublished":"2016-08-24T16:49:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:42.582Z","description":"Trump's campaign manager is confident in a hidden Trump vote","url":"https://time.com/4464547/donald-trump-polls-kellyanne-conway-undercover/","keywords":["2016 Election","republicans","2016 Election","Polls","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte85682808a7c2c96/6988a376428a9e8d4dcd4013/donald-trump-24.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte85682808a7c2c96/6988a376428a9e8d4dcd4013/donald-trump-24.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump Holds Campaign Rally In Fredericksburg, VA","caption":"Donald Trump speaks to voters during a campaign rally, on Aug. 20, 2016 in Fredericksburg, Va.","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4464547/donald-trump-polls-kellyanne-conway-undercover/","name":"Donald Trump Campaign: Polls Don't Account for 'Undercover Trump Voter'"}}]}] ```