Brian Mudd Explains How He Predicts Elections

On Tuesday, February 2, the Boca Chapter heard a discussion of election prediction from WJNO’s Brian Mudd.

Brian Mudd is the Weekday Mornings 5am-9am WJNO (1290 AM) Financial Analyst & Co-Host for The Palm Beaches’ Morning Rush. Brian has graciously given his time to us on several occasions as the moderator in campaign debates, but this time he came to speak about how he uses his statistical analysis skills to predict the outcomes in elections. The methodology he uses for applying undecided voters is actually based on a concept that was first introduced more than 20 years ago called the “Incumbent Rule”. The incumbent rule outlined how 80%+ of the time, undecided voters on Election Day would break for non-incumbent candidates. Through additional research Brian has been able to boil it down to the concept of the known vs. the unknown.

Brian analyzes races around the country in which the undecided voters can swing the outcome of an election. He then apply the undecided voters based on the historical trends in that particular state over the last twenty years. It’s a lot more work but has proven to be extremely accurate as Brian has been able to accurately pick the outcome 98% of the time in the last two Presidential Elections since he began using this method. This cycle presents two challenges. First there isn’t an incumbent that’s running in either party and secondly, he doesn’t fully apply the method to primary and Caucus races because the nature of the primaries isn’t applicable from one cycle to another (variance with the number of candidates primarily).

Brian has also predicted based on several factors that there is a 92% chance that a Republican (he won’t say which one) will win the Presidency. Brian received a standing ovation for that one.

The meeting started earlier than normal at 6 PM to accommodate Brian because of his early morning work schedule, he has to wake up at 2:30 in the morning. After Brian spoke, we heard from a representative from the Donald Trump campaign, Sue Snowden and a representative from the Ted Cruz campaign, Marion Frank. Marion then went on to discuss the differences between capitalism and socialism; how so many Americans don’t even know what socialism is. However, all members in attendance at this tea party definitely knew the difference.