Zachary Lorico Hertz
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Predictions

On this page, I attempt to “pre-register” predictions by committing to making them publicly here. I assign each prediction a confidence level and a resolution date.1 As they resolve, I’ll come back and turn this into a scorecard! I’m committing to using this as an exercise to highlight my failures as well as my successes, and as part of this public exercise you can verify things via the page’s change history.

All predictions

Click a column header to sort by that field. I have a full predictions table that includes what criteria are used for resolving predictions, as well as some short notes for/against each prediction. These are both my assessment of the general probabilities, and then my personal confidence in my own analysis, which I call effort. This should serve as a pseudo-weight on how much I would actually stand behind a call or be open to updating. A quick take is something I’m making on vibes or a gut check, considered generally means some amount of rough BOTECs without modeling, and deep dives are things I base on original analysis or modeling.

Topic Prediction Probability (%) Effort Made Outcome
2026 Elections Greg Abbott will run ahead of Ken Paxton in Texas. 90 Considered 2026-11-03 Open
2026 Elections Rob Sand will run ahead of Josh Turek in Iowa. 90 Considered 2026-11-03 Open
2026 Elections Hannah Pingree will run ahead of Troy Jackson in Maine. 95 Considered 2026-11-03 Open
2026 Elections Darline Graham will win SC-SEN. 70 Considered 2026-11-03 Open
2026 Elections Pete Ricketts will win NE-SEN. 70 Considered 2026-11-03 Open
2026 Elections Republican Senate candidates will beat their final polling averages in at least 3 of AK, IA, KS, OH and TX. 60 Considered 2026-11-03 Open
2026 Elections Bobby Pulido will defeat Monica De La Cruz in TX-15. 55 Deep dive 2026-11-03 Open
2026 Elections Brandon Herrera will win TX-23. 68 Deep dive 2026-11-03 Open
2026 Elections Bob Harvie will defeat Brian Fitzpatrick in PA-01. 58 Considered 2026-11-03 Open
2026 Elections The last seven battleground NYT/Siena polls will have a smaller absolute error than the 2026-11-02 Silver Bulletin averages. 35 Considered 2026-11-03 Open
2026 Elections Mike Lawler will lose reelection in NY-17. 60 Quick take 2026-11-03 Open
2026 Elections Matt Dunlap will win ME-02. 55 Quick take 2026-11-03 Open
2026 Elections David Valadao will lose reelection in CA-22. 62 Quick take 2026-11-03 Open
2026 Elections Derrick Van Orden will lose reelection in WI-03. 60 Quick take 2026-11-03 Open
2026 Elections Scott Weiner will win election in CA-11. 80 Considered 2026-11-03 Open
2026 Elections Mike Thompson will win election in CA-04. 90 Considered 2026-11-03 Open
2026 Elections Nithya Raman will be elected Mayor of Los Angeles. 65 Quick take 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Kevin Kiley will lose reelection in CA-06. 65 Quick take 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Roy Cooper will win election in NC-SEN. 85 Quick take 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Peggy Flanagan will win election in MN-SEN. 99 Quick take 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Peggy Flanagan will win MN-SEN by at least a 9 point margin. 70 Deep dive 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Josh Shapiro will win election in PA-GOV. 99 Quick take 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Josh Shapiro will win at least 60 percent of the vote in PA-GOV. 75 Considered 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Mary Peltola will win AK-SEN. 55 Considered 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Troy Jackson will win ME-SEN. 60 Considered 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Sherrod Brown will win OH-SEN. 55 Considered 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections James Talarico will win TX-SEN. 60 Considered 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Abdul El-Sayed will win MI-SEN. 75 Considered 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Adam Hamilton will win KS-SEN. 50 Considered 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Ashley Hinson will win IA-SEN. 60 Considered 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Democrats will hold 50 or fewer Senate seats. 41 Considered 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Democrats will hold exactly 51 Senate seats. 14 Considered 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Democrats will hold exactly 52 Senate seats. 14 Considered 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Democrats will hold exactly 53 Senate seats. 13 Considered 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Democrats will hold 54 or more Senate seats. 18 Considered 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Proposition 40 will fail in California. 55 Quick take 2026-11-02 Open
2026 Elections Shomari Figures will win reelection in AL-02. 55 Quick take 2026-11-02 Open
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Footnotes

  1. Sometimes may be an approximate date.↩︎

Copyright 2025, Zachary Lorico Hertz.
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