NewsNation is counting on the data to engage viewers on election night.
Continuing its role as an upstart against more established cable competitors like Fox News MSNBC and CNN, the Nexstar-backed news station is once again tapping the election data guru at Decision Desk headquarters who helped NewsNation make its first call for the 2024 presidential election and thereby garner some attention. Executives hope the partnership will deliver similar results this year.
“On election night, the data is more important than the anchor,” said Leland Wittert, one of the NewsNation personalities who leads the network’s coverage on Tuesday nights.
Election Night 2025 will offer a wide range of information from all mainstream TV news outlets, including the predictable Bret Baier and Martha McCollum anchoring FOX News coverage, Rachel Maddow leading MSNBC, or the quirky streaming-only CNN Election Night Han Oi starring Harry Enten, Charlamagne the God, and Ben Shapiro. But in each case, the networks hope to engage a broader audience and perhaps persuade them to keep tuning in over the next few days to learn what that night’s tally means for the country.
NewsNation will be the only major TV news outlet not to use AP calls on election night. The Associated Press has a reputation for accuracy in its election coverage, and recently announced a deal to provide data to ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC, as well as the Fox News Channel it already had as a customer, all of which used Edison Research in 2024.
Decision Desk Headquarters “has a strong arm when it comes to calling elections, having called the last two presidential elections ahead of its competitors,” said Bill Sammon, senior vice president of Washington, D.C., content for NewsNation and its sibling The Hill. Voting analysis companies are moving away from the exit polls that are the standard for many mainstream news organizations in favor of forecasts based on demographics, turnout estimates and other types of data.
Sammon has extensive experience with election night calls, having been involved in Fox News’ decision to call Joe Biden from Arizona in 2020 and President Obama from Ohio in 2012.
Election night 2025 may not be the biggest or most important event, but it has a lot to offer news lovers and politicians alike. News outlets are likely to cover what is likely to be a historic mayoral election in New York City. A red vs. blue showdown for the governorship seats in New Jersey and Virginia. The controversial race for Virginia attorney general. And California voted on Proposition 50, seen as a response to red state legislatures that could disenfranchise Republicans and rewrite electoral maps to maintain a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“There’s enough drama here,” Wittert says.
There is also room for the unexpected. Correspondent Brian Entin set out in a special NewsNation RV to interview people rarely heard on national news programs for their views on issues important to voters. Mr. Entin is driving through Utah, Wisconsin. He said he and his team are already arriving at highway truck stops in Vermont, Ohio and New Jersey to hear what’s important to long-haul truckers.
“Talking to farmers about soybean exports and talking to Utahns about the effects of gerrymandering allows us to understand what’s going on in other ways,” Entin said.
Above all, Wittert said, NewsNation wants to show it’s ready for whatever happens. “We are looking at every possible scenario that we would never want to deliver on the air,” he says. “We’ve thought through a lot of things. Yes, you’re all set. I don’t think it’s necessary to call a race for a Republican candidate in the New York mayoral race. But that doesn’t mean we’re not ready to do it.”
