In December 2022, McElwee announced he would resign from the firm amidst allegations of artificially manipulating the results of polls and his close ties to accused fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.
[2] McElwee conducted polling for a Super PAC controlled by Bankman-Fried that was described as a "political strategy designed to shield crypto from government oversight.
[10] The firm was credited by The Atlantic for releasing one of the first reports on the Green New Deal,[11] and one independent analysis found that Data for Progress was the most accurate pollster in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
[12] Polling and analysis from Data for Progress has been regularly cited by the Biden administration, and McElwee's tweets were noted for being frequently retweeted by White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain.
[1] Senior members of Data for Progress informed McElwee that they would resign en masse, if he did not step down as the firm's executive director.