The McCourt School of Public Policy served as the host site for Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) for the 2026 Midterm Elections.
On election night, while most of the country waited for results of a historic Midterm election cycle, over 250 Georgetown students were helping to project them.
From McCourt’s building on Georgetown’s Capitol Campus, DDHQ’s analysts made election projections. Students gathered and verified the county-level returns those projections rested on through analyzing county-level returns, polling, incoming data and fed the models behind race projections for news outlets across the country. DDHQ is one of the country’s few independent decision desks.
“Unlike many countries, elections in the United States are decentralized. There are about 4,000 separate election offices around the country that we have to stitch results together from to provide an accurate vote count to our clients and their audiences,” says Drew McCoy, DDHQ president. “It takes a large and talented team to do this work. Having the number of Georgetown students we do involved is a key part in enabling us to do the job we do. Their work ethic and enthusiasm for covering elections across the country is a tremendous asset for us and we look forward to having them on our team every year.”
NewsNation, which uses DDHQ as its source for independent race projections, aired its election night broadcast, “Decision Desk 2026: Election Night in America,” also using the McCourt School as a host site. Throughout the program, the network cut live to the DDHQ Data Center at McCourt, where the network tracked election coverage in real time.
A partnership built in 2024
DDHQ first chose McCourt as its election hub in February 2024. The desk was the first to project the 2016 presidency for Donald Trump, the 2020 presidency for Joe Biden and control of Congress in 2022.
That year, nearly 150 Georgetown students worked with DDHQ, from the March primaries through the November general election. They analyzed data, monitored key races and contributed to national race projections. The 2026 midterms brought the operation back to Capitol Campus.
Inside the desk: How McCourt students contributed to national reporting
Much of the night’s work started at the county level. Hassan Mekky (JPPP’28) spent the evening tracking early-vote totals from Indiana counties. As a McCourt undergraduate student, Mekky described the experience of being a part of DDHQ’s team as a “unique” experience that only could have been possible at McCourt.
Maddisen Murrell (MS-DSPP’27) worked on DDHQ’s Pulse, the Desk’s election prediction modeling system. As votes arrived, Pulse estimated who would win each race and by what margin. Murrell monitored individual races and each chamber’s control. She also worked with the race projection team to verify each new batch of votes.
It was her first election night, but she won’t be leaving the work behind soon. Murrell joined DDHQ in February and has signed on to work with DDHQ after she graduates in May. Murrell describes the work as being particularly meaningful, as it reflects the kind of work she has wanted to pursue for years. “I’ve wanted to do something like this since high school,” she said.
