As Claire McKaskill said today: I won when the polls said I would lose. I lost when the polls said I would win.
Polling is inexact. It has a lot larger margin of error than some would like to admit.
The candidates only see the “accurate” (as least as accurate as the methodology says it is!) polls. Almost if not all polls released for public consumption are some form of propaganda.
She was losing to Hawley in the polls. She was winning against Akin in the polls. She lost to Hawley and defeated Akin.