ABC News Political Director Rick Klein warned Friday that Democrats are currently losing their edge with voting ahead of Election Day, noting Republicans are now gaining a lead with the strategy in key battleground states.
Over the course of the 2024 campaigns, Republican leaders in swing states, along with the GOP presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump, have adopted Democrats’ previous strategy of encouraging voters to get to the polls early. On “ABC News 4,” Klein noted that while pollsters may not yet know voter choices, Republicans in Nevada are outpacing Democrats’ 2020 numbers, with GOP voters currently holding a four-point lead over Democrats.
“But in Nevada, Democrats, as you can see, had a pretty big edge in early vot[ing] four years ago. That is erased and turned around right now. So what happened four years ago is in Nevada, you had Democrats basically building up a firewall before Election Day. That’s gone now. The question is, are these just Election Day voters that are instead voting early?” Klein asked.
The ABC political director continued to note that while Republican voters aren’t leading in Pennsylvania with early voting, they have narrowed the gap from four years ago, leaving the party with only a “three or four hundred thousand vote advantage overall.”
“Republicans are definitely listening to the message about voting early in a way that they didn’t four years ago,” Klein said. “Again, that was the COVID year, so things were a little off. The question that we won’t know until Election Day or after is, are these people that otherwise would be voting on Election Day instead are voting early or are these people that are voting for the first time and showing the enthusiasm of voting early?”
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“Because right now, at least in a lot of the big states, you’re just not seeing Democrats show up in the same kind of overwhelming numbers,” Klein added. “They still have time to do that, but they’re going to need a bigger Election Day than they did four years ago.”
Klein also stated that Republican early voting numbers surged in both Michigan and Georgia, which are crucial swing states for the 2024 election.
“What we’ve seen so far in Michigan, voting hasn’t even begun yet. But in terms of people returning ballots by mail, we’re seeing 56% of them Democrats. Four years ago, it was 59%. So it’s not a huge difference in Michigan, but again, very early there,” Klein said.
“Georgia, it is setting records for early in-person voting, more than 2.3 million people have already voted in the state of Georgia, and that was four years ago, a 49 [to] 41 Democratic advantage, eight points. That is now a one point disadvantage for Democrats,” Klein added.
Democrats have become increasingly concerned with the potential outcome of the 2024 race, which could lead to Harris’ loss. Polls and pundits have highlighted the vice president’s inability to connect to voters on their top concerns regarding the economy, inflation and immigration.
Polling across the seven battleground states showed Trump leading Harris by 0.8 points, according to averages from RealClearPolitics. In the latest national poll conducted by The Wall Street Journal, Trump also held a two-point lead over the vice president, with 47% for Trump to Harris’ 45%.
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America
