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Early Vote Numbers ‘Scary’ For Harris, Dems ‘Panicking,’ Says Obama Campaign Manager

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


Obama’s 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina said that the number of early voters is “scary” for the Kamala Harris campaign because it shows that Republicans are making big gains in key states compared to 2020.

During an interview on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki,” Messina said “the early vote numbers are a little scary” when asked what the Harris campaign’s biggest concerns are before the election.

“Republicans didn’t do what they did last time,” Messina added. “Last time, Trump said don’t early vote so they didn’t. Republicans do have an advantage in early vote numbers. When the early votes come in, it’s going to look a little bit different than 2020 and that’s scary.”

Messina went on to claim that Democrats are happy with how many women and young people have already voted, since those are the groups that the Harris team is counting on.

“Women voters make up 55% of the early voters and in the past 10 days, young voters in these battleground states are coming out in what looks to be, for early votes, historic numbers,” he said.

Still, Messina added, the early vote totals have caused lots of “my friends to call me panicking” when comparing the data to 2020.

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Republicans have generally been more in favor of early voting, but this election, both parties have pushed people to cast their ballots early, and this has had a huge impact.

Nevada is a key swing state, and new numbers show that Republicans had the highest number of early votes ever. They beat Democrats by about 5% in the early vote, which finished on Friday.

The state’s website for the secretary of state says that 393,811 votes were cast for Republicans, 344,539 for Democrats, and 287,762 for people of other parties.

Republicans had a slight edge over Democrats with about 49,000 votes at the end of the week. This is very different from 2020 when Democrats had a 43,000-vote lead at the end of early voting.

A lot of political experts and leaders from parties other than the GOP have also warned Democrats in Nevada about the rise in early votes for the GOP.

“Republicans are kicking our ass at early voting,” Nevada Democratic Congresswoman Dina Titus said during a Harris rally in North Las Vegas. “We cannot let that happen.”

In Georgia, Republicans are confident that Trump will win because of the high number of early votes. In 2020, the former commander-in-chief lost Georgia by less than 1%, and Republicans have spent a huge amount of time and money trying to get it back.

Early voting took place in Georgia from October 15 to November 1. More than half of the state’s registered voters, or 4 million people, cast votes in person or by mail.

GA Votes says that more than 700,000 people who voted in 2024 did not vote at all in 2020. At the same time, the top three counties for voter turnout are all rural places that Trump won in 2020.

“Democrats have more than 1.4 million voters who voted before Election Day in 2020 or 2022 but have not voted yet, and many have not even requested a mail ballot,” a Trump campaign source told the New York Post on Sunday. The states in question are Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.

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The Post used early voting data from Arizona to say that Republicans are currently ahead by 8 points thanks to returned mail and early party membership. According to the news source, Republicans are ahead by 9 points compared to 2020 numbers.

According to the Post, Republicans are ahead by one point in Nevada when it comes to party registration and mail that is returned. Compared to 2020, Republicans are leading by 9 points, the outlet reported.

“This appears to be the first time Republicans have ever clinched the early vote in North Carolina,” the Post wrote.

While Democrats are leading in early votes in Pennsylvania, Republicans are reportedly significantly better positioned than they were in 2020, according to the Post.

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