OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The 2024 campaign of former President Donald Trump predicted on Monday that he will win the GOP nomination by March, signaling a quick end to the primary season.
The team “projects he could formally clinch the Republican presidential nomination by March 19, given his lead in polls in the early voting states, a senior campaign official said on Monday,” Reuters reported.
The campaign team is confident that Trump is poised to secure 1,478 delegates by the time of the Republican National Convention in July, which would be more than sufficient to win a majority of the total 2,429 delegates that will determine the party’s nominee.
During his first campaign in 2016, Trump did not win the requisite number of delegates until May of that year.
“Trump holds a commanding lead in the Republican primary ahead of the 2024 White House race. A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed last week showed 61% of self-identified Republicans said they would vote for the former president in the primary,” Reuters reported.
Trump has been leading in every national poll for months and has taken a lead over President Joe Biden in several more recent surveys.
In fact, Trump started his week with some more good news in the form of polling as 2023 winds down and the 2024 campaign cycle begins to ramp up with first-in-the-nation primaries less than a month away.
According to a new Morning Consult/Bloomberg News poll, Trump is beating Biden 47 to 42 percent across seven swing states.
“Trump leads by three percent in Arizona, by seven points in Georgia, by four points in Michigan, by five points in Nevada, by 11 points in North Carolina, by a single point in Pennsylvania, and by six points in Wisconsin,” the UK’s Independent reported, citing the survey.
It comes as Trump continues to pull ahead of the remaining GOP field in Iowa, where the first-in-the-nation primary takes place next month.
Meanwhile, Democrats in crucial 2024 swing states were never in love with the term for President Joe Biden’s economic policies — “Bidenomics” — but a report on Wednesday said they have all but abandoned it as the current election cycle heats up.
After claiming that the media had originally coined the phrase, Biden used it earlier this year. NBC News reported, “But early on, it became clear that the phrase wasn’t resonating with voters, and by the end of November, Biden had only used the phrase once since the start of the month.”
However, the network says the phrase never actually caught on with House Democrats.
A study of online posts and congressional office press releases revealed that as many as 18 out of the 19 Democrats representing seats classified as “Toss Up” or “Lean Democrat” by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report and seeking re-election have never utilized the term “Bidenomics.”
“The lone battleground Democrat who has used the term ‘Bidenomics’ is Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, who used a graphic on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the words ‘Bidenomics works,’ when noting monthly job growth figures,” NBC News added.
Nevertheless, Republicans running for those light-blue seats are attempting to saddle incumbent Democrats with the term including Joe Kent, a Republican running for Congress in Washington’s 3rd District, against incumbent Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. He recently said in a post on X that “Perez-Bidenomics is driving up drug costs.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., the House GOP conference chair, also has pledged to saddle House Democrats with the term, writing on X this week, “Make no mistake House Democrats own #Bidenomics.”
According to most polling, Americans are not keen on the economy amid higher prices for everything they buy, and most blame Biden for inflation, high-interest rates, and rising home prices.
In late October, for instance, a poll found that only 39 percent of voters in four key swing states—Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina—have confidence in the president’s ability to handle the economy, RealClearPolitics reported.
