As the early voting numbers continue to trickle in ahead of Election Day, Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, Jim Messina, explained that the incoming data is “scary” for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. Based on the early voting data, former President Donald Trump has experienced a surge in votes among the crucial swing states compared to the 2020 election.
Messina explained during a recent interview with former White House press secretary Jen Psaki that the “early vote numbers are a little scary” for Democrats. Continuing, he noted that Republicans have changed their tactics since the 2020 presidential 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.”
However, Messina noted that Harris still retains support among younger and female voting blocs. “But when you kind of dig into the numbers, the numbers that I care the most about are two blocs, women voters and young voters. And those two voting blocks are coming big. Jen, 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 vote, historic numbers, and that makes the Harris campaign very, very happy.”
However, Messina underscored that there are still worrisome signs in the early voting data for the Democratic Party, noting that some of his colleagues are calling him in a panic. “But when you look at some of the early votes, it has led lots of your friends and my friends to call me panicking, the former campaign manager for Obama said.
Users on social media reacted to Messina’s comments and the implications the early voting data has on the outcome of the election. Sharing a clip of the former campaign manager’s interview on MSNBC, the popular X account Insurrection Barbie, wrote, “Jim Messina, Obama’s 2012 campaign manager says early vote numbers are scary. If we show up we win. Show up en masse.”
“It sounds like the early voting momentum is definitely causing concern for Kamala’s campaign, especially with those key demographics of women and young voters. If these groups lean towards the GOP or don’t turn out as strongly for Kamala, it could reshape the dynamics in those battleground states. While early voting doesn’t always predict the final outcome, a strong GOP surge might indicate more competition than anticipated,” one commentator opined.
Another person stated, “Do they not realize that the young voters are likely going to break more Trump in some areas of the country, that’s likely correlated to votes they’re seeming to be counting on? I feel like this is their same psychological distortion that that had with the Latin vote in Florida/Miami coming out for Clinton in 2016.”
Watch Messina explain the favorable early voting signs for Republicans below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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