Republicans are turning out in historic numbers in the primaries, despite Trump having essentially no competition. The massive turnout is a result of Republican enthusiasm and their own GOTV message online at Facebook and through surrogate visits to primary states.
In Iowa and New Hampshire, Pence and Trump both traveled there to stump while high-profile surrogates flooded the two states. As a result, Trump received 31,000 votes in Iowa, more than the 25,000 that President Obama received in 2012. If you think that’s bad, in New Hampshire, Trump gathered 129,696 votes, which is more than double what Obama and W. Bush had in their re-election campaigns.
“We’re seeing across the country that people are wanting to take time off of work, stand in line and cast votes for President Trump when he doesn’t even have a primary,” said Marc Lotter, the director of strategic communications for Trump 2020.
Trump lied when he said he was going to be a self-funder, and since he’s appointed lobbyists to his cabinet he has money to burn.
Jesse Lee, the vice president of Center for American Progress Action Fund, points to money in the president’s campaign as reason for his high turnout in New Hampshire.
Lee believes Democratic turnout will be much higher than it was in 2016. South Carolina had no Republican primary, and it gave Democrats a chance to feel as if they are voting against Trump with a record turnout.
“I think a lot of voters in 2016 kind of took it for granted,” Lee said. “They didn’t think he would win, whereas his own voters kind of had this surge of energy, right, during the final weeks from the James Comey letter and all this and I think in 2020, there’s no Democratic voter who’s going to be taking anything for granted.”
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