Republicans are feeling “bullish,” as millions of Americans head to the polls, RNC Chairman Michael Whatley says.
Early voting has been underway for some time, as the race for the White House nears its conclusion. Typically, in-person voting on Election Day has favored the Republican Party. In a Tuesday interview on Fox News, Whatley suggested the party was optimistic.
“We feel pretty bullish,” Whatley said.
“What we saw during the early vote and absentee vote period over the last several weeks was a great turnout for Republicans.
“President Trump had pushed very aggressively this year to get Republicans to embrace early vote and absentee vote, and they did.”
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Trump has pushed for early voting in this year’s election, telling supporters at a Michigan rally in October, “Early voting is underway, so get everyone you know and go out and vote,” in contrast with his last campaign, during which he cast doubt on the process.
Newsweek reported late in October that early voting turnout appeared to have increased among Republican voters in key battleground states for this election.
Ex-campaign manager to former President Barack Obama, Jim Messina, said in a recent interview on MSNBC that numbers showing Republicans making significant gains in swing state early voting were “a little scary” for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Whatley continued: “We’ve got a lot of same-day voters that are still going to vote on election day. We’ve got a great ramp and we feel very optimistic going into today.”
Whatley also added that the Republican Party’s grassroots campaign had focused on groups “that Republicans traditionally have not hit,” such as Black, Hispanic, and Asian American voters.
“We’re seeing very seismic moves from those groups all across the country which is why we saw during the last two weeks Republicans have an outright lead coming into today in states like Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, and Georgia,” he said.
Whatley also revealed what his party will be watching for as polls close and the results begin to come in.
“What we really want to see is whether or not there’s going to be a last-minute surge in turnout from the big cities, places like Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Atlanta” he said.
“Absent that, I think the Republicans are going to have a very good night.
“We have seen very solid turnout in rural areas all across the county throughout the course of the day and again we have a really substantial lead in most of these states already coming out of the early vote and absentee vote period,” Whatley added.
Newsweek has contacted the Harris and Trump campaigns for comment via email.
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