For ads-free news, click here.
New data from a key swing state shows Republicans have nearly closed the voter registration gap with Democrats, driven by early-voting solid numbers.
The Nevada Secretary of State reported Friday that Democrats now lead Republicans by just 9,200 registered voters, down from an 86,000-vote advantage four years ago. Republicans also saw historic early-vote turnout, leading Democrats by about 5% in in-person early voting, though they trail in mail-in ballots.
Early voting in Nevada concluded with Republicans casting 393,811 votes, Democrats 344,539, and 287,762 votes from other affiliations, per the Secretary of State’s website. This gives Republicans a roughly 49,000-vote lead, a significant shift from 2020 when Democrats led early voting by 43,000 votes. Biden won Nevada by around 34,000 votes in 2020.
Nevada’s Democratic turnout has historically been fueled by the “Reid Machine,” a strategy created by the late Sen. Harry Reid to maximize support statewide. Reid’s approach relied on extensive networks beyond traditional party structures, especially the Culinary Union, which represents 60,000 casino workers and plays a significant role in voter registration, phone banking, and canvassing.
“That paradigm has changed,” Nevada’s GOP Gov. Joe Lombardo said in Carson City on Friday. “That dynamic has changed. It has changed, and we are in the game. We are in the game, and it helps that you had a crappy president for the last four years.”
Sentinel Action Fund President Jessica Anderson told Fox News Digital,
“You had candidates up and down the ballots, including President Trump and Senate candidates in all of the target states, embracing early voting,” said Sentinel Action Fund President Jessica Anderson in a statement to Fox News Digital, explaining the paradigm shift has to do with the work that organizations like hers have done in battleground states along with the Republican Party.
Anderson continued: “The candidate has to be brought in themselves. So that’s really important. And then the other three things I think that made a difference was the messaging around absentee early votes. The first is that a lot of the focus was on convenience. It’s, you know, it’s more convenient. You’re busy. You can skip the line of Election Day, vote early. You know, you’re busy with your kids, your child care, your job. You know, whatever those things are that can potentially interrupt your plans on Election Day, just take the convenience of voting early or dropping your ballot in the mail and get a difference. I think that message really worked… The second message that we saw really encapsulated and worked in particular in the mail was the military messaging. That it works for our guys overseas, it’s safe, it’s convenient, it’s secure. Then the third, which was, I think, really unique to President Trump and his leadership here as we talked about voting early to overcome the margin of fraud and that did exceptionally well in our focus groups. And then when we presented some of that information to President Trump and to others in the party over time, that became kind of the clarion call of the RNC, you know, ‘Vote early.’ So it’s too big to rig.”
Anderson stated that Sentinel Action Fund has adopted ballot harvesting and effectively targeted low-propensity voters who rarely vote. Some experts questioned whether strong GOP early turnout in Nevada and nationwide might reduce the high Election Day turnout. However, Anderson assured Fox News Digital that Sentinel Action Fund’s data in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Nevada shows that early voting does not cannibalize GOP votes.
The Dennis Michael Lynch Podcast archive is available below. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show by downloading The DML News App or go to Apple Podcasts.
