RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel predicts Election Day surge for Trump
Washington —Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel predicted the GOP will see a surge of voters head to the polls on Election Day, solidifying a lead for President Trump that secures his second term in the White House.
In an interview with "Face the Nation" on Sunday, two days before Election Day, McDaniel said the coronavirus pandemic has led many Democratic voters to cast their ballots by mail, while Republican voters are planning to turn out in person on Tuesday, which she predicted would close the gap between Mr. Trump and Joe Biden and eventually lead the president to overtake his Democratic opponent.
"The margins are going to be based on that Election Day turnout, and Republicans will have a surge that day," McDaniel said. "We're going to have that, and that's why we're going to win."
A new CBS News Battleground Tracker analysis shows Biden with a large lead among voters in battleground states who say they're voting early, while the president leads among those who plan to cast ballots on Election Day.
McDaniel said surveys of GOP voters indicate the majority are eager to vote in person on Election Day, and she heralded the ground operation built by the Republican Party, with more than 2.5 million volunteers and 3,000 staff members continuing to contact voters to ensure they turn out to vote.
"They want to make sure that their vote counts," she said. "They're not completely trusting of the mail-ballot system, and so they've made that clear."
McDaniel said the Republican Party is expecting the lead Democrats see in mail-in ballots heading into Election Day will close — and then flip to the GOP — as supporters of Mr. Trump cast their ballots in-person Tuesday. More than 92 million people have voted already, amounting to more than 66% of 2016's overall turnout of 138 million votes.
Crucial for Mr. Trump to secure a second term in the White House will be winning Pennsylvania and Florida. Democrats in the Sunshine State have an edge among those who have voted by mail and Republicans hold the lead among those who voted early in person, according to the Florida Division of Elections.
McDaniel said the party feels "very good" about its prospects of victory in Florida, while Congresswoman Val Demings, a Democrat representing Orlando, said the Biden campaign is "excited about what we are seeing on the ground."
"But understand me clearly," she said on "Face the Nation," "we are taking absolutely nothing for granted because we know regardless of what the numbers are, it's going to be a close race."
Demings agreed that many Democratic voters in Florida have decided to vote-by-mail because of the coronavirus pandemic, and said the party is focused in the home stretch of reminding voters of the Trump administration's handling of the public health crisis.
"We'll remind them of the 9 million people who have contracted COVID-19 due to a lack of a unified strategic plan from the White House. We will remind them of the 230,000 people who have lost their lives, who will not be with their families during the holidays because of the lack of a unified plan," she said. "We will remind those young voters that the cost of college education needs to be regulated so that they're not saddled with unbelievable debt. And so we will communicate to the voters until the polls close on election night."