Democrats Panic as Republicans Take Lead in Early Voting

Democrats are panicking as Republicans take a lead in early voting, spelling doom for the Nevada Senate seat, of which the Blue Party expected an easy victory.

Quoting Democratic sources, Axios reported that Republicans had cast 45,000 more votes by Saturday in early voting. Nearly a third of GOP voters in Clark County, the most populous, who participated in the 2020 elections have already cast their ballots.

Republicans rarely outnumber Democrats in early voting, suggesting that GOP’s Sam Brown, an ardent Trump supporter, is determined to wrestle the Senate seat from incumbent Democrat Jacky Rosen. 

Opinion polls give Rosen a lead over Brown, with the Democrat maintaining the lead throughout the 2024 election period. However, Brown narrowed the gap by two points close to election day and Dems fear that the race is tighter than the opinion polls initially predicted. Two years ago, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) retained her seat by less than a percentage point.

Meanwhile, Republicans have capitalized on the gains by bolstering the GOP campaign with $6 million in ads promoting Trump and Brown.

“President Trump and Nevada need Sam Brown in the Senate,” one political ad states.

Brown’s victory would dash Democrats’ hopes of controlling the Senate, a crucial milestone in controlling both houses and ramming contentious proposals including packing the Supreme Court and ending the filibuster.

However, Democrat sources hope that the GOP’s early voting lead will ultimately erode Republican voters’ turnout on election day. Nonetheless, early voting reduces the chance of failing to turn up on election day, suggesting that Democrats were clutching at straws. 

Across elections, Democrats have utilized early voting to increase voter turnout by encouraging supporters to cast their ballot at their convenience instead of risking election day. 

Democrats have lauded early voting as a way to overcome various “systemic” challenges that prevent “marginalized” communities from exercising their voting rights. 

Democrats’ assertion suggests that early voting helps to get marginal voters to cast their ballots and avoid mechanical problems that prevent many from voting on election day. No evidence suggests that the same does not apply to GOP voters.

Seemingly, the GOP’s early voting lead in Nevada taps into Trump’s call for Republican supporters to vote early across the country, including in the Presidential elections. 

Trump’s calls for early voting are already making a difference. According to the University of Florida Election Lab data, 35% of GOP voters have already cast ballots, compared to 25% in 2020.

In Nevada, more than half (52%) of Republican voters have cast their ballot in early voting, according to the Secretary of State.

The changing trends in GOP early voting will definitely make a difference no matter how small it could be. 

Considering how close the Nevada Senate race is, that small shift in voting behaviors could make all the difference in the outcome of the election.