Former President Donald Trump urged members of a crowd in Florida to vote and said that if he wins, they “won’t have to vote anymore.”
Speaking at a Turning Point Action event in West Palm Beach on Friday, Trump, who tried to overturn the 2020 election he lost, delivered a cryptic message.
“And again, Christians, get out and vote!” he said to a cheering audience. “Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years. You know what? It’ll be fixed! It’ll be fine! You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you, Christians! I’m a Christian. I love you. Get out. You gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again.”
The craziest part is that, even with the absolute insanity this election has already been (and it will absolutely get worse), I’m seriously worried there’s going to be a worse turnout than 2020. 30% of voters are holding the country hostage, but another 30+% still can’t be bothered to get out and do the most basic thing they can do to fix it. It’s absurd. The nutjobs in the US are dragging the country to the gallows, but apathetic voters are tying the noose.
2020 had the highest voter turnout in any US election. Donald Trump got more votes in 2020 (more than 74 million) than any other Presidential candidate, winner or loser, in history… except for Joe Biden in 2020, who got 81 million.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election
I am aware (hence my point of 30%), and that was still abysmal. 60% turnout is not much of an achievement, and that only happened because of the pandemic (which is also still happening, though easier to ignore now). Existential threats to the country just aren’t going to motivate the chronically apathetic the same way, even if they are actually a bigger threat overall.
Don’t automatically assume the 30% who don’t bother voting are guaranteed to vote against Trump. Historically, it has been younger voters who don’t bother voting, and they do tend to be more liberal. But this time around, young voters are starting their adult lives in a world that is stacked against them, and they know it. They have felt the effects of post-pandemic inflation but have not had their pay raised to match. Those who were old enough to be adults pre-pandemic might very well conclude that they were better off personally when Trump was in office, and may be dismissing all the alarm at his re-election.
There have been several studies indicating that “disengaged” voters, if they show up, would break toward Republicans this time around. This article is from before Biden quit, but shows a clear preference for Trump among these voters:
https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/49987-disengaged-voters-role-2024-election-biden-trump-poll
I’m not assuming anything. I know Trump got a hefty share of the extra voters in 2020. That doesn’t change anything I said.