It’s almost as if the television talking heads and Washington’s professional political class learned nothing after their 2016 Election Night trauma. While then-candidate Donald Trump packed arenas and dominated television ratings, pundits and pollsters dismissed the very real, on-the-ground grassroots support and enthusiasm for Donald Trump.
Just more than four months out from Election Day 2020, we are seeing a similar pattern. President Trump continues to draw huge ratings and massive enthusiasm, while Democratic presumptive nominee and 44-year career politician Joe Biden remains hidden away in his basement.
The historic levels of enthusiasm behind President Trump’s re-election stand in stark contrast to the tepid support for Biden. This is the single most important indicator at this stage in the race.
A second critical point to make at this stage in the election concerns polling. The public polling that the media relies upon in their reporting is based on cheaper, inferior methods that skew the results to the point that they are effectively useless for predicting results.
President Trump attracted record-breaking support in the 2020 primary elections when compared to recent incumbent presidents seeking re-election. In fact, President Trump received more votes than former President Barack Obama in 23 of the 27 states which have held primaries in both 2020 and 2012 — the year Obama ran for re-election.
The president isn’t just outpacing Obama, but also former President George W. Bush. In many cases, President Trump is outpacing the former presidents by two- and three-fold. He has already received over two million more votes than his total in the 2016 primaries, setting a record for most votes ever cast for an incumbent president. He has actually set dozens of records for votes cast for incumbent presidents in state party primaries and has won over 94% of all votes cast in the GOP primary.
By contrast, Biden and his campaign are still struggling to inspire the base — in fact, they’re struggling to even build a base. It is important to remember that Bernie Sanders became the last Biden challenger to exit the race on April 8. In the three months since, 18 states and the District of Columbia have held primary elections and the results reveal massive problems with the former vice president’s ability to turn out voters.
In primary after primary, a significant number of Democrats cast votes for someone other than their own party’s presumed nominee. These voters are clearly rejecting Biden as a viable option, yet the media hasn’t heard them.
Despite being unopposed by any of the active candidates, Biden earned barely half of the vote in some of the primary contests. It’s clear that Democrats are not flocking to a career politician who has been a central part of the very Washington, D.C. political system that voters opposed in 2016 and are doing so again.
It is painfully clear to Joe Biden’s handlers that he cannot defend his failed legislative record that decimated American working families and destroyed urban communities. From his key role in passing the 1994 crime bill, which unfairly targeted young black men, to his support of normalizing trade with China, Biden’s political career has been absolutely atrocious for Americans whether they’re from cities, Main Street, or farms.
And with the current defund-the-police movement by the radical left, Biden is going to lose his soft support from voters who long to see him strongly denounce this radical idea to dismantle the police.
Joe Biden’s limited support in his own party’s primary does not stop there. The lack of enthusiasm will haunt him come November when turnout is critical.
Voters must want to vote and must support a specific candidate. In truth, there is little debate that President Trump has a decided advantage in base enthusiasm. Trump voters would chew on glass, if necessary, to vote for President Trump. He has worked hard to put America first and deserves another four years in office to continue to deliver.
