Trump is registering more new voters than Democrats in key states

The Trump campaign and RNC have now registered 100,000 new voters in the 2020 cycle, more than doubling their numbers from 2016 and shrinking Democrats’ registration advantage in key swing states, according to new Trump Victory data provided exclusively to Axios.

Why it matters: Democrats still have more active registered voters in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida, but Republicans have managed to narrow the margins in those states by tens of thousands of voters since 2016.

Between the lines: Trump won Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Arizona and Iowa in 2016, but former Vice President Joe Biden is currently ahead in the polls in all but Iowa, according to FiveThirtyEight.

But Republicans have narrowed the voter registration gap in key swing states, according to Axios’ reviews of those states records.

  • Republicans have lessened the margin by 133,000 registered voters in Pennsylvania and 87,000 voters in Florida.
  • Republicans have also chipped away at Democrats’ advantage in the tossup stateof North Carolina — gaining a net 216,410 voters since Election Day 2016.
  • Meanwhile in Arizona and Iowa, Trump Victory has managed to slow voter registration momentum behind Democrats.
  • In Iowa, the number of registered Democratic voters surpassed Republicans in March, but Republicans recently took back the advantage. Democrats had been outpacing Republicans in Arizona as well — but since April, Republicans have overtaken them.

The big picture: Coronavirus has drastically changed the voter registration game. Activists and volunteers typically focus their efforts on big events, college campuses or other crowded locations. But crowds are rarer in a pandemic.

  • 45% of voter registration applications come from the DMV, but even those have been shut down or offer limited services because of the virus in many states.

What to watch: This comes as President Trump continues to rail against mail-in-voting. Many Republican leaders privately admit that absentee ballots are needed to ensure registered Republican voters actually vote, particularly older, white voters.

What they’re saying: “As enthusiasm for President Trump continues to grow, so does the Republican Party. Over 100,000 new voters are ready to cast their ballot for four more years of President Trump’s ‘Promises Made, Promises Kept’ agenda, and elect Republicans up and down the ballot on November 3rd,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement.

The other side: Registered voters have to actually cast a ballot in order to make a difference.

  • “Across the battlegrounds, the Biden-DNC coordinated campaign is crushing Republicans in key field metrics like vote-by-mail requests, registration and turnout — and we’re going to keep our foot on the gas so we ensure Trump is a one-term president,” David Bergstein, DNC Director of Battleground State Communications told Axios.

*story by Axios