GOP Gained Over 1 Million New Registered Voters in the Last Year As Suburbs Shift Right, New Report Finds

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A new analysis by The Associated Press of voter registration data found that over 1 million voters shifted toward the Republican Party in the last year across 43 different states.
The AP looked at some 1.7 million voters who switched party affiliations, based on data from political data firm L2, and found a “definite reversal from the period while Trump was in office when Democrats enjoyed a slight edge in the number of party switchers nationwide.”
Statistical modeling of the data revealed that of the 1.7 million voters over 1 million registered as Republican, while only 630,000 registered as Democrats – a massive shift in new partisan allegiance from the Trump years.
The AP’s Steve Peoples and Aaron Kessler attribute the shift toward the GOP to voters becoming “increasingly concerned about the Democrats’ support in some localities for mandatory COVID-19 vaccines, the party’s inability to quell violent crime, and its frequent focus on racial justice.”
The data was also broken down by geographic regions and found that many of the voters moving to the right are those key suburban voters that helped push Joe Biden over Donald Trump in 2020 – particularly in battleground states like Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
“Republicans also gained ground in counties around medium-size cities such as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Raleigh, North Carolina; Augusta, Georgia; and Des Moines, Iowa,” the article notes after pinpointing areas like Atlanta, Denver, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland as showing a significant trend toward the GOP.
“It’s more so a rejection of the left than embracing the right,” said a 37-year-old male voter in suburban Denver.
While the movement of a million voters is not enough to predict outcomes in specific elections, the report notes the trend still offers “a dire warning for Democrats who were already concerned about the macro effects shaping the political landscape this fall.”
Republican National Committee Ronna McDaniel slammed the Biden administration and touted the GOP’s prospects with suburban voters in the 2022 midterms in a statement to the AP.
“Biden and Democrats are woefully out of touch with the American people, and that’s why voters are flocking to the Republican Party in droves,” McDaniel said, adding that she believes “American suburbs will trend red for cycles to come.”
“Biden’s gas hike, the open border crisis, baby formula shortage, and rising crime” are driving voters toward the GOP, she concluded.
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