‘The Donald Trump Factor’: NBC’s Hallie Jackson Argues Trump’s Weekend Activity Drove Democrats to the Polls on Election Day

NBC’s election coverage team, Chuck Todd and Hallie Jackson, argued on election night that the better-than-expected Election Day turnout among Democrats could very well be attributed to former President Donald Trump’s flurry of activity the weekend ahead of the election.

“I think Chuck’s on to something here when you talk about the Donald Trump factor this past weekend, because, sure, there had been discussion of people urging him to wait until after the midterms to make any announcement of 2024. And technically, he is waiting,” said Jackson, agreeing with Todd making a similar point earlier in the broadcast.

“But take North Carolina, for example, here. When you look at the Trump factor, by the way, he’s got an event at Mar-a-Lago. He’s about to take the stage at Mar-a-Lago right now. He endorsed Ted Budd in the primaries. Right. That’s what got Ted Budd over the hump in a pretty competitive Republican primary in this North Carolina, very competitive Senate race we’re talking about,” Jackson said, noting that high voter turnout among Democrats was keeping the North Carolina Senate race close.

“Donald Trump owns the Senate nominees,” Todd jumped in.

“When you talk about abortion. One of the criticisms that has been made against the Democrats in these closing weeks is that they spent so much money on the abortion issue right after the Dobbs decision came down, which was way too early, and then did not have an early response on inflation when gas prices started going up, when they got behind the curve on the economy. And there was a lot of criticism of the Democratic Party for doing exactly that,” argued Andrea Mitchell.

“People will be wondering what brought out the vote. Tight polls will do it, too, when people feel like there’s something at stake and their vote counts,” added Savannah Guthrie, offering another explanation for high turnout.

“And we certainly saw razor thin margins and a lot of state polls. As we go to break, as I mentioned, Donald Trump speaking right now actually at an event in Mar-a-Lago taking the stage,” Guthrie concluded.

Watch the full clip above via NBC News