Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, should make a "spectacle" out of voting early in their state, former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said Monday.
Appearing on Fox Business' Mornings With Maria, Conway was asked about how the Republican National Committee (RNC) is working to ensure a safe and fair election in 2024 and called on Republicans to take action with early voting.
"I would love to see President Trump and Mrs. Trump go out and vote early for themselves in Florida, make a big spectacle out of it, so that his voters go and vote early for him also," Conway said.
"If you wait till Election Day, you're taking a big chance that everybody can show up on Election Day. For whatever reason, you may not be able to," she added.
Newsweek reached out to a Trump spokesperson via email for comment.
The Context
Tomorrow, on Super Tuesday, voters in 16 states and one territory will make their choices for president known, while the GOP's presidential preference primary in Florida is set for March 19. Early voting in that state begins Monday.
Last month, Vice President Kamala Harris said the federal government was planning to use the Federal Work-Study Program to pay college students who register other students to vote in the 2024 election.
"We have been doing work to promote voter participation for students.... For example, [we] now allow students to get paid, through Federal Work-Study, to register people and to be nonpartisan poll workers," Harris said.
Harris said this will "engage our young leaders in this process and activate them in terms of their ability to strengthen our communities.... But also this is the work that we need to do, knowing that so many poll workers have left this work for a variety of reasons."
What We Know
President Joe Biden and Trump remain the expected nominees of their parties, despite significant voter dissatisfaction with a rematch in November. Trump has defeated former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in almost all the nomination contests, including those in New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina. Haley has won only one primary, in the District of Columbia.
A recent poll from Fox News found that Biden is trailing Trump among voters below the age of 30. Fifty-one percent of respondents in this group said they intend to vote for Trump, while 45 percent sided with Biden.
Views
On Monday morning, David Axelrod, a former strategist and adviser for former President Barack Obama, called on Biden to shift his campaign focus to Trump.
"I think part of the challenge for the Biden campaign is to get out of the referendum mode and really focus on Donald Trump...who is an epically flawed candidate," Axelrod said.
Last month, a Pew Research Center survey found that 76 percent of Americans favor making early voting available for two weeks ahead of Election Day.
Last July, the RNC published a video showing Trump speaking about early voting in the 2024 election.
He said, "We must defeat the far left at their own game or our country will never recover from this disastrous crooked Biden administration. Sign up at BankYourVote.com now and join the Republican effort to win big in 2024. We're going to win, and we're going to make America great again."
What's Next
Historically, early voting has benefited Democrats. In 2022, Democrats edged out Republicans in early voting, with a 42.8 to 34.0 percentage difference, The Washington Post reported.
However, In Texas 200,000 fewer Democratic voters have cast their ballots early in the primaries, compared with the 2020 primary season, when 2 million Democrats voted early.
Update 3/4/24, 9:07 and 10:08 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with more information and background.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more
