BREAKING: In Several Key Battleground States, The Number Of Former Democrats Re-Registering As Republicans Seems To Be On The Rise

In a critical battleground state that Republican presidential winner Donald Trump won in 2016, but lost to Democratic contender Joe Biden in 2020, Republican voter registration is increasing. According to a Reuters report, newly updated registration data shows that Pennsylvania Republicans are registering former Democrats at four times the rate that Democrats are registering former Democrats, a major “warning sign for Democrats” as they try to keep their congressional delegation majority:

In the crucial state of Pennsylvania, Republicans are registering formerly Democratic voters at four times the pace that Democrats are doing so, a troubling sign for Democrats trying to preserve control of Congress. The Republican gains in Pennsylvania, which is home to a key U.S. Senate race, follow a pattern seen in other states that could have competitive elections in November, as high levels of disapproval of President Joe Biden’s handling of his job are helping to narrow the Democrats’ long-held advantage in registered voters. find out more

“I just got fed up and felt like there had to be a better way,” said Beth Jones, 48, a former Philadelphia police officer who registered as a Republican last month, terminating her three-decade Democratic Party connection. Jones, like other recent converts contacted by Reuters, cited inflation and violent crime as reasons for switching.

Reuters looked at voter registration data in six states where competitive Senate elections are expected in November and where nomination contests normally require voters to be members of a political party. Despite the fact that each state monitors voter registration differently, the examination found Republican advances in four of them, with no significant differences in the other two.

If Republicans win control of both chambers of Congress in the Nov. 8 midterm elections, they will be able to put a stop to Biden’s legislative program. According to figures supplied by the Pennsylvania Department of State, Republicans have converted four Democrats for every Republican who has defected to the Democratic Party so far this year in Pennsylvania. That would be the greatest conversion rate in at least a decade, and it would be significantly higher than the 2016 election, when Republicans won the White House, House of Representatives, and Senate.

Kevan Yenerall, a political scientist at Clarion University in Clarion, Pennsylvania, stated, “This is awful news for the Democrats.” While Democrats still outnumber Republicans in Pennsylvania by more than half a million (4 million Democrats to 3.4 million Republicans as of March 28), the long-held Democratic lead continues to diminish, and is on track to be the weakest in a general election since 2005. The narrowing of the deficit could have a big impact on the contest to succeed retiring Republican Senator Pat Toomey. In November, Pennsylvanians will elect a new governor to replace Democrat Tom Wolf.

According to state election board data, Republicans have scooped up three Democratic converts for every voter that Democrats have stolen in North Carolina, where a tough Senate contest is predicted owing to Republican Senator Richard Burr’s retirement. Throughout the year of 2021, the Republican lead was around half that. In the first few months of the year, the number of registered Republicans in Florida and Nevada increased, while the number of Democrats decreased somewhat. In recent months, both parties in New Hampshire and Arizona have lost equal numbers of votes as a result of the removal of inactive voters from registration records.

According to Jeff Sheridan, a senior advisor for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, the party isn’t sitting on its hands. Efforts include recruiting field workers earlier than typical for an election year, including staff increases on college campuses around Philadelphia in January who are seeking to register younger voters, a Democratic demographic. Republicans are gaining momentum even in Philadelphia, a traditionally Democratic bastion. According to voter records, 1,315 Democrats in the city filed papers to change their party registration to Republican this year, more than four times the number of Republicans who did the same.

The registration data does not demonstrate that all Republican conversions result in net losses for Democrats. Alexandra Field claimed she registered as a Democrat last year in an unsuccessful bid to unseat Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner in the Democratic primary before re-registering as a Republican in March, angered by the city’s violent crime epidemic. Ed Rumick, 72, a retired union electrician, told Reuters that his transition to Republican was just a formalization of a long-held resolve to abandon a Democratic Party he regards as weak on border security and focused on socialism.

The increases, according to Calvin Tucker, deputy chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, hint to a good showing for the party. Tucker said that petition drives and other attempts to interact with Black and other historically “underserved populations” in the city had resulted in more than 100 converts or newly registered Republicans so far this year, speaking from the party’s newly opened headquarters in northwest Philadelphia. “It’s a citywide effort,” Tucker explained. “We’ll go door-to-door canvassing, stand on corners, and talk to people and neighbors about who we are and what we’re trying to do.”

A rising percentage of Pennsylvania voters are disillusioned with the Democratic Party because of its perceived leftward movement on cultural issues, according to Terry Madonna, a senior scholar in residence at Millersville University and a longstanding political observer in the state. Madonna cited Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, who was elected last year after running on a vow to prohibit the teaching of critical race theory in schools, as an example of what will appeal with Pennsylvania voters. “It’s not only inflation,” Madonna said, noting that Republicans in the Philadelphia suburbs won a slew of local elections last year. “I believe it is a mix of factors.”

“I just got fed up and felt like there had to be a better way,” said Beth Jones, 48, a former Philadelphia police officer who last month publicly ended her 30-year membership with the Democratic Party by re-registering as a Republican. She went on to say that high inflation and violent crime were the primary causes behind the transition. According to Breitbart News, Democrats continue to outnumber Republicans in Pennsylvania, 4 million to 3.4 million registered voters, although this is the narrowest Democratic lead since 2005. According to the publication, “Voters are searching for leadership elsewhere because Susan Wild’s and Democrats’ destructive agenda has made life more tougher than ever for Pennsylvania residents,” stated CLF press secretary Cally Perkins.

According to Kevan Yenerall, a political scientist at Clarion University in Clarion, Pa., “this is awful news for the Democrats.” Republicans are making advances even in blue Philadelphia. According to Reuters, “voter data reveals that 1,315 Democrats in the city had submitted papers to change their party registration to Republican this year, more than four times the number of Republicans doing the converse.” According to the newswire, Calvin Tucker, vice chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, the party’s victories portend to a good showing for the GOP. He added the state party is striving to improve voter outreach in black neighborhoods and other neglected areas, with 100 converts so far this year.

“It’s a citywide effort,” Tucker explained. “We’ll go door-to-door canvassing, stand on corners, and talk to people and neighbors about who we are and what we’re trying to do.” Nevada and Florida are two states that are growing red, with Republican voters outnumbering Democrats for the first time in the state’s history. “With Texas being the only state where the GOP has more than 20 votes locked in, they’ve consistently needed well over half of the votes available in battleground states just to eke out narrow victories in the three elections they’ve won in the twenty-first century – George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, and Donald Trump in 2016,” Liberty Nation reported this week.

“As a result, the newest news from Florida reverberates well beyond the borders of the Sunshine State. For the first time in at least the 30 years for which data is available – and likely ever – the Florida Board of Elections has revealed that Republicans now outnumber Democrats by more than 100,000 in what has long been considered arguably the single most important swing state in the country, now upgraded to 30 electoral votes after the latest census,” according to the report.