Filled with lies, incompetence, left-wing radicalization, and a then-emerging border crisis, President Joe Biden’s disastrous tenure as president led many Republicans to predict a “red wave” was coming in the 2022 congressional elections. It never materialized. Given this failure and embarrassment, one would think Republicans would be cautious about predictions of vast election success. Then, former congressman Lee Zeldin spoke on a CNN panel on Tuesday night.
Oh goody, the “red wave is coming” predictions are starting early this year
https://t.co/ocL4a232Ix
— Chris Tremoglie – MEDIA (@chriswtremo) February 28, 2024
“There’s a big enthusiasm gap,” Zeldin said. “If you look right now, there’s 26, 27% of the vote in. Between the Democratic turnout, the Republican turnout, the Republican turnout is far now trouncing the Democratic turnout, and that’s the percentage of the total vote that we’re waiting to come in.”
However, such a discrepancy in turnout isn’t unusual or unexpected. It would actually make much sense, given that Biden is an incumbent. And even though he has primary opponents, none are considered serious contenders to defeat Biden. So, there was little incentive for Democratic primary voters to turn out. As a former congressman, one would think Zeldin knew this or hoped Zeldin knew it. It would be pretty odd if he didn’t. Nevertheless, he continued.
“It’ll be interesting to see what comes in from Wayne County; yes, I get that,” Zeldin said. “But President Trump’s number, at the moment, is actually more than all of the Democratic Party primary voters together. I would say that President Trump, when looking at the amount of people who are coming out to vote for him tonight, would be very encouraged by the amount of votes that he is getting compared to all the Democrats who have shown up.”
Zeldin reiterated his point with a post on X, going somewhat overboard with the way-too-early overly optimistic election predictions.
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“President Trump has received more votes in Michigan tonight than all Democrat primary votes COMBINED,” Zeldin posted. “It’s possible that the ENTIRE blue wall gets painted red this November.”
This would be great if it happened. However, to say this in February 2024, after what happened in 2022, is shocking and a little irresponsible. Has Zeldin learned nothing about boasting of red waves? We are months away from the election, and we still technically don’t have the Democratic or Republican nominees yet, and the candidates haven’t debated. Let’s pump the brakes on election victory predictions.