MSNBC national political correspondent Steve Kornacki said Tuesday that former President Donald Trump is “10 for 10” thus far in increasing voter turnout in “very small rural” Georgia counties.
Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris by 1.3% in Georgia, according to the RealClearPolling average. Kornacki, on MSNBC’s “Decision 2024,” noted that Trump’s turnout gains in these counties compared to 2020 could signal strong chances for him in the state.
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“One thing we were looking for here, and are looking for in Georgia, I was describing it earlier, there’s just a lot of very small rural counties that are going to be deep, deep red,” Kornacki said. “And one of the questions coming into tonight was, would there be any slippage for Donald Trump in those counties, those core Republican Trump counties? Remember, he’s trying to make up a deficit, he lost by about 12,000 votes last time.”
“So we’ve got about 10 now completed of those rural heavily Trump counties. We’re talking about places where he’s going to get 70, 75, 80% of the vote. In all 10 that have now been completed, Trump’s vote share relative to 2020 has gone up between one and three points,” he continued. “So again, there’s a lot more rural counties out there, but they start to add up and when it’s 10 for 10 so far, I’d say that’s something the Trump campaign in that layer is looking for.”
Journalist Mark Halperin said earlier on Tuesday that Harris may not secure a single Sun Belt battleground state, which includes Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina, noting the “very robust rural turnout for Donald Trump in all the states where there’s information so far.”
“We’re likely in the world that many of us projected we would be, that she’s not gonna win any of the three big Sun Belt states, or maybe any of the four Sun Belt states,” he added. “And so she’s got to hold all four of the Great Lake states.”
