GOP Gains One Million New Voters As Dems Stare Down Potential Red Wave In Midterms

The Republican Party registered over one million voters across the U.S. over the last year as it heads into a midterm election where it is poised to wrest control of Congress from the Democrats.

On Monday, the Associated Press shared the results of analysis of voter registration data across over 40 states where it found 1 million new Republican voters were registered compared to about 630,000 Democrats.

Most worryingly for the Democratic Party is that a chunk of these voters came from the suburbs where voters are credited in part with ousting the Republicans from Congress in 2018 and handing President Joe Biden the White House in 2020.

According to AP, suburban voters’ frustration appears to be boiling over related to the slow reopening of schools last year as well as the emergence of rampant inflation that has led to higher gas and food prices. Republicans have been keen to capitalize on Biden’s seeming inability to bring down inflation with its candidates repeatedly jabbing his administration over the state of the economy.

“Biden and Democrats are woefully out of touch with the American people, and that’s why voters are flocking to the Republican Party in droves,” RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel told the AP. She predicted that “American suburbs will trend red for cycles to come.”

But these shifts are not without caveats however favorable they remain for the Republican Party.

A shift of one million new voters to either party is not statistically very significant in a nation that counted 258,327,312 eligible voters in 2021. There remain factors at play like low turnout during midterms that tends to favor Republicans, but the extent of any “red wave” in November may be measured.

This news also follows the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that guaranteed a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.

Democrats have hammered the decision and protests broke out over the weekend. Though Republicans have attempted to frame this decision as a victory, prominent Republicans, including former Republican President Donald Trump, reportedly privately worry about the galvanizing effect the move may have on Democratic voters.