Trump says it’s ‘tough’ for Republicans to win the popular vote

Former President Trump argued that Republicans winning the popular vote is “tough” because of Democratic strength in certain strongholds ahead of Election Day on Tuesday. 

Trump said at a rally in Virginia that votes need to turn out on Tuesday because he wants to win “everything,” including the popular vote. But he said states like California make winning the popular vote tough. 

“When you have New York, Illinois and California, you have automatically, it’s like ridiculous, automatically goes to a Democrat, it’s tough to win the popular vote because they’re three big states,” he said. 

While Trump won the presidency in 2016, he was unsuccessful in winning the popular vote that year against Hillary Clinton or in 2020 against President Biden. Democrats have won the popular vote in the past five of six presidential elections going back to 2000, though Republicans have won in the Electoral College three of those times. 

Trump claimed that polls are showing him leading “everything” and that he expects to win the popular vote. He also alluded to his false claims of voter fraud helping Democrats, as he has claimed cost him reelection in 2020. 

“I’d love to win the popular vote with them cheating. Let them cheat because that’s what they do. They do it very well. They’re very professional, but I think we have a really good chance to win the popular vote, and I think things are going to be very interesting,” he said. 

Because the Electoral College requires candidates to win enough states to equal 270 electoral votes, winning the popular vote is not necessarily enough to get over the finish line. Democrats have more recently been the victim of this effect, as frequent winners of the popular vote recently but falling short in the Electoral College. 

Clinton won the popular vote by 2 points in 2016 but narrowly lost the electoral vote. Biden won the popular vote by 4.5 points but only narrowly pulled off an electoral win. 

Experts have said Vice President Harris may not have enough to win the popular vote by as much as past Democrats because of some shifts in the electorate giving Republicans an improvement in popular vote margins that don’t necessarily help in the Electoral College. 

Trump’s visit to Virginia is one of a couple of stops he’s making this weekend to states that have leaned Democratic and are expected to vote for Harris comfortably.