Officials from the Republican National Committee and Donald Trump’s campaign said Tuesday they are confident early voters have put the GOP nominee in a position to win the election.

Campaign spokesman Jason Miller said the campaign is making a strong play for states Democrats never thought they would have to defend.

“We truly feel like we’re privileged to be a part of one of the most historic elections of all time.”

Close

“We truly feel like we’re privileged to be a part of one of the most historic elections of all time,” he told reporters on a conference call. “It’s exciting to see these states that usually aren’t even in the conversation as far as being battlegrounds being put right front and center of this entire campaign as we see that Mr. Trump has not only changed the issues that are being talked about on the national stage — but even the battlegrounds for which they are being fought.”

Citing huge crowds in five states where Trump campaigned on Monday, Miller disputed the long-held conventional wisdom that Trump has virtually no margin for error in the Electoral College.

“We have multiple paths to victory,” he said. “That stacks up very nicely against Secretary [Hillary] Clinton and the fact that she had to have others prop her up and try to help her across the finish line here.”

[lz_jwplayer video=pTGN0ZPl]

Miller added: “We feel that we’ve done everything leading up to Election Day that we possibly can.”

RNC officials ran down the final early in-person and absentee ballot statistics in several key states:

  • Arizona: The Republican lead in absentee ballots returned was 100,000, due in part to a higher rate of return by registered Republicans.
  • Colorado: The Republican lead in early voting stands at 775,000 to 756,000 ballots. Bill Dunn, the party’s director of absentee and early voting, expressed optimism at numbers from some specific counties. Registered Republicans in vote-rich Jefferson County make up 30 percent of voters but have returned 33.5 percent of the absentee ballots. In Larimer County, GOP voters are 31 percent of voters but have cast 35 percent of ballots. In the Republican stronghold of Douglas County, GOP voters have cast 49 percent of 151,000 ballots. El Paso Republicans make up 47 percent of the 248,000 early votes.
  • Florida: Republicans cut the early vote deficit in Florida by 78,000 compared with four years ago, eclipsing President Obama’s final margin of victory over Mitt Romney.
  • Iowa: Republican early ballots make up 2.5 points more of the total returned, while 20,000 fewer Democrats voted early compared with 2012.
  • North Carolina: The Democratic lead in early voting is 140,000 votes smaller than in 2012, with Republican votes up by 115,000 over 2012 and Democratic ballots down by 20,000.
  • Michigan: Republican absentee votes in GOP stronghold Kent County have increased by 56 percent over 2012. Absentee votes have increased by 36 percent in Livingston County and Ottawa County, which both went strongly for Romney.
  • Nevada: Republican voters have cast 16,000 more early votes than in 2012, cutting the gap with Democrats by more than 2,000.

Ohio does not register voters by party, but Dunn pointed to clues that the GOP is running ahead of 2012. Early votes in Democratic strongholds have declined. Voters in Cuyahoga County have cast 52,000 fewer ballots, a 20 percent drop-off. Other counties include: Hamilton County (13,000 fewer votes, down 12 percent), Franklin County (18,000 fewer votes, down 8 percent), and Summit County (5,000 fewer votes, down 6 percent). All four counties backed President Obama in 2012.

[lz_related_box id=”241910″]

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from LifeZette, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

Meanwhile, four counties that supported Republican Mitt Romney have seen heavy early voting — Warren (6,500 more votes, up 18 percent), Greene (2,500 more votes, up 10 percent), Miami (2,500 more votes, up 6 percent) and Delaware County (1,500 more votes, up 4 percent).

Asked about a potential Achilles’ heel of the Trump campaign — surging Hispanic voting in Florida — Dunn noted that registered Latino voters have increased from 13 percent of the total to 15.7 percent. That is in line with campaign estimates that Latinos make up 15.9 percent of early voters. That does not suggest an especially strong increase in motivation, he said.

“While the numbers are up, it’s more of a natural increase in the voter file and not really indicative of any other jump or spike in turnout,” he said.