Politico | Why Donald Trump needs to suppress the vote to win
- Never before in modern presidential politics has a candidate been so reliant on wide-scale efforts to limit the number of votes cast
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by David Siders and Zach Montellaro on politico.com on October 29, 2020.
Donald Trump won the presidency with 46 per cent of the popular vote. His approval rating, according to Gallup, has never hit 50 per cent. He remains under 50 per cent in national polling averages.
The president’s inability to capture a majority of support sheds light on his extraordinary attempts to limit the number of votes cast across the battleground state map – a massive campaign-within-a-campaign to maximise Trump’s chances of winning a contest in which he’s all but certain to earn less than 50 per cent of the vote.
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Never before in modern presidential politics has a candidate been so reliant on wide-scale efforts to depress the vote as Trump.