Former Obama campaign manager: Early voting numbers 'a little scary' for Harris

Jim Messina, former President Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, said Sunday that early voting numbers are a “little scary” for Vice President Harris’s campaign.

Messina noted in an interview on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki” that Republicans are voting early at rates higher than they have historically, which could change what the vote breakdown looks like when early returns come in on election night.

“Early vote numbers are a little scary,” Messina told Psaki, who worked in the administrations of both Obama and President Biden before becoming a host on MSNBC.

“Republicans didn't do what they did last time. Last time, Trump said, ‘Don't early vote.’ And so they didn't. Republicans do have an advantage in early vote numbers. When the early vote come in, it's going to look a little bit different than 2020, and that's scary,” Messina said.

Messina said, however, that he thinks Harris is holding strong in the last leg of the campaign, and said he’s optimistic about the voting turnout for Harris among young voters and women.

"But when you kind of dig into the numbers, the numbers that I care the most about are two blocs: women voters and young voters, and those two voting blocs are coming big, Jen. Women voters make up 55 percent of the early voters, and in the past 10 days, young voters in these battleground states are coming out — in what looks to be, for early vote, historic numbers — and that makes the Harris campaign very, very happy,” Messina said.

“But when you look at some of the early vote numbers, it has led lots of your friends and my friends to call me panicking,” he continued. “And I do think it is true: The Republicans have done a better job than they did last time on early vote.”

More than 78 million early votes have been cast in the 2024 election, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab tally.