Razor-thin margins on the 2024 presidential electoral map makes it anyone's race, making the blue wall states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania the race clinchers, CNN's analysis Sunday found.
Even CNN's analysis gives Republicans the edge in "solid" electoral votes (188) over Democrats (175), while Democrats have more "lean" projected electoral votes (50) versus Republicans (31), giving them a 225-219 lead through the "lean" states.
But the CNN optimism for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump ends there against Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris.
"The moves we are making in this latest installment of our 'Road to 270' electoral map are all in a positive direction for Harris and suggest she has more potential paths to 270 electoral votes than President Joe Biden had when he was the party's standard-bearer," according to CNN. "This current outlook reverts the state of play to where it was in the closing days of the 2020 campaign, with seven battleground states (and one congressional district in Nebraska) as the central turf upon which the candidates and their campaigns will dedicate most of their time and money to win the White House."
That leaves the 94 electoral votes up for grabs in the battleground states to clinch the presidential nomination as pegged by CNN's "Road to 270": Arizona (11), Georgia (16), Michigan (15), Nebraska 2nd Congressional District (1), Nevada (6), North Carolina (16), Pennsylvania (19), and Wisconsin (10).
Among the states there, Trump won only North Carolina against President Joe Biden in 2020.
The largest GOP leaning states is Florida with 30 electoral votes, which is the second largest red state. If Democrats truly have a shot in that state, the race would be over for Trump.
With 188 "solid" Republican and 31 "lean" GOP, Trump needs 51 electoral votes among the 94 "toss-ups," needing a 51-43 edge in the battlegrounds.
If Harris wins Pennsylvania's 19 votes, she would only need 24 votes from the tightest states of Michigan (15) and Wisconsin (10). Electoral maps have long considered Wisconsin the battlegrounds of all battlegrounds.
Newsmax foreign war expert Blaine Holt has noted the Biden's administration Israel policy is a "three-state solution" for Muslim support in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
"As some of the Sun Belt states (Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina) have become far more competitive with Harris in the race, it is still probably true that her most direct route to 270 electoral votes would be to keep the three so-called 'Blue Wall' states (Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin) and the Omaha-area congressional district in Nebraska in the Democratic column," according to CNN analysis.
Trump will have to win his 2020 states, flip Georgia and Pennsylvania as he won them in 2016, and keep North Carolina from flipping to Harris.