Poll numbers in the presidential race show former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in a tight race, but they may be misleading on how the showdown for the White House is panning out, political analyst Mark Halperin told Newsmax on Saturday.
"Certainly there's consistency in the polls, but it doesn't mean they're right," Halperin said on Newsmax's "America Right Now." "And of course, there's still the belief, in some cases, suspicion that President Trump, as happened in 2016 and 2020, is doing better in the private polling and in quality polling than he is in these public polls."
Further, Halperin said that the Trump campaign is saying it will take back control "not with huge leads, but with small but durable leads in the four Sunbelt battleground states," Halperin said.
If that happens, Harris would have just one path to winning the Electoral College vote, which would be to win the Great Lakes states plus one district's vote in Nebraska.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., met with Nebraska's GOP Gov. Jim Pillen and other leaders to urge them to call a special legislative session to change how the electoral votes are allocated in that state.
Nebraska awards electoral votes by congressional district, not a winner-take-all system, and has one district, representing Omaha, that typically votes Democrat. If the legislature changes the system, and Trump takes other districts that typically vote Republican, then he could take the extra district, giving him an advantage over Harris.
But still, Halperin said he doesn't know if there is anything either candidate can do to take a significant lead.
"I think either candidate could win this easily," he said. "Remember, the Electoral College is all that matters and I can see a scenario, if certain things break, where Kamala Harris wins five, maybe even six of the battlegrounds. And I could see Donald Trump winning five or six, maybe even seven of the battlegrounds."
But if there is a national trend that has one candidate winning six or seven of the battleground states, "by our recent standards, that would be a blowout," Halperin said. "That wouldn't be a close race."
Halperin also on Saturday discussed early voting, noting the Republican National Committee has been determined to switch the party's hesitation against it.
He noted that Republicans in the past embraced early voting, but in the past few cycles, Trump "demonized" it.
But with Democrats having the edge now on early voting, Republicans are making a push so their candidates enter Election Day without being as far behind.
"If you talk to senior officials in the Trump campaign, they would like as many early votes as possible," he said. "Early votes are better because you bank those votes. You don't have to worry about bad weather on Election Day, and you can cross those voters off your list. You don't need to worry about spending money to try to reach them to make sure they vote."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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