RNC Chairman Whatley says GOP surging at all levels, credits early voting and new registrations

Republican National Convention Chairman Michael Whatley expressed confidence Thursday that Republicans are surging at all levels on the ticket, crediting early voting, new registrations, and election integrity lawsuits.

"Yesterday was the first day in history where we had more Republican absentee ballots returned than Democrats," Whatley said on the "John Solomon Reports" podcast. "That's a very significant shift. The early voting numbers that we're seeing out of Virginia are very, very striking."

According to local reports, early voting in the state of Virginia is up 38% compared to the 2020 election. Some numbers are showing that about 574,000 voters mostly in red leaning districts have voted early.

Whatley also said that the registration numbers among Republicans have increased, resulting in more momentum for 2024.

"We have a million more registered Republicans in Florida today than we do Democrats," he said. "It's amazing. We've cut the Democrat majority in half in terms of Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Ohio. We're seeing huge gains that the Republicans are continuing to make there."

Republicans have also filed lawsuits in certain states on the grounds of election integrity and according to Whatley, there have been some wins. 

"We just won a lawsuit in Michigan that will force Jocelyn Benson to enforce basic mail ballot safeguards ahead of November 5," Whatley wrote on the social media platform, X. "We just won a lawsuit in New Hampshire to ensure that voter ID is the law of the land for this election."

The RNC on Monday won a lawsuit against Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson that alleged she violated state law with the guidance she issued for counting absentee ballots during the primary election.

The Michigan Court of Claims ruled for the RNC and Michigan GOP, ordering Benson to revise her guidance ahead of the November election to read, "the election inspector must verify that the number on the ballot stub agrees with the ballot number on the face of the absent voter return envelope."