In recent months, the “red wave” of the upcoming midterm elections seemed to be losing steam.
Gas prices had begun to drop from their peaks, job numbers were beginning to bounce back and inflation is now at “0 percent” according to President Joe Biden. These and other factors, such as mainstream media support, seemed to be keeping the political pendulum on the blue side.
In recent weeks, liberal media mainstays such as The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN have all been reporting that the 2022 midterms weren’t necessarily a lost cause for Democrats.
Then, last Monday, came the FBI’s raid at Mar-a-Lago — the Palm Beach County, Florida, club where former President Donald Trump has a home.
In a poll conducted by The Trafalgar Group over the next two days, roughly 1,000 likely voters were asked, “Does the FBI raid on President Trump increase your motivation to vote in the 2022 election?”
Trafalgar reported that 83.2 percent of Republicans and 55.2 percent of Democrats said yes. In other words, of those surveyed, 30 percent more Republicans than Democrats are now more likely to vote in November’s midterms.
The conservative group Convention of States Action partnered with The Trafalgar Group on the poll, which had a margin of error of 2.9 percent and a confidence level of 95 percent.
In an interview with The Western Journal, Mark Meckler, president of the Convention of States Action, disputed the idea that the “red wave” predicted for the midterms had been losing strength, but said the Mar-a-Lago raid had undoubtedly amped up the Republican vote.
“This FBI thing is off the charts,” Meckler said. “I can just tell you that from dealing with grassroots all over the country, people are freaking out. And by that I mean, they’re going to vote, they’re going to drag everybody they know to the polls.
Are you planning to vote in the November midterms?
Yes: 100% (15 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
“And a lot of people who weren’t that enthused don’t like the police-state stuff and they’re going to come out and vote, too.”
According to the same poll nearly half, 47.9 percent, of respondents said they believed it was Trump’s political enemies behind the raid, not the “impartial justice system.”
At a Thursday news conference, Attorney General Merrick Garland said he approved the raid personally. But Garland is a Biden appointee and acts in the president’s name. That makes the raid Biden’s responsibility and, in strictly political terms, it’s looking like a huge mistake.
If Republican enthusiasm was waning, that enthusiasm was given a shot of adrenaline by the FBI’s action.
Meckler was especially surprised by how Hispanics responded to the poll. According to the poll, 80 percent of Hispanic respondents reported being more likely to vote in 2022 and 69.9 percent of Hispanics believed “Trump’s political enemies” were behind the FBI raid.
“Now, I’m just theorizing here, but you’ve got a lot of Hispanic people in this country that came from one form or another of totalitarian regime. Obviously, they’ve got a large Cuban population and people from Venezuela. Mexico is a corrupt country. A lot of countries in South and Central America have endemic corruption,” Meckler said.
“And when they see an event like this, it’s very much like what happens in those countries, where you stay president as long as you can because you know when you’re not anymore you’re likely to get arrested and thrown in jail.”
Because of this history, Meckler believes Hispanics may be more likely turned off by parties appearing to act in “banana republic”-style behavior.
This increase in enthusiasm isn’t just good news for Republicans, but for former President Trump as well.
According to a Twitter post from Eric Trump following the Mar-a-Lago raid, “DonaldJTrump.com is shattering all fundraising records and I’m told has raised more money in the past 24 hours than ever before in recent history! The American people are pissed!”
Breaking: https://t.co/zt3c5Nkwh6 is shattering all fundraising records and I’m told has raised more money in the past 24 hours than ever before in recent history! The American people are pissed!
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) August 10, 2022
Democrats may have been gaining some ground on Republicans, but thanks to the Mar-a-Lago raid, momentum seems to have, yet again, shifted strongly against them.
