During a Monday morning CNN broadcast, senior data reporter Harry Enten and anchor John Berman broke down the electoral impact of 2020 election conspiracy theories within the Republican Party, focusing specifically on the upcoming Georgia Senate race.
The conversation began with Berman pointing out that Representative Mike Collins (R-GA), the Republican nominee challenging incumbent Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) this fall, is among those promoting the false claim that Donald Trump won Georgia in 2020.
Enten responded by comparing Collins to a previous Republican candidate who lost a highly competitive race in the state.
“Honestly, Mike Collins is starting to feel a whole heck of a lot like Herschel Walker 2.0,” Enten said. “You can remember Walker, of course ran for the Senate in Georgia, lost that race in 2022, a very winnable seat. But he fits in very well with how Republicans still feel about the 2020 election. I mean, they just believe this garbage!”
To back up his point, Enten presented polling data tracking Republican views over the last five years. Immediately following the election in 2021, 60% of Republicans believed the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Five years later, that figure has risen slightly to 63%, despite a total lack of supporting evidence.
“So Mike Collins’s comments to Manu Raju make a whole heck of a lot of sense when you put it in the larger polling picture, which is that most Republicans, despite all the evidence to the contrary, believe that the 2020 election was in fact stolen,” Enten explained.
Berman then questioned the political viability of the strategy, asking, “Is this a winning message in a general election?”
Enten stated that it is not, pointing to a stark divide between the Republican base and the rest of the country. “No, this is the whole problem, which is the Republican Party is in one camp all the way over here on the right, and the rest of the American public is in the same camp in the actual, this the real world we’re dealing with camp!” Enten said.
Data regarding the broader American public shows an opposing trend to that of the GOP base. In 2021, 59% of all Americans stated the 2020 election was not stolen. Five years later, that number has grown to 64%. Meanwhile, the percentage of Americans who believe the election was stolen has remained largely flat, moving slightly from 32% to 31%.
Enten concluded that running on election denial creates severe liabilities for the party in swing states like Georgia.
“So what you see is that the American people are in one camp believing the results, rightfully believing the results of the 2020 election, and then you have Republicans all the way in another camp,” Enten said. “It is a losing message! That is why I say that Mike Collins is starting to sound like Herschel Walker 2.0, because that’s a winnable seat for Republicans and comments like that make it very difficult to win.”
The segment ended with Enten dismissing the idea that Donald Trump would be able to “carry him over the finish line” this November, citing Trump’s low approval ratings within the state of Georgia.
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