CNN Data Reporter Warns Democrats Of GOP's 'Rare' Edge In Key Metric

CNN’s senior political data reporter, Harry Enten, spotted that Republicans have an edge against Democrats in how many voters identify with their party, a metric that he said should make the party “hopeful” ahead of the election.

Enten, in a segment with CNN host Manu Raju on Sunday, pointed to polling numbers that show those identifying as Democrats had a 3-percentage-point advantage over Republicans around the time of the 2016 election.

That figure went up around the 2020 election, when Democrats held a 6-point advantage nationally.

The latest figure shows Republicans with a 1-point advantage over Democrats in what a CNN graphic described as a “rare GOP edge” in presidential elections since 1984.

Enten noted that the Democratic Party, on average, has an 8-point advantage in party identification when the Republican Party loses and holds a 3-point advantage nationally when the GOP wins.

“Republicans right now, Manu, are doing even better than the average when they win,” Enten said. “If there’s one little nugget that I think Republicans are really hopeful for, it’s this party ID and this party registration data. It really points in a good direction for them and for Donald Trump.”

Earlier in the segment, Enten acknowledged that more voters are registered as Democrats than Republicans in the battleground state of Pennsylvania today.

But the GOP, he noted, has cut the Democrats’ advantage “in half” in “such a short period of time” between November 2020 and October 2024.

“They have gone out, they have registered voters, there are folks that have come over to their side that were previously registered Democrats. The question is: Where are they picking up ground?” Enten said.

You can see more of Enten’s look at the polling data in the clip below.