Donald Trump says he will inspire more voters to turn out and vote Republican, like Ronald Reagan did decades ago.
According to the Republican presidential front-runner, his nomination would boost voter turnout just as Reagan did in 1980, the “last time the Republican Party had a crisis of identity.”
“When the American people find someone who speaks their language and who they think can deliver on his word, they are going to flock to him, regardless of their political alignment,” Trump wrote in an Tuesday night op-ed for USA Today.
Reagan, he wrote, won the general election despite struggling “to gain acceptance with the mainstream of the party” by “getting Democrats and independents to come to vote for him.” These voters, Trump argued, “felt abandoned by their parties,” and Reagan in turn “gave them a reason to come to vote” for him.
“My campaign has been like no other, and as my rallies continue to draw crowds in the thousands and tens of thousands, so will my campaign attract millions more voters,” the billionaire businessman wrote. “Imagine if we are able to get just 2 percent more of the electorate to vote. That would mean about 5 million more votes cast. If we had a 4 percent increase in voter participation, within the realm of possibility, we could see an additional 10 million votes cast across the country.”
And even though the establishment is “threatened by a campaign that says what it means and means what it says,” Trump said he would continue deliver.
“Together, we will make America great again,” Trump concluded.
In a RealClearPolitics average of polls, Trump leads the GOP field with 35 percentage points, with his next closest competitor, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 19 percentage points.
