Crowd Sizes Mean Nothing In Electoral Politics

A pro-Trump rally in Salt Lake City drew only one-tenth of the crowd it was expected to draw a few days ago -- even though Trump favorite, Michael Flynn, was the keynote speaker. 

I must admit that, like many of my Democratic friends, I was amused by this. But it would be a mistake to read too much into it.

It probably does mean that Micheal Flynn is not the draw that Trump conservatives would hope for. But I have no doubt that if Trump had been there, they would likely have filled the arena. But even then, that means little in electoral politics.

You may remember that Bernie Sanders was drawing phenomenally large crowds in the 2016 and 2020 Democratic primaries. The large crowds had leftists thinking that Sanders would win the nomination. But he didn't. He lost in both 2016 and 2020.

And in the 2020 campaign, Donald Trump was drawing huge crowds at every campaign stop. It had right-wingers sure that he would win re-election. He didn't. He lost by more than 7 million votes.

The truth is that only a tiny part of the electorate goes to rallies and campaign stops. Most voters will never go to either, but they will make their choices known on Election Day.

I know that people on both sides of the political divide (and the media also) like to think that crowd sizes matter, but they don't. They actually mean nothing in electoral politics.