A Republican strategist has predicted that Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton could top 400 Electoral College (EC) votes in the November presidential election.

Steve Schmidt made the comment on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Wednesday (19 October), adding members of the GOP were worried about the outcome of the vote, reported The Hill reported.

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"I think she is trending over 400," Schmidt said in response to Joe Scarborough's question on what the EC victory for Clinton could be.

"Trending over 400 – so Democrats take the Senate," Scarborough asked.

"Yes," Schmidt replied, to which the host asked: "Democrats take the House?"

"Close. They could take it," Schmidt responded.

"If this election was today, I think Republicans are down 25 seats as of today with the trend line going in the wrong direction. The panic is beginning."

Clinton is currently leading in nine of 11 swing states, with predictions from the Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project, released on 15 October 2016, showing that if the election was held now, the odds of Clinton gaining the required number of EC votes to win would be 95%, with a margin of 118 EC votes.

This data was backed up by the latest poll numbers from the New York Times, which, on 18 October, gave Clinton a 925 chance of winning the election, running the story under the headline "Is this election over?".

However, although average polls from Real Clear Politics show Clinton is maintaining more than a 6-point lead on her GOP rival, Trump is beginning to claw back some ground – with a one-point lead in a four-way poll from IBD/TIPP, including Gary Johnson and Jill Stein.