The Republican Party is dumping tens of millions of dollars into early voting campaigns only to keep getting sabotaged by one persistent foe: its nominee for president, former Oval Office holder Donald Trump.
According to a report in Politico, Republican strategists and organizers are variously baffled and fuming that their party’s election conspiracist standard bearer won’t stop attacking early and mail voting with invented claims that they’re unreliable or rife with fraud.
“The whole idea behind absentee voting is you’re banking that vote, you’ve got that person, you know they’re going to vote for you, you get them off the list,” Wisconsin-based GOP strategist Mark Graul told the news outlet. “This is how you get the extra 5,000, 10,000 votes that may decide the election.”
As for Republican voter turnout, Graul noted Trump’s conspiratorial nonsense “screws it up.”
The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee are running a country-wide “Swamp the Vote” campaign as part of multi-million dollar efforts to get their supporters to vote early.
For example, Republican friendly groups and PACs are spending $12 million in Pennsylvania to get voters to use mail balloting in the swing state state, and Politico reported they were a third of the way to their goal of signing up 200,000 to the mail voting list in August.
Politico noted that Trump campaign rallies even have signs encouraging people to do so, while the former president frequently reads canned lines from a teleprompter reminding voters they can cast a ballot before election day.
But that hasn’t stopped Trump, who has repeatedly and baselessly attacked the veracity of the 2020 election that he lost to President Joe Biden from, calling early voting “stupid stuff” at a rally last month (moments after he read a canned line encouraging people to do it). Last month, Trump falsely claimed Democrats are abusing overseas mail-in ballots to get around voter citizenship requirements. He has also repeatedly attacked the US Postal service as “incompetent” or ill-equipped to handle ballots.
“It’s counterproductive,” David Urban, a former Trump campaign adviser who led the GOP nominee’s successful Pennsylvania efforts in 2016, told Politico.
“You have to accept it in order to have a chance to win,” added Tom Eddy, GOP chair in Pennsylvania’s Erie County, to the news outlet. “And that’s what we’re doing. We’ve been pushing these things like crazy.”
So far, Trump seems unconvinced.
Here’s a question that could spark further debate on the topic of Donald Trump’s skepticism of early voting within the Republican Party:
The article sheds light on the internal strife within the Republican Party as they struggle with the impact of Donald Trump’s rhetoric on early voting efforts. A question that could spark debate around this topic is:
“Is Donald Trump’s skepticism of early and mail-in voting ultimately harming the Republican Party’s chances in the 2024 election, or does it resonate with a significant portion of his base who share his concerns?”
This question encourages a discussion on whether Trump’s stance on voting methods is detrimental to Republican electoral strategies, as highlighted by strategists like Mark Graul, who emphasize the importance of early and absentee voting for maximizing Republican turnout and securing important votes in tight races [1[1[1[1[1[1[1[1; 2]. Additionally, it prompts examination of the broader implications of Trump’s rhetoric and how it aligns or clashes with voter perceptions and party strategy.
Discussing both sides could yield insights into the effectiveness of Trump’s approach and the potential electoral consequences for the Republican Party amidst the ongoing 2024 campaign dynamics.
How might Donald Trump’s contradictory stance on early voting impact voter perception and turnout among Republican constituents?
A provocative question that could spark debate based on the article is: “Is Donald Trump’s ongoing criticism of early voting ultimately harming the Republican Party’s electoral prospects, particularly given the substantial investment in early voting initiatives by the party?”
This question engages several points from the article including the contradiction of Trump urging his supporters to vote early while simultaneously labeling the practice as “stupid stuff” [1[1]and how his rhetoric around voting might undermine party strategies aimed at increasing early voter turnout. Additionally, the article notes the frustrations of GOP strategists and advisers who acknowledge the importance of absentee votes for the party’s success [2[2]. This debate could include arguments about the efficacy of Trump’s messaging versus strategic investments in voting initiatives, as well as the impact of misinformation on voter turnout.