GOP election strategy: Get smart about early voting or get used to losing

With the midterm elections finally over, it means it’s time for accountability, self-analysis, and brainstorming in Washington.

That’s why Republicans have the daunting task of conducting a post-mortem analysis of the 2022 election to understand exactly what happened and develop innovative strategies for best practices in future election cycles. Start working. As the Republican National Commissioner for Maryland, I believe we need to go into the process with our eyes wide open, with no preconceived notions about what works and what doesn’t.

At this critical time for the RNC, it would be prudent to create another coordinated effort for a large-scale early voting manipulation plan to complement the ongoing legislative and litigation electoral integrity work. Otherwise, Republicans will never win a national election again.

First, recognize what you did right, even if it didn’t meet your expectations.

Here’s what to expect from the Senate and House over the next two years after Georgia’s runoff results.

Republicans convincingly won the national popular vote by a margin of 50.6% to 47.8%, regaining a majority in the US House of Representatives. And despite facing a brutal map in the U.S. Senate and being badly wasted, Senate Republicans managed to defend the incumbent in Pennsylvania while successfully defending open seats in battleground states of Wisconsin, North Carolina and Ohio. lost only one seat it had previously held.

Republicans also swept the key gubernatorial races in Georgia and Texas over wealthy Democratic media darlings Stacey Abrams and Beto O’Rourke.

Democrats Beto O’Rourke and Stacey Abrams
(Brandon Bell/Getty Images | Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Now for the hard part. This requires a tough reality check from Grand Old Party.

In a post-COVID world, Americans vote differently – it’s true. About 43% of the ballots cast in the 2022 midterm elections were cast via early in-person or mail-in ballots. In the face of an inflation crisis, a border crisis, a crime crisis, and an incumbent president with low approval ratings, would the Republicans have won nine or more of his seats in the House of Representatives and won some places in the Senate? What if, like in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Nevada, we were educating voters and activists to take advantage of all available voting options: mail, early in-person, absentee, and same-day voting?

The answer is a definite yes.

9 Ways Republicans Can Solve the Midterm Election Disaster

Governor Ron DeSantis waves as he arrives for a press conference at Bill Bagscape Florida State Park in Key Biscayne, Florida, December 1, 2022.
(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Nothing beats Florida’s do it all approach. In Florida, he had nearly 5 million early voters, of whom 43% were Republicans, 37% Democrats, and 20% other, according to U.S. Election Project data. In Florida, Republicans won the early vote by a commanding margin of 315,000 votes to her, with Governor Ron DeSantis and Sen. rice field.

Republicans in Florida used early voting to win big. Sunshine State is no longer considered a Swing State now.

Conversely, in Pennsylvania, Republicans failed to vote early and fell victim. Of his 1.18 million people in Pennsylvania who voted by mail, he was a staggering 69% Democrats. In a nutshell, the Democrats sent about 567,000 more mail-in ballots than the Republicans, and Democrat John Fetterman won the election with about 263,000 votes.

Discussion between John Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz, October 25, 2022, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
(New Nation)

Considering that more than 700,000 Pennsylvanians had already voted by the end of October, Senator Fetterman’s horrifying debate performance didn’t have the impact that too many naive Republicans had bet. did.

One of the lasting legacies of the pandemic is the forced introduction of new voting rules. One expert said, “We are seeing considerable voter engagement in this year’s elections … but the higher number of early votes compared to 2018 is more about how votes are voted than about much higher turnout. It shows that preferences regarding

To clarify, Democrats have pushed to rewrite the law in the fog of COVID-19 and organized an army of lawyers to litigate these issues across the country to their advantage. , act by the law in every state regardless of how they feel about the law, whereas Republicans do not.

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Voters line up to vote and fill out forms during the last hour of early voting in the Atlanta suburb of Tucker, Georgia, November 4, 2022.
(AP Photo/Jeff Amy)

For years, the Left has been busy cultivating and perfecting their efforts in the areas of early voting, absentee ballots, ballot collection, and healing, but the majority of Republicans have been ignorant of history. You are playing in a way that is publicly trusted. wish was placed. Republicans must start adapting to the new world by adopting all the tools in a given jurisdiction’s toolbox.

At the same time, Republicans must continue to pass state-by-state legislation and develop litigation strategies aimed at maximizing electoral integrity. Arguably, advocating for stronger voting laws while giving supporters confidence in early voting and excuse-free absentee voting are not mutually exclusive. It seeks to both maximize and overturn the freedoms afforded it by the Supreme Court ruling.

States that have the political numbers to toughen up election laws must do so: 28 states have passed laws banning or limiting “Zack Bucks”-style private campaign funds. As successful as the Republican effort has been. One of our next priorities on this front is to ban as much as possible the horrible practice known as ranked choice voting.

Elections officials process mail-in ballots and absentee ballots for the 2020 general election in West Chester, Pennsylvania, November 4, 2020.
(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

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Voting by mail and collecting ballots is not my favourite. But if you want to go back to holding “Election Day” instead of “Election Week,” you have to compete and win now.

So we have to challenge ourselves to play by the written rules. In the fight for America’s future, we cannot continue to disarm unilaterally. To be successful, the RNC must play a leadership role by developing and implementing legislative, litigation and early voting strategies. We must change the hearts and minds of Republican voters on these issues. Time is not wasted.

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