RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel announced the party has tapped Wisconsin to be the first state to implement its new early voting initiative.
McDaniel argued the “Bank Your Vote” effort the Republican National Committee announced last month will help the party get a leg up over Dems in 2024. The campaign will encourage voters to cast their ballots ahead of election day – a practice some Republicans are leery of as former President Donald Trump continues to deny his 2020 loss.
“When you have a football game, you don’t wait ’til the fourth quarter to start scoring,” McDaniel said on a media call with state GOP Chair Brian Schimming and U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien.
“We have to make sure that we’re not allowing Democrats to get such a huge start during these early voting periods that we have to make it all up on election day.”
State Dem Party spokesperson Joe Oslund slammed the effort as hypocritical and “doomed to fail.”
“Wisconsin Republicans spent years–and millions of taxpayer dollars–casting doubt on the 2020 election and undermining safe and accessible forms of early voting, only to now reverse course in the wake of multiple embarrassing statewide defeats,” Oslund said in a statement.
Trump has sent mixed signals about early voting. At a Fox News town hall last week, Trump said he embraces the practice. But he also cast doubt on early voting, claiming “they also create phony ballots” and “a lot of bad things” happen to them.
McDaniel said she has spoken to Trump, and he has indicated his support for the campaign and understands it will help Republicans compete.
Since becoming state chair in December, Schimming has been pushing GOP activists to embrace early voting. He said Monday the national push will allow the party and candidates to maximize their dollars and GOTV efforts by focusing on likely GOP voters earlier on.
“If we can count on high propensity Republicans to bank their vote early, we’ll be able to outshine the Democrats on Election Day,” Schimming said.
Van Orden said educating skeptical voters will be an important factor.
“We have got to educate our folks that unfortunately do not have confidence in voting early and voting by mail,” Van Orden said. “We have to educate them to show them the fact that this is a completely valid way to get their vote out.”
Members of the state leadership team to implement the effort include:
*U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh;
*All Wisconsin GOP House members;
*Schimming:
*RNC Committeeman Tom Schreibel:
*RNC Committeewoman Maripat Krueger;
*3rd CD GOP Vice Chair Hannah Testin; and
*Fond du Lac County DA Eric Toney.
See the RNC release here.
McDaniel also said it’s still unclear whether Trump will attend the first GOP presidential primary debate in Milwaukee next month.
“But my guess is, knowing President Trump, he’s going to keep us all guessing until the very end,” McDaniel said.
Trump has indicated he may not attend the Aug. 23 debate, which would be an opportunity for opponents to criticize him as he has a strong lead in national polls. Candidates have up until 48 hours before the debate to say whether they will attend.
Trump has met polling and fundraising requirements for the debate, along with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Former VP Mike Pence has yet to meet the fundraising threshold.
