(Ken Silva, Headline USA) After dealing with unprecedented online censorship, mail-in voting, sketchy ballot machines and other issues in the 2020 presidential election, are Republicans any better prepared for 2024?
Attempting to bring clarity to that question, The Daily Caller published a 3,000-plus word report last week, in which the publication interviewed numerous GOP election officials about their preparations for the upcoming race.
From what the Daily Caller reported, Republicans should be worried.
For instance, The Daily Caller reported apparent widespread apathy within the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is helping bankroll the GOP’s legal fights. According to The Daily Caller, the NRCC ignored numerous interview requests, and only sent a link to an Axios article in response to questions about get out the vote efforts.
After the Caller told the NRCC that its response was the “laziest shit [it has] ever seen,” an NRCC spokesperson sent the Caller the following: “We’ve complained about your coverage several times to editors, so to tell you the truth, we really don’t care to engage on pieces we don’t care about to help you guys out.”
Other organizations were more responsive, but still didn’t engender much confidence.
The Republican National Committee, for its part, touted its 79 election integrity lawsuits filed in 23 states ahead of the 2024 election. The RNC said it plans to have at least 100 lawsuits filed by the time November rolls around.
However, conservative attorney and pundit Kurt Schlicter scoffed at the RNC’s statement.
“From what I have seen and what I haven’t, we definitely are,” Schlicter said about whether he thought the GOP would end up in a similar situation to 2020.
“And I would love to be wrong. I hear ‘we’ve filed 78 lawsuits’ that’s like saying if I’m a commander, ‘Oh I’ve fired 78 shells.’”
Public Interest Legal Foundation President J. Christian Adams expressed similar thoughts.
“When Republicans file cases, they run into a buzzsaw,” Adams told the Daily Caller. “To go on offense, you really needed to do it last year.”
If there’s a bright side to the GOP election prep efforts, it’s coming from non-partisan groups such as PILF.
“Instead of suing on behalf of Republicans, we’re suing on behalf of a county election official who has to accept the ballots,” Adams said.
“You see the difference? Because if you bring a case under the brand Republican versus I’m just this poor schlub, who has to make a decision, the courts are more likely to rule in favor of the poor schlub than they are in favor of a Republican Party,” Adams added.
And after The Daily Caller published its report last week, the Republican State Leadership Committee PAC announced its own vote-by-mail initiative in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
“Republicans expect that the 2024 election will be decided by a razor-thin margin just as it was in 2020 and 2022 in the Commonwealth,” the group said in a Tuesday press release.
“This first-of-its-kind effort will help to expand their voter base by targeting low-propensity voters and persuadable swing voters and ensure that voters have the ability and know-how to cast their vote in the manner that works best for them.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
