(Ken Silva, Headline USA) CHARLOTTE, NC—It was an upbeat atmosphere Thursday afternoon in sunny downtown Charlotte as dozens of Republican election volunteers from all walks of life filed into a local restaurant to strategize for this November.
The North Carolinians have a reason to be upbeat: They’re widely held among Republicans as a model for election integrity in the 2020 and 2022 elections. And the 2024 election will be no different, said Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, a North Carolina native—except this time, other key battleground states will use the same model, he added.
Whatley, who previously chaired the state Republican party, was invited to become one of the national co-chairs, alongside Lara Trump, when former President Donald Trump secured the party’s nomination earlier this year and opted to relieve longtime RNC head Ronna Romney McDaniel following several disastrous election cycles.
The newly consolidated organization shares a more unified mission with its de-facto leader, and at the top of that agenda is ensuring the widespread irregularities and violations of election protocol that fueled suspicions of a stolen election are stopped dead in their tracks.
That’s where Whatley comes in, after he succeeded in staving off the efforts of Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper and state Attorney General Josh Stein where many other battleground states failed.
“When I talked to the president, [he said,] ‘Alright Whatley, what’s the plan? How are we going to win this?’,” Whatley told the crowd on Thursday—recounting an anecdote that both he and Trump are fond of sharing.
“And I said, ‘Well sir, it really comes down to fundamentals: We can’t be all things to all people. We’re stripping the mission creep we’ve seen at the RNC in the last 30 years, and we’re focusing on two core functions: We’re going to get out the vote, and we’re going to protect the ballot.”
To that end, the crowd at Thursday’s gathering was there to train for the big Election Day—part of the “Protect the Vote Tour” that’s been going from state to state, training Republican volunteers across the country.
Whatley told Headline USA that the volunteers were being trained on how to spot cheating, and what to do if that happens.
“We need to be in the room,” he said. “That’s absolutely critical and that’s what we did in North Carolina in the 2022 election cycle, we had 11,000 volunteers that came through our training program.”
Perhaps just as importantly, Whatley said volunteers were being trained to respect poll workers and to contain their zeal, even if they think they see something suspicious.
“Everybody wants to know that we have sanctity in the ballot, and I think here in North Carolina we’re a lot better than most,” he said.
Joining Whatley on Thursday were several other notables from state and national politics, including Rep. Dan Bishop, who is currently running to replace Stein as state attorney general; former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi; and Jason Simmons, who replaced Whatley as the NCGOP chair.
More information about Protect the Vote and how to volunteer can be found at protectthevote.com.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
Headline USA’s Elias Irizarry and Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
