Trump endorses RNC early voting initiative despite past opposition to practice
Mabinty Quarshie
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Donald Trump is supporting the Republican National Committee‘s Bank Your Vote initiative ahead of the 2024 presidential elections, a sign that the former president is moving away from his past stances against early voting.
“Radical Democrats have abused and taken advantage of absentee and early voting laws to build a big lead over Republicans before Election Day,” Trump said in a video the RNC released Wednesday morning. “While Republicans have worked to share our beautiful values with voters, Democrats and dangerous groups funded by the far Left have simply focused on collecting ballots. That’s all they wanted to do — collecting ballots. But you know what? It turned out to be not such a bad idea.”
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The RNC’s Bank Your Vote program launched last month as an attempt to persuade Republicans to vote before Election Day, including through absentee voting, legal ballot harvesting, and in-person early voting.
“To beat Joe Biden and the Democrats in 2024, we must ensure that Republicans bank as many pre-Election Day votes as possible,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement at the time. “Banking votes early needs to be the focus of every single Republican campaign in the country.”
The program points GOP voters to BankYourVote.com as the RNC partners with state parties and campaigns in 56 states and territories. National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson (R-NC) appointed Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) to co-chair the effort, and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines (R-MT) appointed Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) as co-chair.
Trump’s support of the initiative complicates his previous statements denigrating early voting as not secure. During a Fox News town hall with Sean Hannity last week, Trump, who continues to make unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud, said he embraced early voting but voiced some concerns about the process. “They also create phony ballots, and that’s a real problem. That’s my opinion,” Trump told Hannity.
In the video promoting Bank Your Vote, however, Trump appears to accept that Republicans will need to encourage early voting in hopes of retaking the White House and Senate next year.
“We may not like the current system, but we need to master the rules and beat the Democrats at their own game, and then we can make our own rules,” Trump said. “Republicans must get tougher and fight harder to cast our votes and get our ballots turned in earlier so Democrats can’t rig the polls against us on Election Day.”
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“We must defeat the far Left at their own game, or our country will never recover from this disastrous, crooked Biden administration,” Trump added.
Trump’s work with the RNC comes amid the former president possibly skipping the first GOP primary debate next month in Milwaukee. Trump, who is the decided front-runner in a crowded Republican field, has taken issue with the RNC requiring all candidates participating to sign a loyalty pledge supporting the eventual 2024 GOP nominee. It remains to be seen whether he will join other 2024 hopefuls on Aug. 23 when the debate is held.