Litigation nation
Former President Donald Trump and his allies were caught on their heels in 2020. After an incredibly tight election that was decided by a handful of voters in key states, Trump and an army of lawyers went on the offensive to challenge the voting procedures during and the results of the election.
Most of those challenges failed. And several of the main players in those battles wound up in legal trouble.
Four years later, rather than waiting for results to come in to start laying down challenges, Republicans have gone on offense. Attorneys sympathetic to Trump’s concerns about election integrity have filed more than 100 suits against states and election officials to reverse looser voting laws instituted four years ago in response to COVID-19.
Signaling challenges now, months before votes are cast, is helping Republicans get out ahead of expected hurdles. It could also make it more difficult for Trump to blame another loss on “fraud,” “rigging,” or the election being “stolen” from him.
In the fourth part of our Legal Games series, which has examined Democrats’ efforts to keep third-party candidates on or off ballots as it suited their needs, Trump’s struggle to recruit top-tier legal talent, and the all-out push to safeguard against noncitizen voting, National Political Correspondent Mabinty Quarshie looked at the proactive stance Republicans have made heading into the meaty portion of election season.
“Some GOP strategists applauded the efforts to make the election as secure as possible ahead of the 2024 election as ‘fantastic,’ but others cautioned these efforts are simply about appeasing Trump at the expense of GOP victory on the ballot,” Mabinty wrote.
“What’s the difference between 2020 and 2024? They’re being proactive versus reactive. That is the biggest thing,” Ford O’Connell, a Republican operative, told Mabinty. “Because a lot of times when you challenge these things, you can’t challenge them after the election. You have to do it before.”
Republicans have notched major wins in a handful of states to roll back COVID-era voting rules and shape election systems the way they would like to see them.
In Arizona, they won a partial victory at the Supreme Court that means the state can continue to use a separate form that requires voters to provide proof of citizenship when they register.
In Michigan, Republicans beat back a directive from Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson telling election officials to ignore signature verification requirements for mail-in ballots.
Possibly the largest feather in their cap was the, at the time, controversial voting rules overhaul in Georgia. The much-criticized legislation did put tighter restrictions on absentee ballot deadlines and rules about politicking in lines outside voting stations, but the result still left Georgia voters with more leeway and longer voting windows than several blue states.
All of the legal action has lit a fire under some Republicans who see the efforts as evidence that party leaders aren’t prepared to take a loss lying down. Though some experts say the energy being expended on protecting election security is drawing down reserves that should be used to make sure people show up to the polls in the first place.
“While there were and are important legal actions involving the time, place, and manner of elections, it’s hard to justify the RNC or Trump campaign diverting money from get out the vote,” Dennis Lennox, a Republican strategist, told Mabinty.
“The Trump campaign’s ground game has largely been outsourced to affiliated super PACs and groups who are organizing volunteers to canvass in the battleground states,” she wrote. “It’s in stark contrast to the Harris campaign that repeatedly boasts about its growing field offices and campaign staffers in the battleground states.”
Click here to read more about the proactive effort to challenge doubts about the election results.
Richer than dirt
Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) is proud of his legacy as a dirt farmer in deep-red Montana. His reputation has helped him survive two reelection campaigns as a Democrat while the state continues to trend farther and farther to the right.
His run of success looks like it will come to an end in November, though. Tester has never had to compete on the same ballot as Trump, which, Senate Reporter Ramsey Touchberry pointed out for us this morning, could be the death knell for his tenure.
But the sun hasn’t set on his chances of winning reelection, and his party isn’t ready to abandon him in favor of going on offense in challenging but winnable contests in Texas, Florida, or Nebraska.
“There is no world that I will do that,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), chairman of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, told Ramsey.
Democrats have $43.5 million planned for ads in the state supporting Tester before Election Day. That figure edges out the roughly $43 million Republicans have set aside for Tim Sheehy and his challenger campaign.
Everything has been trending away from Tester holding on to his seat in November. He was always one of the most vulnerable senators for Democrats. And he quickly shot to the top of the “at risk” list when Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) announced he wasn’t running for reelection.
Trump isn’t worried about his chances in Montana. He crushed President Joe Biden there in 2020 by 16 points.
In Tester’s last contest, he only scraped by Rep. Matt Rosendale’s (R-MT) challenge by 3.5 points.
Election forecasters have unanimously moved the projection of the race from the “toss up” range to favoring Republicans. And though a virtual poll in June showed Tester and Sheehy tied, “the Republican has since come out on top in six of seven public polls, with most leads outside the margins of error,” Ramsey wrote.
None of this comes as a surprise to Tester, who told Ramsey, “We are in exactly the position I thought we would be in, and we’re going to win. And I don’t say that lightly. You can take that to the bank.”
Click here to read more about Democrats’ efforts to hold their Senate majority.
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For your radar
Biden will deliver remarks at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., at 1:55 p.m. and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute 47th Annual Awards Gala at 8:45 p.m.
Harris will participate in a campaign event in Farmington Hills, Michigan, at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will brief reporters at 2 p.m. She will be joined by Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jared Bernstein.