“Protecting the vote” in the upcoming November election is the most critical task for the Republican National Committee (RNC), co-chair Lara Trump said.
In an interview with Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” on March 10, Ms. Trump listed the top priorities at the RNC for the GOP candidate to win the 2024 presidential election.
“We have three pillars that we need to focus on at the RNC to ensure victory on November 5, turn out the vote, protect the vote, and raise money,” Ms. Trump said. “But I would argue that maybe the most important of those three is protecting the vote, election integrity.”
Ms. Trump made the comments when asked by host Maria Bartiromo about her opinion about Attorney General Merrick Garland’s speech regarding protecting the right to vote early this month.
“We have to ensure that, when people go vote, they feel like their vote counts, that they are inspired to go vote. We can never allow what happened in 2020 and the questions surrounding that election to ever happen again,” she added.
During the interview, Ms. Trump, the daughter-in-law of former President Donald Trump, suggested that Democrats oppose voter ID because they seek to expand their voter base by allegedly bringing in individuals who are ineligible to vote.
“Democrats are bleeding and hemorrhaging voters. They understand that they cannot fool people in this country any longer so they have to import people,” she said. “The only reason you wouldn’t want voter ID is if you want people who cannot vote to vote in these elections. It is insane.”
Ms. Trump said the committee has set up an “election integrity division” and spent “vast resources dedicated solely to this cause,” including a “nationwide network of volunteers,” such as poll watchers and trained poll workers. She also warned those who want to cheat in the election, saying, “We will go after you [and] you will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
Legal Ballot Harvesting
Ms. Trump also told Ms. Bartiromo that the RNC would use legal ballot harvesting in this election cycle. “It is already underway, and we will expand it again,” she said.Last week, Ms. Trump and Michael Whatley, chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, were elected to lead the RNC to replace Ronna McDaniel. Both were endorsed by President Trump last month.
The leadership overhaul comes just days after President Trump dominated the Republican presidential primaries on Super Tuesday on March 5, solidifying his hold on the Republican nomination and the party itself.
“We need to have the biggest legal ballot harvesting operation this country has ever seen,” Ms. Trump said. “It feels, for a long time, like the Democrats have been playing chess, and we’ve been playing checkers,” she said. Her goal is for the Republican Party “to be the opposite, to be steps ahead of them, and on our toes, and ahead of the game, and facing forward the whole time.”
Ballot harvesting, legal in some states, allows people to deliver absentee or mail-in ballots to drop-off points on behalf of other voters. Republicans have been skeptical of the procedure, fearing it would lead to election fraud. Democrats have been much more willing to use the strategy.
“Whether or not [Democrats] do it legally, that’s up for discussion,” Ms. Trump said, adding that it’s time for Republicans to start “attacking the game differently.”
She also suggested that the RNC embrace early voting for the upcoming election. “The truth is, if we want to compete with the Democrats, we cannot wait until election day,” she said. “If we want to compete, we must embrace early voting.
