WSJ Op/Ed: Donald Trump Should Listen to Lara (Trump)

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If Donald Trump wants to win, he should listen to his daughter-in-law. The former president has spent four years criticizing early and absentee voting, arguing that both are riddled with fraud and contributed to the “theft” of the 2020 election. Lara Trump, in her new role as co-chairman of the Republican National Committee, says early and absentee voting are a top RNC priority. For her efforts to succeed, Mr. Trump has to get on board.

“We don’t have one day of voting, we don’t have paper ballots, we don’t have voter ID everywhere,” Mrs. Trump said days after her election. “We have to play the hand that we’re dealt.” The other party has already done so to great effect, leading her to observe that “we’ve been playing checkers, and the Democrats have been playing chess.” To catch up, the RNC will increase its work on early and absentee voting, while launching its first-ever initiative on “legal ballot harvesting,” in which third parties collect and submit ballots for other voters.

Even before 2020, early and absentee voting were more a priority for Democrats than Republicans. During the pandemic-era race for the White House, Democrats took these practices to a new level. According to the Pew Research Center, 63% of Trump voters cast ballots before Election Day 2020, while 83% of Biden voters did. In the 2022 midterms, nearly half of voters cast ballots before Election Day, up from just over a third in 2018. According to the U.S. Election Project, Democrats beat Republicans in early voting in 2022 by nearly 10 points.

Mrs. Trump isn’t the first RNC official to acknowledge the deficit. In June the RNC rolled out Bank Your Vote, a national early-voting initiative. Some conservative organizations, including mine, also have made early and absentee voting a priority. None of these efforts have achieved the success Republicans need, largely because they lack the support of party leaders, especially Mr. Trump.

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With so little GOP focus on these voting tactics, such efforts don’t make the necessary difference. The RNC can change that, but only if three things happen. First, it needs to put teeth behind Lara Trump’s recent words, devoting a huge percentage of its 2024 budget to alternative voting strategies. Strengthening early voting also strengthens later turnout efforts, allowing more focused efforts on the shrinking pool of people who have yet to vote.

Second, the RNC should be transparent, showing not only where the money goes but how outside vendors perform. If some prove they can affordably turn out early and absentee voters, the public needs to know, not least so candidates and state parties can hire them to help win other races. The RNC should be focused on forging the best strategy, not enriching insiders and grifters.

Most important, Mr. Trump must publicly disavow his criticism of early voting. While the former president recorded a video for Bank Your Vote last year, he continues to allege that early and absentee voting encourage fraud. Last month, he said on Fox News that “if you have mail-in voting, you automatically have fraud.” It would be much more helpful if he told the Republican base that he was wrong—that voting outside Election Day is legally acceptable and politically essential.

If Mr. Trump encourages voting early, in person or by mail, it will help Republicans win back the White House as well as seats on school boards and in the House, Senate and state legislatures. Donald Trump says he wants a landslide, but disparaging crucial electoral tools won’t give him one. Embracing early voting is key to the victory he and all Republicans seek.

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