Three GOP groups are spearheading an eight-figure vote-by-mail initiative in Pennsylvania to “ensure Republican victories” and encourage mail-in voting from conservative voters, a strategy that has long been championed by Democrats that could make a significant impact on the 2024 election.
The Keystone Renewal PAC, the Sentinel Action fund, and the Republican State Leadership Committee PAC announced the launch of the initiative on Tuesday, which they say is the largest vote-by-mail program in Pennsylvania. Mail-in voting has been a sore spot for Republicans, particularly as leaders such as former President Donald Trump have associated vote-by-mail with election fraud.
“Embracing early and absentee voting is key for a Republican victory in 2024,” Jessica Anderson, president of the Sentinel Action Fund, said in a statement. “As we saw in previous cycles, Republicans must be mobilized earlier in the cycle and equipped with a strategy to connect with and turn out voters before Election Day.”
The goal is to expand the Republican voting base in Pennsylvania, one of several battleground states that were decisive in the 2020 election and one accused of widespread voter fraud when the former president lost the contest. Trump and GOP allies, many of whom served in state legislative positions, have sought to uncover evidence of the since-debunked claims as recently as February.
On the heels of losing open seats for governor and the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections, Pennsylvania Republicans realized they may need to embrace mail-in voting if they hope to see victories in 2024. In February, officials told Reuters that a small group of Pennsylvania GOP members were hoping to raise nearly $8 million to fund an education campaign to quiet any concerns among Republican voters about mail-in voting and election integrity.
As part of the PACs’ program, they launched a website that offers voters a chance to join a mail-in voting list for 2024 that will automatically provide them with a ballot in the primary and general elections.
“The RSLC PAC’s historic early and absentee voting program was a major reason for our success in key battleground districts in Virginia last year, and now we are doubling down on this innovative approach in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 2024,” RSLC PAC President Dee Duncan said. “This investment, which would not be possible without our partners, will create the largest and most comprehensive Republican vote-by-mail effort in Pennsylvania history and will be a difference maker as we work to elect Republicans up and down the ballot in the state.”
Mail-in voting movements in Pennsylvania are reflective of several other initiatives becoming popular with the Republican Party. In Virginia, the RSLC PAC launched Secure Your Vote Virginia to raise awareness for early and absentee voting. According to the RSLC, the 2023 elections saw a 26% increase in absentee ballot requests from 2021 and a 32% increase in absentee ballot returns, though Republicans still suffered losses.
At the national level, now-Republican National Committee Co-chairwoman Lara Trump is encouraging conservative voters to embrace early voting.
“We cannot continue to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results,” Lara Trump said in an interview with the Washington Examiner at the American Conservative Union’s 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this year. “So we’re going to have to change how we do it.”
She faces an uphill battle, however, mostly due to her father’s rhetoric regarding mail-in voting, which has instilled fears of election fraud and security in Republican voters.
“If you have mail-in voting, you automatically have fraud,” Donald Trump said during a recent Fox News town hall.
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For Pennsylvania, Republicans are hoping that early and absentee voting will tip the scales in a critical Senate race this November. Businessman Dave McCormick, who previously lost his Senate primary to Republican Mehmet Oz in 2022, is coming back for round two in the hope of ousting Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), a contest that could determine if Democrats can hold on to their majority in the upper chamber of Congress.
In part, the McCormick campaign is hoping that President Joe Biden, who has a historically low approval rating and faces support difficulties within his own party, will hurt Casey down the ballot. However, given that Casey is a household name in Pennsylvania, Republicans may need to rely more heavily on early voting turnout to bank votes for McCormick.
