Grassroots activists are warning Republicans that while former President Donald Trump has surged in momentum lately, the “belief that Democrats are in such disarray” following President Joe Biden’s ouster from the race could lead to dangerous “complacency.”
Trump currently leads Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, by 3 points nationwide, according to a recent CNN poll. RealClearPolitics has Trump up 2.1 percentage points in its polling average.
But if President Joe Biden could win an election from his basement, and if Sen. John Fetterman could win his election despite being severely impaired from a stroke, then Harris can easily win this November if Republicans become complacent, grassroots activists tell The Federalist.
“Just because Democrats have appeared to be a dumpster fire for the last month doesn’t mean the election is in the bag,” President of Arizona Free Enterprise Scot Mussi tells The Federalist. “We have to work hard as ever, if not harder.”
Mussi stressed that Republicans must maintain enthusiasm up through Election Day.
“I think the one thing that could hurt us is complacency and a belief that Democrats are in such disarray that they had to drop their nominee four months before the election,” Mussi continued. “You know, a month ago when Biden was still the nominee, that same plan needs to be the plan today. We can’t go into this thinking we can do less. We can’t stop. This is critically important.”
Mussi credited the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Trump campaign for ramping up their efforts in the state but urged them not to take Arizona for granted or take their foot off the pedal.
“I think from a top level, the RNC, Trump campaign, they can’t take Arizona for granted. It’s our perspective that a little bit of that happened in 2020, they engaged but it was at a later date than what we thought was critically important for 2020,” Mussi said. “The good news is that everything we’ve been seeing [is that] they have increased their engagement, they have hired more staff throughout Arizona, that’s all great, but they need to keep it up. I don’t want them to think Arizona is secured and they can go somewhere else.”
Tom Eddy has seen the same type of enthusiasm on the East Coast. Eddy, the GOP chair in Pennsylvania’s Erie County, told The Federalist “there’s a huge amount of enthusiasm all of a sudden since the convention.”
“Every day it’s one [person walking in] after another after another,” Eddy said. “We’ve got more and more people walking into my office wanting to get involved.”
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Capitalizing on the enthusiasm is a high priority for these grassroots activists. Eddy reiterated his previous comments to The Federalist regarding the importance of mail-in voting, noting Democrats have created an advantage for themselves by focusing efforts on building their on-the-ground operations targeting mail-ins.
“Democrats have got people who tend to not vote all the time getting to sit home, receive a ballot and then send it back,” Eddy said. “So the emphasis for the Pennsylvania GOP and I think the Trump campaign is behind this as well, is to let those low propensity Republican voters know that mail-in ballots are OK and to try and get those ballots into their hands. We don’t have to match the Democrats vote for vote in the mail-ins, all we have to do is get maybe 40-50 percent and we will be OK.”
Eddy said he will continue to visit local community events such as fairs, where he has a booth set up to register voters and provide mail-in ballot literature. His team also has door knockers who emphasize the importance of using a mail-in ballot to voters who may not guarantee they can show up to the polls on Election Day.
“To me the most important way to get someone to agree to mail-in ballots is to talk to them because there’s a lot of people who don’t understand how the process works,” Eddy said. “I’ve come across, I don’t know how many people, and they think if you apply for a mail-in ballot you can’t vote in person if you decide to change your mind. So people will hesitate if they don’t know the full procedure, so talking to voters face-to-face helps encourage applications.”
Mussi is also focused on engaging voters via a massive door-knocking campaign, telling The Federalist his organization plans on visiting 1 million doors by Election Day and working to remind voters to return their mail-in ballots or show up on Nov. 5 to vote in person.
North Carolina Election Integrity Team President Jim Womack told The Federalist that the work to secure a Republican victory is “going to be equally difficult” following Democrats’ candidate swap and signaled that the GOP cannot afford to take its foot off the pedal.
“Harris hasn’t changed our battle space for free and fair elections because she comes from the same group that Biden was in that is sponsored and promoted by the left,” Womack said. “And because the left will stop at nothing to win an election, there won’t be any less serious attempt to try to manipulate the election than there was under Joe Biden.”
“The strategy that the RNC has taken on is that we’re going to do the same thing we did in 2020 and 2022 and that is, we’re going to have lots of field staff and we’re going to hire thousands of lawyers around the country to be on lookout and ready to go to to litigate. And we’re going to do poll observing training,” Womack said, adding he has “no issue” with either of those things but that the “only other thing they’re doing differently this time that’s discernible is the focus on trying to get people to vote by mail.”
The one thing Womack believes the RNC “desperately” needs to do is further “unify the grassroots organizations that are working for election integrity.”
The RNC, which launched its first election integrity division in 2021 and has since added additional programs, has increased its poll watcher training through its “Protect the Vote” program. Attendees at a recent Bucks County, Pennsylvania event told me they found the session to be insightful, “very informative,” and “very efficient.” A source from the RNC told The Federalist they’re also working to engage poll workers.
“Each day countless individuals around the country sign up to volunteer, that includes those who wish to work the polls,” the RNC source told The Federalist. “We give them the direction they need to apply to become poll worker to help administer the election. Around the country we’ve seen states working hard but struggling to hire poll workers, so we bring the workers directly to them to ensure municipalities have the coverage they need to effectively administer elections.”
The RNC has also encouraged voting by mail over the past few months.
“Absentee voting, early voting, and Election Day voting are all good options,” Trump said in an April post on Truth Social. “Republicans must make a plan, register, and vote!”
RNC spokeswoman Anna Kelly told The Federalist that the RNC’s “Swamp the Vote” and “Protect the Vote” programs are meant to “ensure that Americans feel confident casting their ballot, whether it’s by mail, early in-person, or on Election Day.” One way this is done, according to the RNC, is through a statewide hotline in each state where the RNC provides rapid response when voting issues are reported. The RNC said the operation would be “scaled up” for the general election and specifically in battleground states.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
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