Trump flips his 2020 stance, launches absentee ballot and early voting push
![](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/05/Trump.jpg)
Trump promises to ensure that your ballot will be secure when he urges early voting for his rematch election with Biden in 2024.
The former president Trump has urged Republicans to use “every tool appropriate to beat the Democrats,” including early voting and absentee voting, according to the GOP’s presumptive nominee.
The Republican National Committee and the former president’s campaign for 2024 announced on Tuesday the launch of their “Swamp The Vote USA”.
This is a significant change from Trump’s position four years ago when he condemned early in-person voting and mailed-in balloting, claiming they were responsible for massive election fraud which led to Trump’s defeat by President Biden.
Trump said in a statement that “Republicans have to win, and we’ll use all the tools at our disposal to defeat the Democrats who are destroying this country.”
He also stressed that “we will protect your vote, whether you vote by absentee ballot, mail, early or on election day. We ensure that your vote is protected and heard. We need to overwhelm the radical Democrats by a massive turnout. We must overwhelm them. If we flood them with votes, they cannot cheat. Make a plan and register to vote in any way you can. “We have to get your votes.”
The Democrats voted earlier than the Republicans in both of the last two election cycles. However, Republicans tend to vote more on Election Day.
The Republican National Committee, under the previous chair Ronna McDaniel, launched a “Bank the Vote” campaign a year earlier.
The Trump campaign highlighted on Tuesday that “Swamp The Vote USA” is the successor of the RNC’s Bank Your Vote Program.
Trump’s position regarding early voting has been unclear in recent months.
He told his supporters at a rally held in Michigan about three months ago that early voting is “totally corrupt”, and “a hoax”.
At a rally in Pennsylvania held in April, the former President compared early voting with “stealing” votes.
At a large rally held in New Jersey last month, Trump stated that “mail-in votes are largely corrupt.”
At the same event he encouraged supporters to “get a mail-in or absentee ballot, vote early, or vote on Election Day.”
He’s also stressed in social media posts that voting early is important.
The Biden campaign highlighted Trump’s change of heart on early voting.
Donald Trump said to his supporters in February that voting by mail was “totally corrupt” – and last September, he proposed eliminating the mail-in vote altogether. Trump has been saying for years that early and mail-in voting is ‘fraudulent’, ‘cheating’, and ‘crooked. Trump should admit to the lies he has been spreading about voting and elections for years,” said James Singer, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign.
The Trump campaign said the new initiative to promote early voting was part of the recently-announced Trump Force 47. This is the campaign and RNC’s neighboring-to-neighbor grass-roots organizing program. “This focuses on mobilizing high-targeted voter in critical precincts throughout battleground states and district.”
The RNC and Trump are playing catch-up to the Biden campaign, and the DNC in terms of grassroots outreach and get out the vote efforts (also known as GOTV).
Trump’s fundraising is booming in response to his conviction in the first criminal case of a former or current president last week. He also has the advantage over Biden according to the latest polling results in key battlegrounds that will determine their rematch in 2024. However, the RNC and Trump are still struggling with the ground game.
The Biden campaign has announced that it has hired more than 500 staff members and opened over 175 coordinated offices in battleground states.
In Pennsylvania, one of the six states that Biden won by a narrow margin in 2020, the DNC, the presidential reelection campaign, and the state party all have coordinated offices with hundreds of employees.
Since launching his reelection campaign a year ago, the president, who is a native of Pennsylvania, has made many official and campaign visits to the state, and Philadelphia in particular. Last week, Biden campaigned with Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia for the first.
Welsey hunt, a Texas Republican and Trump surrogate who is a veteran of the military, was in Philadelphia Tuesday to open the first campaign office of the former President in Pennsylvania, an important battleground state in the northeast.
Hunt, a Black Republican rising star within the GOP, told reporters and supporters packed in a small office at the northeastern part of the city, “The person who’s going back and saving this country from the edge is Donald John Trump.”
Vince Fenerty is the GOP chair of Philadelphia, and has been a ward leader in Philadelphia for more than 50 years. He told Fox News, “We do need to catch-up a little, but we will open offices throughout the state.”
Fenerty stressed that we have time to catch-up. The Trump train is moving fast and people will jump aboard.
Fenerty said, “We chose this area of the city as it is ethnically and racially varied, and because we wanted to build a broad coalition among all Americans who are for President Trump.”
Philadelphia is predominantly blue. Biden won the city by 81%-18% over Trump four years ago.
Hunt said in an interview on Fox News that, “We are bravely going where no Republican in the last 20-30 years has gone before.” We’re not trying to catch up. “We are fishing in the right places.”
Hunt said, “We are aware that we have made some great strides among the Black community and Hispanic men as well as Hispanic woman.” “Now, guess what? We are not here to play catch-up but rather to nail the coffin,” Hunt said.
Kellan White is a senior advisor for the Pennsylvania Democratic Coordinated Campaign. He told Fox News, “Donald Trump was a convicted felon, who couldn’t even find a Pennsylvanian to headline this phony event.”
He said that Trump “has spent years running racist campaigns and implementing a racism agenda. And hurting Black communities whenever he had the chance as president.” Joe Biden, in stark contrast, is fighting for Pennsylvanians, especially Black Pennsylvanians, and delivering by capping insulin costs at $35 per monthly for seniors. This has created over 500,000 jobs.