Rick Wilson: GOP's rapid pivot to pushing vaccines 'smells strongly of new polling' showing dangers to party

Several high-profile Republicans this week have started actively pushing for more Americans to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.

The push comes as cases are once again surging in the United States and are resulting in an increase in hospitalizations among unvaccinated Americans.

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took the lead by encouraging Americans to get vaccinated, and he's since been followed up by conservative Republicans including Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), neither of whom can be accused of being a squishy moderate.

Additionally, Fox News hosts ranging from Steve Doocy to Sean Hannity directly implored their viewers to get vaccinated, even though Fox host Tucker Carlson has continued pushing misinformation about the vaccines.

Rick Wilson, a one-time GOP strategist who knows the ins and outs of coordinated message campaigns, said that the abrupt shift looks like Republicans are concerned about the politics of being seen as the party that's resistant to vaccines.

"This wasn't out of some sudden wake-up on the health implications," Wilson wrote on Twitter. "It smells strongly of new polling."

Earlier, Wilson said that the shift in vaccinations was like a "bat signal" going up for Republicans, and he noted that "people are tripping over their own shells to get the word out."