A new report commissioned by the Republican National Committee and detailed by The Washington Post on Tuesday highlights how Trump-backed GOP obsessions with rigged elections cost them winnable races — and recommended that Republicans continue to double down on it.
"A new internal report prepared by the Republican National Committee proposes creating a permanent infrastructure in every state to ramp up 'election integrity' activities in response to perceptions within GOP ranks of widespread fraud and abuse in the way the country selects its leaders," reported Amy Gardner and Isaac Arnsdorf. "The report, prepared by the RNC’s 'National Election Integrity Team' ... suggests building a massive new party organization involving state-level “election integrity officers” and intensive new training models for poll workers and observers — all based on unsubstantiated claims that Democrats have implemented election procedures that allow for rigged votes."
This comes even in spite of the fact that the document acknowledges that Trump's "Big Lie" created needless challenges for the GOP in getting their voters to the polls.
"The report also acknowledges that the GOP’s obsession with election fraud has cost the party, most notably in 2021, when mistrust in elections contributed to a drop in Republican turnout in two U.S. Senate runoffs in Georgia, costing the party its Senate majority," said the Post. "The report concludes that the party must continue building on efforts begun after that electoral disaster to restore Republican faith in their elections. But instead of combating misinformation about fraud, the report encourages the recruitment of staff and volunteers to monitor elections and the development of more aggressive legal strategies to 'hold election officials accountable for violating the law.'" The report said that, “If there is corruption in the election infrastructure, then having Republicans in the system will expose many issues.”
Some Republicans who lost their elections in 2022 have still refused to concede their own races, most notably Trump-backed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who has filed lawsuits to try to overturn the results. She is now the subject of a criminal complaint to the attorney general after tweeting out uncensored ballot signatures, which is a possible violation of Arizona law.
All of this comes as GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel won another term after a contentious challenge by Trump attorney Harmeet Dhillon, who helped file lawsuits challenging 2020 results.
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