A senior GOP official revealed a key strategy Republicans plan to employ heading into the midterm elections, but due to a number of new factors at play this year, the strategy remains “an open question” and could very well end up backfiring, NOTUS reported Monday.
That strategy largely centers around targeting voters who backed President Donald Trump in 2024 “despite a thin voting history,” NOTUS reported. Irregular or newly participating voters were significant in the president’s 2024 victory, and Republicans are hoping to bring out similar levels of support in November.
As part of that strategy, Republicans plan to also double down on their embrace of Trump.
“In the first Trump admin, to be very frank, the other [campaign] committees would be very comfortable telling people, ‘Run away from the president,’” said a senior GOP official, speaking with NOTUS on the condition of anonymity. “Everyone’s bought in this time around. It’s just completely different.”
However, the strategy of targeting infrequent voters who backed Trump in 2024, NOTUS’ Alex Roarty suggested, carried significant "risks" given the absolute cratering of support the president has seen over the past few months, as well as his increasingly frequent attacks on members of his own party.
“Trump’s ability to motivate voters at the same level he did in 2024 is an open question. He’s not on the ballot, for one, and in recent months he’s shown a rising disdain for some congressional Republicans, threatening the party’s unity,” Roarty wrote.
“Embracing him unapologetically also risks alienating some moderate voters, especially if his approval rating remains stuck in the 30s by November. And maybe most alarmingly for Republicans, he might not have the same appeal to some of his old supporters, given that many of them backed him for economic reasons but remain anxious about the state of their finances a year and a half into his term.”
When asked about Republicans’ big bet on infrequent voters who backed Trump in 2024, Yasmin Radjy, executive director of the pro-Democratic Party organization Swing Left, dismissed the plan as a “non-factor,” NOTUS reported.
“The GOP’s ground game is a consulting revenue stream dressed up as a turnout program,” Radjy told NOTUS.