Republican officials are worried that former President Donald Trump's recent 2024 presidential campaign appearance in New Hampshire will deter GOP voters from participating in early in-person voting, Bloomberg reports.
During his campaign speech, Trump mentioned that he hopes "someday" the U.S. will be more like New Hampshire and go "back to “be back to doing it the way it’s supposed to be: one-day voting.” According to Bloomberg, New Hampshire is only one of four states that does not offer early voting.
While states such as Ohio, Texas and Virginia move towards cutting the length of early voting periods or ending the tactic all together, other GOP leaders across the country see the importance of adapting the strategy.
“When you stick all of your eggs in the basket of in-person voting on a single day, you set yourself up for problems,” said GOP strategist Ford O’Connell.
Likewise, during the recent RNC chair election, Chair-elect Ronna McDaniel and former RNC Vice Chairwoman Harmeet Dillon both asserted that their party should "embrace" the idea "despite Trump's opposition" in order to defeat Democratic opponents.
Dhillon, who ran for chair against McDaniel said, “We have differences of opinion in the party. I’ve come around to the position that we need to be voting as early as possible, everywhere legal in the country.”
Reinforcing the party's desire to beat Democrats after suffering midterm election losses, Wisconsin GOP Chair Brian Schimming agrees with Dhillon and says he's "trying to sell the advantages of Republicans voting early to skeptical activists."
Schimming believes his GOP allies see the benefit of early voting, and added that he, himself, will be voting early by mail in his state's upcoming Supreme Court justice election. “I think there’s a sea change on early voting,” he said.
Robert Cahaly, a GOP consultant would like his respective party "to be pragmatic in its approach," and consider "all of the methods" of voting.
Referencing professional baseball, Cahaly said, “It’s just accepting the rules of the game, even if you don’t like them. If you play in the National League, you might not like the designated hitter rule, but it’s there, and you’d better learn to win with it.”
