DeSantis on Ukraine and Russia: He’s right…and he’s wrong. We do have a vital interest in Ukraine. The United States and their allies convinced Ukraine to give up their nuclear arsenal upon the Soviet Union’s breakup by making a guarantee to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity…its country. The world was made a safer place because of that commitment.
Russia broke its promise and attacked Ukraine, occupied their land, committed war crimes against their civilian population…including women and children…in a direct and illegal attack against a free and independent nation.
Having said that, it’s hard to disagree with much of what Governor DeSantis said, its politically nuanced and fits the America First agenda. Here is his opening statement:
“While the U.S. has many vital national interests – securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party – becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them. The Biden administration’s virtual ‘blank check’ funding of this conflict for ‘as long as it takes,’ without any defined objectives or accountability, distracts from our country’s most pressing challenges.”
No one (or few) want an endless war or blank check. But Russia must be defeated, and it must be made clear that the world will NOT tolerate such war crimes and blatant disregard for any country’s sovereignty.
We have plenty of problems that must be addressed in this county and none of them should be ignored for some frivolous international exertions…but that’s NOT the case.
Open borders, soft of crime policies, WOKE culture, a progressive war on western civilization is the problem and that battle is taking place here, in the boardrooms, school boards, and ballot boxes around the country.
It’s easy to find an outside and remote boogie man and blame many of our problems to something happening halfway around the world. But the reality is that this is in our strategic best interest to secure long term peace in Europe and let Russia and others know they can’t get way with being a bully whenever they come up with some internal political challenge or excuse to do so.
There is lots of room to read between the lines and interpret his statements in ways that can make most comfortable with what he is saying. There is also room for folks to manipulate his statements to mean something else that fits a particular political narrative, including mine.
Read his entire statement. Remember what the root problems are that we are dealing with here at home and let’s not overreact to the loudest voices without considering the strategic implications for our children and grandchildren.
You can read his complete statement here: https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1635446265692532738
Center Right Coalition Discussion: I received lots of comments on my response to President Trump’s speech at CPAC. Most positive but some concerning that I’m encouraging compromise and selling out rather than fighting on principle.
We can’t govern if we don’t win…we can’t win if we can’t garner sufficient support across our country. And we need everyone who share MOST of our values to be with us versus being scared over or bought off to the progressive/liberal side.
Take the time to read this over again…I think most will agree with the premise and want to move our party, movement, and country forward.
I repeat from last week…
The ONLY way to win elections in America is to develop a coalition of “like minded” voters who share your “general” values and you convince that it is in their best interest to vote for you.
I listened to former President Trump at CPAC this weekend and the one line that stuck in my head more than any other was the following quote:
“The Republican Party was ruled by freaks, neocons, open border zealots and fools. We’re never going back to the party of Paul Ryan, Karl Rove, and Jeb Bush.”
Maybe it’s the former state party chairman in me, or former Republican National Committee member, or former Congressional District Chairman or even College Republican Chairman in me, but that line didn’t sit well with me.
First, I respectfully disagree with that characterization. However, without what he defined as “that” party that Trump was referring to, neither he nor any other Republicans will be winning many elections.
As a Reagan baby who was lucky enough to be the youngest delegate at the 1980 Republican National Convention when Reagan was nominated, I always agreed with his perspective that if someone is with you 70% of the time, they’re with you!
No one faction on the right or the left is big enough in America to win on their own. Not only do they have to have a consensus amongst their own party, they have to be able to appeal to the independent voters as well. This isn’t necessarily a “moderate” message, it’s an inclusive, tolerant and visionary message based on values and reason…not just hype.
I’m excited about the emerging conservative leaders I see across this country. There are lots of reasons for hope that will lead to change, but only if we do it together!
Good Questions:
• Why is it when archaeologists find human remains, they always determine that they are either male or female and none of the other hundreds of genders?
• Why is it that so many are more outraged that Brittney Griner was stuck in Russia than they were about Americans being stranded in Afghanistan?
• How is it that the government can’t control gasoline prices…but the weather is something they can fix?
• We’re churning out a generation of poorly educated people with no skill, no ambition, no guidance, and no realistic expectations of what it means to go to work. —Mike Rowe
• If kids knew what they wanted to be at age eight, the world would be filled with cowboys and princesses. I wanted to be a pirate. Thank goodness nobody took me seriously and scheduled me for eye removal and peg leg surgery. —Bill Maher
• Why were we told to lower our AC usage on hot days to prevent overwhelming the electric grid while simultaneously being told to trade in our gas cars for electric vehicles?
• Why is canceling student debt a good idea? Does it make sense to reward people who do not honor their financial commitment by taxing the people who do?
• Does it make sense to cut off oil from an ally and buy it from an enemy who calls for your death?
• Are we living in a time where intelligent people are silenced so that stupid people won’t be offended?
• Is this a great description of America: Andy has left town and Barney is in charge?
• Why is talking sexually in the workplace considered sexual harassment to adults…but talking about sexuality to children K-3 at school considered education?
• Who else had a ‘ministry of truth’…Hitler…Goebbels…Stalin?
• Eliminating the production of 500,000 American barrels of oil a day to buy 500,000 barrels a day from Russia is simply…well…stupid.
• I saw a movie where only the police and military had guns; it was called Schindler’s List.
• If your electric car runs out of power on the interstate, do you walk to a charging station to get a bucket of electricity?
• Why are we running out of money for Social Security and Medicare and not for welfare, illegals, and free college?
• I just got a full tank of gas for $22. Granted, it was for my lawn mower, but I trying to stay positive.
• There is a coin shortage. America is officially out of common sense.
• If an 18-year-old isn’t mature enough to own a firearm, then maybe five year olds aren’t mature enough to change their gender
• Sign in Texas: DON’T VOTE FOR WHAT YOU FLED
• Nobody called it “Toxic Masculinity when we were saving the world.
• Mice die in mouse traps because they do not understand why the cheese is free. Just like socialism.
• The most powerful governments on earth can’t stop a virus from spreading…but they say they can change the earth’s temperature if you pay more taxes.
• Want to stop drunk drivers from killing sober drivers? Ban sober drivers from driving. That’s how gun control and COVID lockdowns work.
• If you don’t want to stand for the national anthem, perhaps you should give your legs to a veteran who lost his. That way a real man can stand in your place.
• If socialism is so good and capitalism is so bad…then why aren’t the caravans heading to Venezuela?
History is not there for us to like or dislike. It is there for us to learn from. And if it offends you, even better…because then you are less likely to repeat it. It is not anyone’s to erase…it belongs to all of us.
Read more below and follow me on Twitter & GETTR – @sanuzis
–Saul Anuzis
Click Here for Past Commentary from Saul
60 Plus Weekly Video Rewind
This Week: Mitt Romney calls out the administration for false claims that the GOP wants to cut Social Security, Biden may have a few problems with his Medicare approach, and Ted Cruz blasts the SVB bailout!
Links to the articles discussed in the video:
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The Price of Eliminating Consequences
Recently there were some remarkable online videos of a good Samaritan in Portland, Oregon, confronting shoplifters and forcing them to dump loads of their pilfered goods.
More stunning, however, was the sheer outrage—of the thieves!
They pouted. They screamed. They resisted. How dare anyone stop them from stealing anything they wished.
The criminals entertained no fear of any consequences for walking out with bags of things that were not theirs. They had no care that mainstreaming their habits would undermine the entire fabric of society.
What is common to the pandemic of smash-and-grab, carjacking, fighting on airliners while in flight, and deadly Saturday night shoot-outs is this same apparent assurance there will be no consequences.
That expectation of exemption is why the Antifa thugs in Atlanta were so bold in their latest violent attacks on the police.
And why not, after the 120 days of rioting, looting, arson, and assault in the summer of 2020, which resulted in few Antifa indictments, fewer convictions, and almost no imprisonments?
The “broken windows” theory of policing in the 1990s and 2000s showed how the failure to punish even minor infractions soon leads to escalation to more violent crimes.
The homeless take for granted that ancient rules forbidding urination, defecation, fornication, and injection on the sidewalks do not apply to them. Is it any wonder that they increasingly are not victims of circumstance but victimizers of innocent passersby?
Yet deterrence is not just eroded from the bottom up, but also from the top down—and by an elite who assume it will never be subject to the chaos it has wrought.
Cowardly Dems shy from even visiting the border — lest the facts offend
Who’s afraid of the big, bad border? House Democrats, clearly: Every Dem member flaked out of Wednesday’s Homeland Security Committee trip there, rather than face facts on the ever-growing crisis.
Ranking Dem Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) confirmed the cowardly move to the Washington Examiner, complaining that “Republicans planned to politicize this event from the start” and meant “to attack the administration and try to score political points” during testimony by the likes of US Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz.
Yet partisanship’s a regular feature of all hearings — and scoring points is easier when your opponents don’t even show.
Planning started last month, with Dems requesting and getting a witness of their choice, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.
The minority party could have used the trip to defend the administration’s approach and pitch members’ own border solutions — if they had any.
Does AARP Really Represent Seniors?
Washington is full of groups that claim to represent the interests of the American people. Some have lots of members, which makes them formidable actors in the ongoing effort to craft public policy.
Among the most powerful is AARP (formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons), which has developed a network of politically active seniors who vote and who defend their benefits zealously. That makes them a group the politicians fear, which gives them outsized influence on issues like health care.
According to a new report, what the group seems to be may not be what it is. “How AARP Puts Profits over Patients and Principles,” issued by a conservative nonprofit called American Commitment, says that rather than being a genuine grassroots lobby organization, AARP’s ties to the health insurance industry have turned into something like a corporate influence operation working to sway the decisions of Capitol Hill lawmakers.
Many times, the report says, AARP has done things that create apparent conflicts of interest between the needs of the people the group claims to represent.
“If AARP were an honest broker for seniors, they would have acknowledged, and likely fought against, Democrats’ budgeting ruse allowing them to raid $280 billion from the supposed Medicare savings in the IRA,” wrote economist Stephen Moore in National Review. “Billions were instead diverted to fund subsidies for non-Medicare health care policies paid to big insurers.”
Critics of price controls on pharmaceuticals allege they will discourage future research and innovation which in turn will eventually cause the quality of care available to seniors to diminish over coming years.
Trump vs. DeSantis: Rivals’ very different styles on display
In his first trip to Iowa this year, Ron DeSantis did not take any questions from voters. He ignored the local press. He avoided the diners, pizza parlors and ice cream shops that have helped presidential contenders in the leadoff voting state showcase their personal appeal and charisma for decades.
For DeSantis, a leading Republican presidential prospect, it was simply business as usual.
The hard-charging Florida governor has emerged as a potent force in national politics while eschewing the personal connections, intimate moments and unscripted questions that have long fueled successful White House bids in the states that sit atop the presidential primary calendar. And as DeSantis begins to introduce himself to primary voters in the weeks leading up to his expected announcement, he is showing little interest in changing his ways.
Allies insist he doesn’t need to adjust anything, pointing to his dominant 19-point reelection victory last fall. But already, his Republican rivals — led by former President Donald Trump — are working to highlight the governor’s go-it-alone approach and impersonal style by leaning into their own personal interactions on the campaign trail.
Is Ron DeSantis Flaming Out Already?
The Florida governor has a plan to win the Fox News primary—and lose everything else.
lorida governor Ron DeSantis has long sought to avoid taking a position on Russia’s war in Ukraine. On the eve of the Russian invasion, 165 Florida National Guard members were stationed on a training mission in Ukraine. They were evacuated in February 2022 to continue their mission in neighboring countries. When they returned to Florida in August, DeSantis did not greet them. He has not praised, or even acknowledged, their work in any public statement.
DeSantis did find time, however, to admonish Ukrainian officials in October for not showing enough gratitude to new Twitter owner Elon Musk. (Musk returned the favor by endorsing DeSantis for president.) On tour this month to promote his new book, DeSantis has clumsily evaded questions about the Russian invasion. When a reporter for The Times of London pressed the governor, DeSantis scolded him: “Perhaps you should cover some other ground? I think I’ve said enough.”
Even his allies found this medley of past hawkishness and present evasiveness worrying—especially because he was on record, in 2014 and 2015, urging the Obama administration to send both “defensive and offensive” weapons to Ukraine after the Russian annexation of Crimea. So last night, DeSantis delivered a more definitive answer on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show.
DeSantis’s statement on Ukraine was everything that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his admirers could have wished for from a presumptive candidate for president. The governor began by listing America’s “vital interests” in a way that explicitly excluded NATO and the defense of Europe. He accepted the present Russian line that Putin’s occupation of Ukraine is a mere “territorial dispute.” He endorsed “peace” as the objective without regard to the terms of that peace, another pro-Russian talking point. He conceded the Russian argument that American aid to Ukraine amounts to direct involvement in the conflict. He endorsed and propagated the fantasy—routinely advanced by pro-Putin guests on Fox talk shows—that the Biden administration is somehow plotting “regime change” in Moscow.
Leftist Groups Tapping $1 Billion to Vastly Expand the Private Financing of Public Elections
Democrats and their progressive allies are vastly expanding their unprecedented efforts, begun in 2020, to use private money to influence and run public elections.
Supported by groups with more than $1 billion at their disposal, according to public records, these partisan groups are working with state and local boards to influence functions that have long been the domain of government or political parties.
Registering and turning out voters – once handled primarily by political parties – and design of election office websites and mail-in ballots are being handed over to those same nonprofits, which oare staffed by progressive activists that include former Democratic Party advocates, organized labor adherents and community organizers.
Republicans have opposed such efforts, passing legislation in 24 states since 2020 curbing the private financing of elections. But the GOP does not have a comparable, boots-on-the-ground effort to influence election boards and workers, and the private-funding bans haven’t proved absolute in some states.
“There is a cottage industry of 501c3s in public policy and in the political arena, trying to shape the future of immigration or education or any other topic,” said Kimberly Fiorello, a former Republican state representative in Connecticut. “Increasingly they are about elections, election administration, election technology, ballot design, and all with big funding. These groups seem innocuous, but they aren’t innocuous because they are funded by one political side.”
Invisible Primary: Visible — Running for 2024
Thoughts on the invisible primary and links to the goings on of the moment as 2024 approaches…
Ron DeSantis staked out a position yesterday on the Ukraine war, calling it “not a key US interest.” That places him closer to Donald Trump’s position on the issue than other Republicans officially in the race or seemingly running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. This is not an insignificant part of the invisible primary. In a battle among participants with the same letter (R) next to their names, carving out a differentiated, if not unique, position can be important as candidates jockey for support among the primary electorate.
But something Maggie Haberman of the New York Times tweeted in the context of this story highlighted a continued misunderstanding about the progression of the invisible primary:
And after avoiding talking about foreign policy for weeks, including at the Reagan Library in any expansive way, DeSantis weighing in is tantamount to acknowledging his presidential campaign is in the offing
A presidential candidacy is very much about the rollout and the announcement. Those things matter. But DeSantis weighing in on Ukraine is not “tantamount to acknowledging his presidential campaign is in the offing.” It is not. Not in and of itself anyway. Now, that is not to say that the Florida governor’s candidacy is not in this gray area between a lot of people, elite Republicans, media folks and otherwise, saying he is running (or will run) and a formal announcement. It is. And this Ukraine position is another datapoint in that gray area. But it is one datapoint among many — travel, a warchest busting at the seams, meaningful donors lining up behind him, etc. — that all point in basically the same direction: DeSantis is running. He is running and has been running for the 2024 Republican nomination. And he is very well positioned because of polling (to this point) and all the other relevant metrics mentioned above to be running in 2024 as well.
There is no need to dance around that reality. That is how it works.
Modern monetary myths: Debunking the fallacies that lead to economic failure
The story of Silicon Valley Bank’s failure should be a cautionary tale about the consequences of ignoring sound money principles. In December 2020, the Federal Reserve said that it expected its interest rate to remain at 0.1 percent through 2023. Today, rates are set at 4.5 percent. That rapid mismatch crushed SVB and will likely crush other banks.
Relying on the Fed’s representations regarding low interest rates, SVB invested in Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities. If interest rates were low, these assets—which yield around 2.5 percent—constitute sound investments. When interest rates are high, these assets are no longer desirable because higher yielding products are available.
When SVB faced a surge in withdrawals, it was forced to liquidate Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities at substantial discounts to generate cash. These very public losses made even very sophisticated customers lose confidence in SVB’s capitalization, precipitating the run.
While the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has intervened to mitigate the SVB fallout, Congress and regulators must take steps to prevent these failures from happening in the first place. The critical first step is to debunk the economic fallacies that have gained traction in recent years. Proponents of these myths believe that we can ignore sound money principles to achieve economic growth or avoid economic pain. They could not be more wrong.
Perhaps the most popular—and bipartisan—myth is that deficits do not matter. Proponents claim that the government can continue to spend beyond its means without consequence because the government can simply print money to make up the difference. This claim is simply untrue. When Congress increases spending, the Federal Reserve responds by increasing the money supply by purchasing treasury bonds from the open market. This simultaneously increases the money supply, and soaks up the supply of federal bonds, so that the government can issue new treasuries to finance deficit spending. Federal deficit spending ends with inflation.
Blame Biden’s spending, not depositors, for bank failures
It is impossible to know what would have happened had Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Martin Gruenberg not announced on Sunday that they would guarantee all depositors’ assets at the Silicon Valley Bank, including accounts greater than $250,000.
The purpose of the depositor bailout was to stop a wider run on regional banks. Depositors might have reacted by moving assets to larger, safer institutions. Bank of America alone has reported a $15 billion surge in deposits this week. Undoubtedly that number would be much higher, and far more regional banks would be in trouble, if not for this intervention.
CONGRESS MUST PROTECT FAITH-BASED SERVICE PROVIDERS
Was prevention of a wider bank run worth the creation of new incentives for large depositors not to manage their own money properly? That is difficult to judge. But what can be safely said is that the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Silvergate Bank are not anomalies.
First Republic Bank, PacWest Bancorp, Western Alliance, and even Zions Bank have all seen their stocks fall as markets freshly assess the health of their balance sheets. These banks are not all suddenly in trouble because they made bad loans or invested in fraudulent mortgage-backed securities. It would be one thing if Silicon Valley Bank had lent to risky green energy companies that suddenly went bankrupt and defaulted on their loans. But that is not what happened. SVB went under because it invested in what regulators consider the safest asset possible, long-term U.S. Treasury bonds, yet made the rookie mistake of not hedging this investment against the higher interest rates that nearly everyone saw coming.
Russia’s secret document for destabilizing Moldova
Yahoo News obtains Putin’s strategic plan for promoting Russian interests in Ukraine’s next-door neighbor.
On Friday, John Kirby, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, made a surprise announcement at a White House press briefing. U.S. intelligence, he said, had determined that the Kremlin was plotting to topple another European democracy. “Russian actors, some with current ties to Russian intelligence, are seeking to stage and use protests in Moldova as a basis to foment a manufactured insurrection against the Moldovan government,” Kirby declared.
As if on schedule, Moldova experienced an antigovernment demonstration on Sunday, just two days later. Thousands of people waving the blue, yellow and red Moldovan flag marched through the streets of downtown Chisinau, the capital, past the national Parliament and executive building. “Down with Maia Sandu!” they chanted, referring to Moldova’s outspokenly pro-European president.
Local police arrested 54 demonstrators for violating public order, almost half of them minors. Police also alleged that four bomb threats were made throughout the country, one at the international airport. The Moldovan Border Police, meanwhile, said it had stopped a suspected mercenary from the Wagner Group from entering the country in a week in which 181 other foreigners tried to do likewise.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin’s geopolitical ambitions for Moldova go far beyond such protests.
Yahoo News has obtained an internal strategy document from Putin’s Presidential Administration that reveals Moscow’s plans for Moldova, the small country vulnerably sandwiched between war-torn Ukraine and a member of NATO and the European Union, Romania. The document is part of a reporting collaboration with European news organizations: Delfi Estonia, the Swedish newspaper Expressen, the London-based Dossier Center, the Kyiv Independent, Rise Moldova, Frontstory, VSquare, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) and Norddeutscher Rundfunk.
60 percent of Americans think China is a bigger threat than Russia
Around six in 10 Americans in a new poll think China is a bigger threat to the United States than Russia amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijjing, and against the backdrop of Russia’s ongoing, year-long war on Ukraine.
A Quinnipiac University survey presented respondents with six countries to choose from, and 61 percent of respondents picked China as the top threat to the U.S.
There was a dropoff between the share of respondents who picked China and the 22 percent of respondents who said Russia poses the biggest threat.
A greater percentage of Republicans (79 percent) than Democrats (47 percent) said China was the biggest threat — while a greater share of Democrats (38 percent) than Republicans (10 percent) picked Russia.
The poll, conducted in early March, comes a few weeks after the U.S. shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon that defense officials say flew over sensitive American military sites — and amid State Department concerns that China could supply Russia with lethal aid in its war on Ukraine.
Ron DeSantis has a Florida problem
The governor and presidential hopeful has a ‘huge advantage’ in his home state that could ultimately hurt his electability.
Ron DeSantis would seem to have everything going for him in the Republican presidential primary. There’s just one small question: Will the good vibes now result in election doom later?
As the Florida governor cast out to early nominating states in recent days, even some of his supporters could see a problem brewing for him back home. Lawmakers in his home state are advancing controversial bills on gender and diversity policy — base-pleasing issues for Republicans, but a potential liability in a general election. And on one cultural issue that did hurt Republicans in the midterm elections — abortion — DeSantis is going even further to the right, preparing to sign a bill banning the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape and incest if victims offer proof of a crime.
“Wow,” said Amy Tarkanian, a former chair of the Republican Party in Nevada, where DeSantis traveled over the weekend. “A lot of people don’t even know they’re pregnant at six weeks. I’m pro-life, but that’s pretty extreme.”
GOP lawmakers cringe over Trump’s effort to destroy DeSantis
Senate Republicans are wincing over former President Trump’s early barrage of attacks against his chief rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), fearing they’re seeing a preview of a brutal primary to come that could leave both candidates weakened heading into the general election.
GOP lawmakers acknowledge DeSantis needs to show he can take a punch and aren’t shocked Trump would take hard shots at a rival as the campaign heats up.
But some are surprised the former president is unloading such a heavy barrage before DeSantis is even in the race, and they worry that getting into a year-long mudslinging battle with Trump isn’t good look for the party heading into 2024.
“I winced in 2016 and I’m wincing now,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) when asked about Trump’s hardball tactics. “That’s just because that’s not my style.
“I don’t think you’ll ever take the New York style out of Donald Trump. It’s too much to ask, he’s a fully-baked cake,” she said.
Trump and GOP attempt to reverse course on mail-in voting ahead of 2024
After years of claiming mail-in voting is rife with fraud, some Republicans – including former President Donald Trump – are working to reverse course ahead of next year’s consequential presidential and congressional elections.
Trump, now waging his third White House bid, told attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this month that it’s time to “change our thinking” on early and mail-in voting. And in speeches and fundraising emails, he’s touting his campaign’s plans to encourage “ballot harvesting,” the practice of allowing third parties to collect and turn in other voters’ ballots. His party, he said, has “no choice” but to beat “Democrats at their own game.”
That’s a stark reversal for a politician who last November issued an all-caps declaration on his Truth Social account alleging, in part, “YOU CAN NEVER HAVE FAIR & FREE ELECTIONS WITH MAIL-IN BALLOTS – NEVER, NEVER, NEVER.”
The change in tone and message reflects the view among party strategists that Trump’s relentless and false claims about election fraud in 2020 and the harsh GOP rhetoric about a form of voting used widely in key battleground states, such as Arizona, contributed to the party’s disappointing midterm results. And they fear it could endanger GOP hopes of capturing the White House and other offices next year.
“It’s a Republican-created problem among Republicans,” said Paul Bentz, a GOP pollster in Phoenix.
A majority of GOP voters in Arizona still cast ballots early, he said, but a “sizable portion has shifted their behavior back to voting in person at a polling place on Election Day.”
Trump, he said, has “effectively suppressed a portion of his own base of support.”
Republican officials around the country now are scrambling to figure out how to change voters’ attitudes before the 2024 election cycle kicks into high gear. A Republican National Committee review of the midterm elections is expected to focus, in part, on ways to encourage early balloting among the GOP faithful. And in Pennsylvania, a presidential battleground state that saw Democrats make gains in the midterms, state GOP officials recently launched several committees to explore ways to catch up to Democrats’ mail-in voting advantage.
