“If a candidate thinks they lost because of their policy positions, then the path forward for them for a future candidacy is to change their policy positions,” she said. In a state as competitive as Pennsylvania, almost anything can tip the balance in favor of one party or the other, and it’s often impossible to isolate any one factor as determinative, she said.īut Niebler said focusing on voting methods does enable Republicans to avoid introspection about their lackluster midterm showing. So it’s not clear how much this tactical change might help Republicans win future races, said Sarah Niebler, a political science professor at Dickinson College. Just 1.2 million ballots, or 23%, cast in the gubernatorial race in November were from no-excuse mail-in ballots. Roughly 5.3 million Pennsylvania voters cast a ballot for statewide races this past November, but the 2022 midterm saw the lowest rate of mail ballots cast compared to past elections. While this new America First strategy means turning on Republican voters to mail voting, that effort might be exerting a lot of energy for little reward. “We’re going to have to do the mail-in voting.” These GOP figures haven’t abandoned their ultimate goal of banning mail-in voting or their opposition to ballot collection, pejoratively called "ballot harvesting." But they’re starting to say that, as long as these voting methods are allowed, their party must use them to win.Įven Bradford County Commissioner Doug McLinko, who spent more than a year battling in court to overturn Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting act, believes Republicans should take advantage of the law while it’s still in place. Kelly maintained a significant fundraising and television ad spending advantage throughout the campaign.His support for legal ballot collection - which he believes could increase GOP voter turnout - echoes a broader messaging change among Republicans who are smarting from last year’s midterm losses and searching for lessons they can carry into this year’s election and the 2024 presidential contest. He said when he was first elected, he realized Democrats "don't understand" the immigration issue at the border and Republicans just want to politicize the topic. While Masters navigated his loyalty to Trump, Kelly tried to distance himself from Mr. "If everyone followed the law, President Trump would be in the Oval Office," Masters said on FOX News. "Kari is winning with very little money, and if they say, 'How is your family," she says, "The election was rigged and stolen.' You'll lose if you go soft, you're going to lose that base," Trump was seen telling Masters on Tucker Carlson Originals, which has been following Masters' campaign.Ī week after the debate, Masters was back on Fox News, saying he still believes if there had been a free and fair election, Trump would be in office today. He compared Masters unfavorably to GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake. Instead, he blamed "big tech and big media" for "censor the Hunter Biden crime story," and putting their "thumb on the scale to get Joe Biden in there."Īfterward, Trump called Masters and told him his answer on the 2020 election was "soft" and could cost him Senate race. Biden was legitimately elected president and acknowledged there was no evidence that the 2020 elections were rigged, in a pivot to the middle. In the lone Senate debate before the election, Masters expressed more moderate views about the 2020 election, saying for the first time that Mr. He also dropped language from his site suggesting Trump had won the 2020 election. After the primary, Masters began making a play for these voters, editing his campaign website to soften his language on issues like abortion, gun control, immigration, and the 2020 election. Republican operatives in Arizona told CBS News that Masters might not be able to attract enough moderate voters to win in November. Biden on immigration, arguing that unlike most Democrats who favored ending the use of Title 42 - a Trump era policy that allowed the government to deport migrants at the border because of the COVID-19 pandemic - he had opposed ending it without first coming up with a comprehensive border response. Kelly appealed to moderate voters, pointing out that he had stood up to Mr. And he also attempted to tie Kelly to President Biden's low favorability in the state. High gas prices and rising inflation handed Masters a line of attack against Kelly. Kelly's campaign relied on abortion rights to energize base Democratic voters, but the economy and inflation were top concerns for many general-election voters in Arizona. During the primary, Masters leaned into a far-right racist conspiracy known as the "great replacement theory," which claims that Democrats are supporting illegal immigration because they want to use people of color to subvert the power of white voters.
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