Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

RONNA MCDANIEL: Want To Win In 2024? Vote Early

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We have to face the facts: we no longer have “Election Day” in America. We have an election season, with many states having weeks of early voting that rely heavily on mail-in ballots. California is one of those states. Republicans in California and across the country understand that if we want to be competitive in 2024 and beyond, we need to take advantage of every possible window to cast our votes. That’s where the RNC’s Bank Your Vote initiative comes in. Bank Your Vote is the RNC’s campaign to educate our voters on how, where, and when to cast their votes early either in person or by mail. Earlier this week, we launched Bank Your Vote in the Golden State. As 2024 approaches, we’re going to turn out voters across California to protect and flip key Congressional seats and power Republican victories.

The RNC’s Bank Your Vote California leadership team illustrates just how important this program is to the Republican party. Featuring Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, California’s entire Republican congressional delegation, and California GOP Chairwoman Jessica Milan Patterson, this group of conservative leaders can effectively lead the charge to align our political strategy around voting early. RNC Members Harmeet Dhillon and Shawn Steel are also leading the charge to make this important shift happen in the Golden State.

To be clear, the RNC did take advantage of ballot harvesting and early voting in California in 2022. Two weeks ahead of Election Day in November 2022, RNC Data worked closely with the California GOP and Rep. John Duarte’s campaign to identify 18,000 strong Republican voters who hadn’t voted yet despite a wide window of early voting. We shifted our strategy to repeatedly contact those voters as Election Day approached to make sure we took full advantage of California’s early voting rules. Crucially, the RNC also worked closely with the California GOP to ballot harvest and ensure that Republican votes made it to the ballot box in time to be counted. California Republicans grew their total number of pre-election day voters by 34% compared to 2018 and Congressman Duarte won by just 564 votes. California is a perfect example of a “blue” state that holds plenty of key Republican opportunities – the congressional seats we won in California in 2022 helped flip the House and showed that every vote matters.

This is the kind of effort that we’re going to replicate across California and across the country. It is time for Republicans to adapt to the changing landscape of electoral politics. If we don’t, we are ceding territory to Democrats that we won’t be able to get back. Is there any doubt in your mind that Democrats will take advantage of every opportunity to vote by mail and vote early? Republicans in California and nationwide cannot solely wait until election day to cast a ballot. Life happens: what if there’s a storm, or a family emergency, or some other unintended issue that complicates getting to the polls? Vote early and vote with confidence that you did your part to elect Republican candidates. To use a sports metaphor, don’t wait until the fourth quarter to start putting points on the board.

Crucially, Bank Your Vote only works if we Protect Your Vote, and the RNC has done unprecedented work to build a nationwide election integrity program. We put tens of thousands of poll watchers and poll workers on the ground during the 2022 midterms and filed 100 election integrity lawsuits; we will replicate those efforts as we look ahead to 2024. You can Bank Your Vote knowing that we have volunteers and attorneys monitoring the process to ensure that it’s fair and honest.

Take it from the RNC. Take it from Speaker McCarthy. Take it from Senator Ron Johnson, a leading member of the RNC’s Bank Your Vote Wisconsin team. If we don’t vote early, we are giving Democrats a massive advantage, and we can’t afford to let Democrats keep running our country into the ground. Californians: Bank Your Vote to make Joe Biden a one-term President.

Ronna McDaniel is the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.