Politics

Lara Trump Tells CPAC What She’d Do As RNC Co-Chair

Lara Trump CPAC

National Harbor, Maryland — Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of former President Donald Trump, told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday that she would prioritize early voting as the co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) after receiving his endorsement for the job.

Lara Trump has frequently played a role in Donald Trump’s political operations and briefly was rumored to be a candidate for the Senate in North Carolina in 2022’s midterm election. After being publicly endorsed by Trump to become the co-chair of the RNC in the future, with Michael Whatley as RNC Chair, Lara Trump indicated that she would aggressively prioritize early voting, a component of the RNC’s “Bank Your Vote” initiative launched by incumbent RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel.

“As Republicans, I get it. We’d like to go vote on Election Day. It’s exciting to be a part of that day, deciding to fill out the ballot for the future leader of our country and can even get a little sticker and then you can take a photo posted on social media. I know that. But the truth is, if we want to compete with the Democrats, we cannot wait until election day,” Lara Trump told the crowd at CPAC, an annual gathering of American and foreign conservatives. “If we want to come in when we must embrace early voting. The days of waiting until election day to vote are over.”

Lara Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference 2024 on Feb. 22, 2024. Photo by Arjun Singh for The Daily Caller News Foundation.

“We have to encourage everyone who can legally vote to go do so as soon as they legally can. We need so many votes. We’re not playing catch up,” Lara Trump said. “On election day, you go vote and then you take your neighbor, your friend, your dentist. Heck, I don’t care if it’s someone you met on the street as long as they’re voting the right way. Every single day up to and on November 5. Because this November, every single legal vote matters.”

The “Bank Your Vote” strategy involves helping Republican voters cast their votes “as early as possible, through in-person early voting, absentee voting and ballot harvesting where legal,” according to an email the RNC sent to the DCNF. GOP candidates have strongly criticized “ballot harvesting,” a practice where absentee ballots are collected from voters by political employees and deposited at an election office or ballot drop box, but the party has now embraced the idea.

“GET RID OF BALLOT HARVESTING, IT IS RAMPANT WITH FRAUD. THE USA MUST HAVE VOTER I.D., THE ONLY WAY TO GET AN HONEST COUNT!” tweeted Donald Trump during the 2020 presidential election, when many states had permitted the practice during the COVID-19 pandemic to enable voters to vote from their homes while socially distanced. Trump further attacked ballot harvesting after he lost the general election, writing that “VOTES CANNOT BE CERTIFIED” due to “ballot harvesting.”

“We must fight fire not with fire but with dynamite, and we will build the strongest most secure election operation that this party has ever seen,” Lara Trump said. “If elected as co-chair of the RNC, I can promise you we will not be giving blank checks to career political consultants and vendors.”