Fresh off his newest Newsmax op-ed, President John Pudner set off on his latest radio tour across our Republic to not only analyze the current state of the race for the White House, with former President Trump ahead by one against President Biden, but well within the margin of error, in national poll consensus, but how one specific part of campaign efforts for candidates across our Republic up and down the ticket will likely determine the fate of all - Get Out The Early Vote efforts.
Beginning in Florence, South Carolina, a state that will be key if Republicans contend to keep and grow their one-seat majority in Congress, Pudner joined host Ken Ard, former Lt. Governor of South Carolina, to discuss the widely held concerns by many lead conservative strategists of the Democrat Party's superiority in early voting efforts, the need for the Republican Party to adapt towards an already present future, and ways candidates can improve their infrastructure toward banking as many votes as possible.
But as Pudner states, what may be the most important aspect of this evolution, though, is the need for candidates and key figures across the conservative spectrum to repeatedly encourage early voting and, more importantly, warn against theories that discourage voters due to concerns about election fraud. While some candidates have made some needed changes in messaging, with former President Trump expressing confidence in early voting in a recent visit to Wisconsin and US Senate candidate Kari Lake now working to organize early voting for this year’s election after previously decrying such efforts in 2022, more must be done to not only restore voter confidence, but for conservative candidates across our Republic to not have to play the proverbial 28-3 Super Bowl on the big day this November.
For more in-depth analysis by President John Pudner on this topic, please click here. To learn more about TBOR Action's efforts on topics including election integrity, please click here.
The following transcript from this interview is presented in its entirety with minor edits:
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Republicans, early vote, concerned, election, margin, populist, party, Trump
SPEAKERS
Ken Ard and TBOR Action President John Pudner
Ken Ard 00:00
I've been optimistically talking about some of the polling data that came out yesterday, and it substantiates some of the early polling that shows Trump in the lead, consistently in the lead, some inside the margin of error, some outside the margin of error, I'm particularly encouraged by Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia. So, the wind seems to be blowing in favor of Donald Trump. Look at some of the data on immigration, on inflation, it's very much in Trump's corner. One concern a lot of Republicans have is the Democrat's superiority to getting out of the vote. I mean, that seems to be where a lot of people are generally, and genuinely, concerned about if the Republicans understand that this is no longer a single day affair and it's election semester instead of Election Day, and I, as a former elected official in the Republican Party, have always been concerned about the underperformance of my party in getting out the vote. We have with us this morning the President of Take Back Our Republic Action, a Bush 2000 aide, and the only person in US history to run a campaign defeating a majority leader in a primary, John Pudner. John, good morning, how are you?
John Pudner 01:17
Good. Thanks for having me on!
Ken Ard 01:19
So John, I've highlighted some of the places I think Republicans can be optimistic about Trump's chances, but I'm still concerned, as many other Republicans are, about the Democrat's superiority and understanding that this is a period of time, not a day, of which we try and win an election. Do you share that concern?
John Pudner 01:41
I do. Republicans have rolled up huge margins in the last two elections on traditional Election Day voting, but the only two places they get beat are college campuses on Election Day, and then early voting, where the margins have been huge. I mean, in Pennsylvania and Georgia, by hundreds of thousands of votes, Democrats have had ahead starting on Election Day 2022. If you get that margin in half, the US Senate would have been Republican, you just can't lose Pennsylvania by 600,000 before Election Day, and Michigan by 340,000, and Georgia by 200,000. Herschel Walker would have run without a runoff just southwest of you, so that's the whole game right now.
Ken Ard 02:25
So how do we change? I mean, what do we do? Are we in the process? We've put new leadership at the RNC, some like it, some don't care much for it, but fundamentally, infrastructure-wise, what needs to happen for us to play on equal footing with the Democrats?
John Pudner 02:41
Well, it really is in clear sight. The all-time bellwether state was Florida, but there's a reason it's not - Republicans won the early vote there by 300,000 votes. This isn't inherently that Republicans can't vote early. It does seem like Republicans are more open to voting early in-person, so that can be the big push, you don't have to convince people to put their ballot in the mail if they're concerned about that, but just about every state now does have early in-person, so they've shown in Florida that they can do it, and in other states, Nevada and Wisconsin, it was basically almost a 50/50 draw last time, and those end up with splits, witht the Senate and Governor races going in different directions. The formula is there but you just have to bank the votes.
Ken Ard 03:26
John, are you concerned? I read a lot from William Doyle, watched the Dinesh D'Souza 2000 Mules documentary, I was not as impressed with that as I was some of the work Doyle did down in Texas, on the statistical anomalies of 2020. The COVID election, the unsolicited mail-in ballots, the drop boxes, the ballot harvesting. Should we be as concerned in 2024 now that we're past COVID, and hopefully get back to a more traditional election cycle, or do you anticipate the Democrats try some of the similar tactics?
John Pudner 04:01
Well, I get hated by both sides on this, because I say there always is cheating, and rules were rigged, clearly rigged, but I don't say stolen, though. I think the danger is some of the theories, like the machines just changing an endless number of votes, that just discourages Republicans from voting, but steps have been taken to tighten. I mean, they're far fewer drop boxes, for example, there's one outside one voting place that can be monitored. I mean, Utah has shown you can do that, as opposed to having them all over the city and everywhere else. Some rules have really been changed, and President Trump was in Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago, and made that comment that no, he think he's gonna win because there have been a lot of tightening of rules. So yes, have to be wary, we've always had to monitor for cheating, it doesn't take that many bad apples, but a lot of steps have been taken. I think it's gonna me a much better year, and, to your point, you don't have ridiculous things like Nevada mailing ballots, live ballots, to everyone on a voter list, which was not cleaned up at all. I mean, those are the kinds of things that just cost you tens of thousands of votes.
Ken Ard 05:11
Last question, I want to get your take on this, and answer as politely or not as you'd like. You were a Bush 2000 aide. This party now has a large populist strain. It's a little bit different standing on foreign policy. We have a lot of those debates here and hear from a lot of different sorts of people. Does it concern, alarm, bother you that this party seems to be changing, evolving into a different sort of party when it comes to foreign policy?
John Pudner 05:39
Well, parties are never static. I think we had to toughen up on China. That was the best populist change is to not pretend China's our friend, not to say you have to work with them sometimes, but I think we had to have a populist streal for Republicans to keep winning. The old coalition wasn't big enough, and that's where Trump really did save the party, because he brought in populism, and that was one way to go, and that's what has kept the party competitive. So, certainly, any pendulum can swing a little too far in certain things, but overall, I think it's good for the party to become more populist.
Ken Ard 06:18
Well explained. John, thank you for your time, sir. Have a great day.