Continuing on his latest radio tour, President John Pudner headed south to McAllen, Texas, just a few dozen miles from the southern border, to dissect the current state of the race and how early voting will make a decisive impact before November, but more pertinently, how a new regime heading the RNC, as well as major candidates within the GOP, have all seen the same writing on the wall - candidates must begin to play by the current rules of the game.
As Pudner witnessed firsthand, this comes after a nearly year-long effort to replace the top brass within the party, replacing former chair Ronna Romney McDaniel with Michael Whatley, former leader of North Carolina's GOP, with Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of former President Trump, joining as co-chair and Chris LaCavita, a former Trump campaign senior adviser and longtime friend of Pudner, as it’s Chief of Staff.
These changes has already begun to bear fruit and meaningful changes in party stances. For one, Chairman Whatley has begun aggressively pushing early voting efforts to donors and leadership, Co-Chair Trump announced ballot harvesting efforts in key battleground states to “play that game”, and the RNC just recently launched VotePro, a new free GOTV tool to be used nationwide and specifically designed to aide in these efforts. Correspondingly, Ohio’s recent primary saw a 7.3% increase in early voting turnout and Vince Fong win his Congressional Special Election in California's 20th District on May 21st.
However, as Pudner discusses with host Sergio Sanchez, a former county GOP chair, there is still widespread animus on leadership, but as both note and analyze, it seems the party has begun to finally make the necessary changes to adapt to the new world of campaign politics.
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
Early vote, Republicans, leadership, Democrats, win, same-day registration
SPEAKERS
Sergio Sanchez and TBOR Action President John Pudner
Sergio Sanchez 00:00
The secret to Republican victory in 2024 and some say it's hiding in plain sight. John Pudner, president of Take Back Our Republic Action. What's the secret, John?
John Pudner 00:14
Well, the secret is we went into Election Day in Pennsylvania down 600,000 early votes and we went in Florida up 300,000 early votes, so we just need to get some early voting, whether it's in-person, doesn't have to be mall-in, but that's the only way the Democrats went now is a huge early vote edge, and then voting on college campuses with same day registration. Other than that, Republicans wins.
Sergio Sanchez 00:37
What do you make of the polling data from New York Times that says Trump is up five out of six of those swing states, beating Joe Biden in polling data. What do you make of that number?
John Pudner 00:52
He definitely looks strong now. I look at polling data, and then, I look at the voting rules in a state, and those are the two things I really consider. And, the problem is just Michigan and Pennsylvania, where they gutted their Voter ID law in Michigan, so neither state has that, they both have same day registration, they can do huge on campus turnout, and those two states, combined, Democrats had an almost million vote edge going into Election Day last time, so we just need some early vote effort, because the other rules are against us in those two states, and that's what it's gonna take. We can do it, Florida's done it.
Sergio Sanchez 01:28
Which begs the question, John, I know your well connected and talking to people behind the scenes on the election effort, so is the revamped new leadership and new Republican National Committee working with the state offices in those states? Are they getting the vote out, first registering people to vote, getting a ground game...do we have armies in those six states specifically to get people registered and then push the vote? Does that exist right now?
John Pudner 02:02
Definitely has been improved. The disadvantage always is there's so many more liberal nonprofits turning people out, whether that's Planned Parenthood in one state, or a million others, and that's where all the Soros money gives them a turnout edge. They just have tax deductible contributions going to nonprofits. They really don't do everything through the Democratic Party, they do it through all these liberal groups, and so that's where they're always gonna have more people on the ground where they just have more money to pay people on the ground. But, it's definitely been a big improvement for Republicans, where they only have to stay close in early voting, you don't have to win it. So, I think they're doing enough there under the new leadership.
Sergio Sanchez 02:42
Money can buy a workforce. I mean, the Republicans are supposed to be the party of the rich and business. You figure leadership at the national level would be burnin' those phones and getting people to, "Here's the team in Michigan, here's a team in Pennsylvania, and we're gonna hire people, go out and register at gas stations, where the price is through the roof, we're going to set up outside Piggly Wiggly, or whatever the name of their supermarkets is, and we're going to reach out to people outside, where they're not happy with the price of food, go to key places where people are spending through the nose because of Bidenflation, or maybe go to neighborhoods, or their community centers, or their schools, or other places used by local authorities using local dollars to pay for illegal immigration that they have adopted in their community, go register the vote there where it counts." This is a radio guy in South Texas brainstorming this stuff. It doesn't take a genius to figure this out. Where's the Republican National Committee and the sane people hiring these people with deep pockets I know they have? Where are they, John Pudner?
John Pudner 03:50
You know, the party, of course, has become more populist, but just give you a feel. In one battleground state, the new report came out for the first quarter where the Democrats did raise $5 million and the Republicans $400,000. I mean, there's such a money disparity on the left now, and I think partly it's just standing up to China in recent years, and some things, but to give you another feel in that same state, Planned Parenthood and liberal groups are paying people $29 and hour to knock on doors, where pro-life groups are paying people $15 an hour. They just don't have enough money. It's not that the pro-life canvasser are going to knock for the other side, but just they might go waiter or waitress instead. That's where the money hurts you even in the ground game, and it's not that people just want to do the advocacy for money, it's just that, you know, they have to figure out what their main job is, and are they just volunteering to knock a few hours a week or get paid to knock all week?
Sergio Sanchez 04:45
The resources are there, the potentials there, we lacked leadership yet again, and all I see, John, is a lack of effort, laziness, and lack of imagination and creativity on the part of the National Republican Party, leaving everything to the Donald Trump campaign to do, and they can't solve everything. The RNC is not even fighting for Donald Trump right now. All these bogus cases against him... they should be making all sorts of noise, raising all sorts of hell, and making comparisons to how easy federal prosecutors were on the Democrats compared to Donald Trump. He is the main guy, he is their horse, they need to win with him, and they need to win down ballot with him, and all I see is laziness, slothfulness, lack of imagination, lacking creativity from all the Republicans at the national and many of the state level Republicans, especially in the swing states, that should be working extra hard to win it for the sake of our nation. I don't see it yet. I don't see it yet. I hope it happens. The clock is ticking. I'll give you the final word.
John Pudner 05:44
The only thing I'll push back on you a little bit to give you encouragement is I really do think it's been changing just the last month or two. The new leadership that was put in is Trump leadership. I mean, Chris LaCavita was running Trump's campaign and now is Chief of Staff at RNC. There's just this transition period of cutting some of the fat, getting down a staff, and a team, and resources that can really deliver the vote, so that always takes a month or two to transition, but I think they're really headed in the right direction. I probably agree with everything you said if this were two months ago, but I just want to encourage you, I think it's moving in the right direction.
Sergio Sanchez 06:18
Thank you brother, I hope so. And part of it is I'm in Texas. I can't see this unless I go to social media, and I see how it's being reinvented, and maybe going on offense, of taking some of the new money coming in, and making it into an easily digestible message, like a sixty-second commercial where you put comparisons of prices, from energy, from light bills, to mortgages, to food, put the images of the Bidenflation, and put the images of the Biden border mess, what he has created, all these things from the debacle in Afghanistan, there's so much audio, there's so much video, it's all there to be used, and to drip, drip, drip a steady campaign to just put it out there for social media consumption on a regular basis....It's there and I hope to see it very soon. John, thank you so much for your time. Where do folks find you online?
John Pudner 07:16
takebackaction.org. I'd love you to sign-up and we'll come down to Texas anytime.
Sergio Sanchez 07:21
Take care, my brother. takebackaction.org, that's John Pudner.