(The Center Square) – One of Wisconsin’s Republican congressmen who is in one of the state’s competitive districts says Republicans have to be willing to go as far as Democrats to win the 2024 elections.
Congressman Bryan Steil said on News Talk 1130 WISN that Republicans have to turn out their votes this November. To do that, he said, the party has to embrace every tool that’s available.
“You got to play by the rules as they’re written. So, where Wisconsin law allows us to vote early, to vote absentee, to do other things to turn out the conservative vote, we got to play by the rules as they’re written if you want to win,” Steil said.
That includes a massive voter turnout push and embracing early voting.
Steil said that effort actually began Tuesday with former President Trump’s rally in Racine where a team of “over 100 volunteers” who signed up voters and supporters.
“Then we’re going to work to track, to make sure not only that they’re signed-up, but that they do vote. Making sure that we actually bank the voters, as President Trump now calls it ‘Swamp the Vote.’ Meaning at the end of the day here, we can either complain about the rules as they’re written, or we can win,” Steil said. “I’m sick and tired of losing elections in Wisconsin. And to win, we have to bank votes and vote early in order to overwhelm the Democratic turnout that we know we’re going to see in Madison.”
Reports from the 2023 race for Wisconsin Supreme Court said Republicans in the state started Election Day in 2023 down by 100,000 votes because of the Democrats’ early voting push and voter tracking operation.
Steil admitted, though, that one of the hurdles for Republicans is to convince conservative voters to trust early voting in the state.
“To improve people’s confidence in our elections, what we want is one set of rules for everybody to play by,” Steil said. “Elections themselves are going to be partisan. But we want the administration of those elections to be non-partisan, and not changing the rules is absolutely essential.”
