“NOT OFFICIAL”: Ronna McDaniel walks back leaked RNC election plans
A leaked RNC report lays out the party’s plans for messaging in the next election cycle, and it doesn’t sound much different from the strategies that failed the GOP in 2022.
Now, the re-elected RNC Chair, Ronna McDaniel, is reacting to the release, in full denial mode.
The released report comes from the RNC’s “National Election Integrity Team,” and proposes a lot more focus going forward on the same claims of election fraud they’ve pushed since Donald Trump’s 2020 loss.
The party would go further, placing “election integrity officers” in each state, and pushing for new training for poll workers and volunteers, all falsely implying that rampant cheating is affecting the outcome of elections.
McDaniel, whose position was on the line just weeks ago while the party debated whether a change of leadership in the RNC would help to win future elections.
Instead, the party chose to stick with her, and with Trump — and this document suggests it also chose to stick with the election lies that experts say may be turning its own voters away from the polls.
However, even as she tried to distance herself from the report — see the clip below — Ronna couldn’t help but continue down the election denial path, explaining that the report was a draft and not final, and that a list of other information, including lawsuits in an attempt to alter election outcomes still needs to be incorporated.
“That’s not an official report. There’s other things that need to be added to that, including all the legal pursuits that we had, all the lawsuits that we had, so we’re gonna continue to engage in election integrity, poll watchers, poll workers, and also litigation where it’s necessary.”
Incidentally, McDaniel goes on to assert that the 2022 elections in Wisconsin were “not contentious” and that the reason is that the GOP “did election integrity” and voters were able to elect poll workers.
This is categorically false, as shown in Wisconsin’s Rules & Constraints for poll workers — election inspectors are nominated by each party, and nominees are then appointed by the municipality’s governing body, and these appointees then staff the polls.
As for the document that McDaniel is trying to dodge, it lists numerous ways that the GOP will incorporate election denial tactics going forward, even as it admits these methods have cost the party in past elections, according to a Washington Post analysis of a copy that publication obtained.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on draft 'election integrity' proposal ahead of 2024: "That's not an official report. There's other things that need to be added to that, including all the legal pursuits we had, all the lawsuits we had…" pic.twitter.com/FR5hWB2hGs
— Matt Smith (@mattsmith_news) February 5, 2023
Steph Bazzle covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph.
