In Las Vegas, a handful of Proud Boys, part of the extremist group whose members have been charged in attacking the Capitol, supported a bid to topple moderates controlling the county party - a dispute that’s now in court. In Michigan, one of the main organizers recruiting new precinct officers pushed for the ouster of the state party’s executive director, who contradicted Trump’s claim that the election was stolen and who later resigned. But what’s already clear is that these up-and-coming party officers have notched early wins. It has only been a few months - too soon to say whether the wave of newcomers will ultimately succeed in reshaping the GOP or how they will affect Republican prospects in upcoming elections. “They feel their involvement in upcoming elections will prevent something like that from happening again.” “They feel President Trump was rightfully elected president and it was taken from him,” said Michael Barnett, the GOP chairman in Palm Beach County, Florida, who has enthusiastically added 90 executive committee members this year. The result is a nationwide groundswell of party activists whose central goal is not merely to win elections but to reshape their machinery. The new movement is built entirely around Trump’s insistence that the electoral system failed in 2020 and that Republicans can’t let it happen again. What’s different this time is an uncompromising focus on elections themselves. Presidential losses often energize party activists, and it would not be the first time that a candidate’s faction tried to consolidate control over the party apparatus with the aim of winning the next election.
The tea party backlash to former President Barack Obama’s election foreshadowed Republican gains in the 2010 midterm. “The most recent time we saw this type of thing was the tea party, and this is way beyond it.”īannon, through a spokesperson, declined to comment. 6, and he welcomed this wave of like-minded newcomers. Martin had wanted congressional Republicans to overturn the election on Jan. Martin, the GOP chairman in Polk County, Florida, who has added 50 new committee members since January. “I’ve never seen anything like this, people are coming out of the woodwork,” said J.C. We also looked at equivalent Democratic posts and found no similar surge. At least 8,500 new Republican precinct officers (or equivalent lowest-level officials) joined those county parties. ProPublica contacted GOP leaders in 65 key counties, and 41 reported an unusual increase in signups since Bannon’s campaign began. Albert, who held a “Stop the Steal” rally during Wisconsin’s November recount, said Bannon’s podcast had played a role in the burst of enthusiasm. “We’re signing up election inspectors like crazy right now,” said Outagamie County party chair Matt Albert, using the state’s formal term for poll workers. The parties once passed on suggesting names, but now hardline Republican county chairs are moving to use those powers. County clerks who run elections in the state are required to hire parties’ nominees. In Wisconsin, for instance, new GOP recruits are becoming poll workers. They showed up in states Trump won and in states he lost, in deep-red rural areas, in swing-voting suburbs and in populous cities. Suddenly, people who had never before showed interest in party politics started calling the local GOP headquarters or crowding into county conventions, eager to enlist as precinct officers. Viral posts promoting the plan racked up millions of views on pro-Trump websites, talk radio, fringe social networks and message boards, and programs aligned with the QAnon conspiracy theory. “This is your call to action,” Bannon said in February, a few weeks after Trump had pardoned him of federal fraud charges.Īfter Bannon’s endorsement, the “precinct strategy” rocketed across far-right media. On his “War Room” podcast, which has tens of millions of downloads, Bannon said President Trump lost because the Republican Party sold him out.
When the insurrection failed, Bannon continued his campaign for his former boss by other means. Who can impose their will on the other side?” “All hell will break loose tomorrow.” The next morning, as thousands massed on the National Mall for a rally that turned into an attack on the Capitol, Bannon fired up his listeners: “It’s them against us. “We’re on the point of attack,” Bannon, a former Trump adviser and far-right nationalist, pledged on his popular podcast on Jan. One of the loudest voices urging Donald Trump’s supporters to push for overturning the presidential election results was Steve Bannon. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published. ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.
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