President Donald Trump is bringing back 2020. Many Republicans want him not to do so.
Conversations with nearly a dozen GOP state and county chairs and strategists reveal a party eager to move largely to address Trump’s election grievances, leaving them worried it could miss an economic message that really motivates voters. But the president won’t let it go, summoning the 2020 election record and pressuring voters to pass legislation to reform voter registration laws.
As Republicans look ahead to a treacherous midterm scenario, there is a growing view inside the party that focusing on claims of a “stolen election” and voter fraud will cause them to capitulate in the general election: This message may play well with the MAGA base in the primary, but it could alienate moderates tired of repeating the election from nearly six years ago.
“I always believe you should look forward, not backward,” said Charlie Gerow, a Pennsylvania-based GOP strategist and Trump convention delegate. “It would be better if the medium-term focus was on the economic recovery and all the good work the Republican administration and Congress are doing to prop up the economy.”
In recent weeks, Trump has turned his attention to Maricopa County – Arizona’s largest county – just weeks after the FBI raided an elections office outside Atlanta. He has revisited complaints that the 2020 election was “rigged”, suggesting Republicans should nationalize elections and demanding that lawmakers pass the Save America Act, which would impose stricter voting requirements, as his “No. 1 priority.”
“Part of me understands it, and part of me just wants to move on,” said Todd Gilman, chairman of the Monroe County Republican Party in Michigan.
“Focus on the things that matter to everyone across the country,” he said, “or we’re going to have a problem in a few months.”
Trump has the support of many Republicans, including some battleground-state GOP chairmen, who are not only embracing election investigations of the president but openly encouraging his administration to audit their states’ records. Carry forward fraud allegations from 2020.
Washoe County, Nevada, GOP Chairman Bruce Parks said he would “absolutely” welcome an investigation into his county and Clark County, the state’s two largest. And Michigan Republican Party Chairman Jim Runstad suggested a review of the records in Detroit, long a focal point of Trump’s 2020 election machinations.
“There’s no problem in taking a look at it and making sure everyone is comfortable,” Runestad said.
Still, others say the risk is that voters simply don’t care — or have moved on. Republicans, including Trump’s own advisers, increasingly want him to focus on the economy ahead of the midterms.
It comes as repeated polling shows that economic issues – not electoral issues – top the list of voters’ concerns. In a February Politico poll, more than half of all Americans – 52 percent – said the cost of living was a top issue facing America. By comparison, less than a quarter – 23 percent – said a top issue was America’s democracy at risk, a view held primarily by Democrats.
Cost of living concerns have been further heightened by Trump’s war in Iran, which is sending gas prices soaring and wreaking global economic havoc as it enters its third week.
The White House said Trump’s efforts are aimed at restoring confidence in elections and reiterated the importance of passing the SAVE Act.
“(Trump) is committed to ensuring that Americans have full confidence in election administration, and that includes a completely accurate and updated voter roll free of errors and illegally registered non-citizen voters,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
GOP strategist and former state representative in Georgia Buzz Brockway described election issues as “a huge distraction”, adding: “Nobody outside of a small dedicated group is talking about this, they’re talking about the economy, they’re talking about, now, the price of oil.”
In Georgia, which has long been the focus of Trump’s repeated efforts to challenge the 2020 election, some Republicans say voters are now largely “immune” to an issue that has been repeatedly repeated over the past five years.
Some state-level GOP officials are hoping Congress will pass the SAVE Act despite the reluctance of many Republican lawmakers — so it would give them enough cover with MAGA voters but allow them to avoid talking about the election issues themselves.
While Trump’s claims of a “stolen election” may still be a driving force for some primary voters, the general electorate is focused elsewhere. And if Republicans place those grievances at the center of their midterm messaging, they risk falling into the same trap that Democrats faced during the 2024 presidential election — when former Vice President Kamala Harris’ warnings about democracy won over already loyal Democrats but failed to sway the swing voters needed to clinch the presidency.
“You have to at least touch that base,” said one Georgia-based GOP strategist, speaking on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly. But “once you get the nomination, I think it really turns into economic issues.”
That dynamic could create a political conundrum for Republican candidates.
“A sensible Democrat would put a candidate on the spot and say, ‘You agree with (Trump), right?’ And mess up,'” Brockway said. Republicans “must somehow find a way to sidestep that question, in a plausible way that doesn’t alienate this loud minority.”
