GOP's Georgia challenge: Persuading Trump backers to vote

Lee Drutman was quoted in an Washington Post article about the impact of “stolen election” messaging on Republican voter turnout.

It’s a singular mission with uncertain prospects in November, the first national election in the aftermath of Trump’s repeated attacks on the U.S. voting system and the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters trying to stop the certification of Biden’s election.

And it comes as Republicans in Georgia and nationwide are trying to hold together a fragile coalition of voters — those who embrace Trump’s claim of fraud and those who reject it.

“That reflects a real tension in the Republican Party messaging,” said Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at New America, a Washington-based think tank, who specializes in democracy issues.

“It may be self-defeating to say the election is rigged if you have to actually get people out to vote.”

Voters appear eager to cast ballots this fall. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center of Public Affairs Research finds 71% of registered voters think the very future of the U.S. is at stake when they vote this year. Yet the poll also found a large segment of Republicans, 58%, still believe Biden’s election wasn’t legitimate.

Brian Robinson, a GOP strategist, said Georgians have moved on from Trump’s claims, judging by the primary election victories this year for Brad Raffensperger, the embattled secretary of state Trump unsuccessfully asked to “find 11,780” votes, and incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who drew Trump’s ire for standing by the state’s results.

“By almost any measure, Georgia voters have moved past the 2020 election and at this juncture have largely rejected claims that fraud marred the election outcome,” Robinson said.

But Democrats say Republicans are trying to have it both ways, courting what one strategist called MAGAs and moderates, referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again supporters. While Loeffler touts Georgia's new election law as preventing fraud, Democrats argue the GOP-led bill was unnecessary, a reaction to Trump’s lies about 2020.