A Republican former congressman who backs President Trump is the face of a new advertising campaign urging the GOP to embrace mail-in voting and support $1.5 billion in federal election assistance to cash-strapped states.
In an interview on Friday, Zach Wamp said a flood of mail-in ballots this November is inevitable because of the coronavirus, making it imperative Congress act quickly to ensure state budgets that were strained by the pandemic have enough money to finance the spike in absentee voting. That was Wamp’s message in the ad he filmed for Issue One, a bipartisan group spending nearly $1 million to air the spot digitally and on television.
Trump and many Republicans in Congress are openly hostile to expanded mail-in voting. The president told Politico that he views the development as the biggest threat to his reelection bid. But Wamp, 62, a staunch Tennessee conservative, said their suspicions are misplaced and that his years in grassroots organizing taught him that Republicans can excel with absentee voting. To change GOP minds, Issue One is running the ad on Fox News beginning Saturday.
“A whole lot of seasoned Republican leaders know this can be good for us, but it’s also necessary for the country in the middle of a pandemic,” Wamp told the Washington Examiner.
Lingering health concerns related to the coronavirus and a corresponding decrease in physical polling places have spurred Republican officials in states and municipalities to welcome the shift to mail-in voting. That includes Republican operatives working to reelect Trump and the party’s down-ticket candidates. Their efforts to improve GOP absentee voting strategies have been frustrated by Trump’s claims that the process is rife with fraud and should not be trusted.
“The history and facts are not behind [Trump] on that,” Wamp said. “Republicans have nothing to fear.”
Congress approved $400 million in election assistance to the states in an initial coronavirus rescue package. The Democrat-controlled House passed additional legislation with another $3.6 billion in funding, but it has stalled in the Republican Senate. While Wamp and Issue One would like to see the entire $3.6 billion make its way to the states, they say $1.5 billion might be sufficient to provide for the fall elections.
In the ad, Wamp steers clear of criticizing Trump or congressional Republicans for their skepticism of absentee voting, hoping a soft touch can change minds.
To reach the intended audience, Issue One is planning to run the 30-second spot on Fox & Friends, Hannity, and Special Report w/ Bret Baier. The ads that run on digital platforms will target voters in Iowa, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Ohio in a bid to influence key Republican senators, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
