Mailing it in
This year’s presidential election is mirroring 2020’s historic contest, but election officials in important states are trying to ensure the way ballots are handled in November is clearer this time around. Former President Donald Trump has spent the last 3 1/2 years insisting President Joe Biden’s victory over him was illegitimate. Almost all of the former president’s and his allies’ complaints revolve around the flurry of voting changes that were made to accommodate voter safety during the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This week, the Washington Examiner is taking a step back from the horse race between Biden and Trump to catalog the rule changes that kicked up so much electoral dust in 2020.
In the first part of our Mailing it In series, Supreme Court Reporter Kaelan Deese walks readers through the biggest legal fights happening in this year’s most important swing states — contests in battlegrounds that are likely to determine who wins the White House in 2024.
Trump and Republicans have changed their tune on mail-in voting after warning their constituents to avoid the practice.
After Republicans ran up the count early on Election Day in 2020 with such a large majority of voters showing up to vote in person, Democrats roared back once mail-in ballots began to be counted. What looked like a last-minute shift was painted as an attempt to “steal” the election for Biden and resulted in dozens of legal challenges and eventually a riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Yet Trump and other ranking Republican officials this cycle have encouraged his supporters more than ever to take full advantage of any and all alternatives to voting in person, including early voting and casting ballots by mail,” Kaelan wrote today.
“If we swamp them with votes they can’t cheat,” the campaign said in a press release in early June. “You need to make a plan, register, and vote any way possible. We have got to get your vote.”
The campaign is lining up as a proponent of voting by mail, but election integrity concerns are still blaring.
“With nearly every possible voting method now endorsed by the Trump campaign, lawsuits backed by conservative voter integrity groups are still underway in key swing states,” Kaelan wrote. “But rather than filing lawsuits to block alternative voting methods, these suits take aim at what these groups consider dubious rules, such as relaxed instructions for verifying ballot signatures and outdoor ballot drop boxes.”
Click here to learn about the lawsuits in the seven swing states that could shape the Biden-Trump rematch in November.
Utah energy
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) didn’t spend much time in Washington. But his one term in the upper chamber sent shock waves through the Republican Party when he became the first senator to vote guilty in an impeachment trial for a president of the same party.
The chamber is losing a strident Trump critic, and it’s not clear how forceful Romney’s likely replacement will slot into the space the former presidential candidate has created.
Senate Reporter Ramsey Touchberry caught up with Rep. John Curtis (R-UT), who won the GOP primary for Romney’s seat and is on a glide path to replacing him in the heavily Republican state. Curtis, who has a reputation as a clean energy proponent, appears to be preparing to wind up somewhere between the poles of Romney and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who has been a fierce supporter of the former president.
“The reality of it is, while I have great respect for both Sen. Romney and Sen. Lee, I’m just different than both of them,” Curtis told Ramsey.
“Utah voters responded to my lane,” Curtis said. “I think there’s a false narrative that you’re either all in or all out on President Trump. The reality of it is … I enjoyed supporting him, but that doesn’t mean he has an unconditional vote from me.”
Click here to learn more about the likely next senator from Utah.
Republicans’ Silver State bullet?
Gambling on Nevada has not worked for Republicans since 2004. Democratic presidential candidates have won there in six of the last eight contests. But the battleground appears to be more than in play this year, with Trump beating Biden by 2.8 points in the latest Real Clear Politics average.
And those margins are due in part to a group Republicans have been working overtime to pull away from the Democratic Party — Latino and Hispanic voters.
“In an election year where voters are transferring loyalties and an independent presidential candidate has attracted historic levels of support, Hispanic Americans are adding fuel to the fire in Nevada,” Breaking News Reporter Emily Hallas wrote for us this morning. “The Latino community’s growing concern about the economy could spell trouble for President Joe Biden, but its political independence means they’re not in Republicans’ pocket, either. Whoever they support, Nevada’s Hispanics will play a critical role in deciding who the country’s next president is this November.”
Emily took a deep dive into one of the most important states this cycle — with a Senate seat and the state’s six Electoral College votes up for grabs.
A recent New York Times/Siena College poll exposed the extreme vulnerability of Biden in the Silver State, where Trump was leading the president 50%-38% despite Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) leading her Republican challenger Sam Brown 40%-38%.
As Emily pointed out, Republican efforts to cut into Democrats’ share of Latino and Hispanic voters haven’t guaranteed they will punch a ballot for Trump in November, but their concerns about the economy and ability to parse attacks on illegal immigration from personal attacks are teeing things up for the challenger.
“With Trump’s well-documented and oft-inflammatory rhetoric on illegal immigration, the former president’s inroads into the Latino community continue to surprise political pundits,” Emily wrote. “A comment from [Michael] Flores [a longtime Nevada government affairs and community outreach professional] might explain Latinos’ lack of concern: ‘He’s not talking about me.’ Flores says that’s what he hears from his Hispanic community when Trump’s immigration comments come up. … He reiterated that other issues, ‘like the economy,’ seem to be more important to Latinos he’s surrounded by in Nevada than the former president’s controversial comments.”
Click here to learn more about why you should keep a close eye on Nevada.
Far from home
Foreign policy in the Middle East has been a crucial pressure point for Biden. His strong support for Israel in the days after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas won him goodwill from Republicans but fractured his relationship even further with his party’s left wing. Subsequent teetering has made those Republicans critical of the president but hasn’t been enough to win over his left flank’s support.
And on the edges of the Israel-Hamas conflict, a larger one is brewing. Defense Reporter Mike Brest spoke with several former defense officials to ask them what the United States needs to do to stop the Houthi attacks on shipping containers that are disrupting supply chains.
“Multiple current and former leaders believe the United States needs to target Iran to stop the Houthi attacks targeting commercial vessels sailing in the previously highly trafficked waterways off Yemen’s coasts,” Mike wrote. “These attacks began on Nov. 19, 2023, and the Houthis have said they’re doing so in solidarity with Palestinians affected by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and they have attacked or threatened U.S. Navy and commercial vessels 190 times from then until June 13, according to a U.S. defense official.”
The president is unlikely to want to open a new conflict with a power in the region he and his former boss, President Barack Obama, did so much to mend fences with. However, officials warned, Iran is the key backer of the Houthis and other groups terrorizing U.S. allies.
Click here to catch up on what is happening on the far side of the world.
For your radar
The Supreme Court will release its final slate of opinions this morning at 10 a.m. After a term full of momentous decisions, this morning’s release could have some of the largest effects on the office of the presidency in modern history.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The justices will determine the validity of Trump’s claim that he is immune from prosecution for actions he took while he was president, related to the four-count indictment by special counsel Jack Smith for the former president’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Keep an eye out here for the latest analysis after the decision is released.
