A former Trump campaign staffer who challenged the results of the 2020 election is now leading an initiative in northern Virginia to urge Republican voters to vote by mail.
Matt Braynard, a member of the 11th Congressional District Republicans as well as the executive director of the nonprofit group Look Ahead America, is the point person for an experiment that seeks to pinpoint the most effective messaging to get “low propensity” Republican voters to register for absentee ballots.
Braynard at first may seem like an unlikely messenger to promote voting by mail after he challenged the legality of President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory by raising concerns of election fraud. But the former Trump 2016 campaign staffer has homed in on those feelings of distrust in his appeal to skeptical GOP voters.
“Our messaging is meant to directly address the concerns the Republicans have about voting early or voting by mail,” Braynard told the Washington Examiner. “So we, a lot of people, don’t like voting earlier by mail, or they don’t trust it because they’ve heard from leaders or people they think are leaders discouraging.”
The 11th District Republican’s effort to register Republicans for permanent absentee ballots comes as top Republicans have also signaled shifts in stances regarding early and absentee voting since the 2020 election, including former President Donald Trump.
The national Republican Party last year launched a “Bank Your Vote” program to get supporters to take advantage of early and absentee voting to run up the score ahead of Election Day. Absentee voting has already begun in North Carolina, and early voting in a range of swing states will soon be underway.
“This will be the most important election in the history of our country. So whether it’s mail-in ballots, early voting, voting on the day, you gotta get out and vote,” Trump said in a TikTok video posted earlier this week.
Challenging the 2020 election and boosting Jan. 6 defendants
Braynard was a lesser-known but notable figure in efforts to investigate the 2020 election for evidence of fraud after Trump lost his reelection bid to Biden.
In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Braynard launched the “Voter Integrity Project,” which is now under the mantle of his nonprofit group, to investigate the results of the election. An online fundraiser Braynard posted to GiveSendGo to fund the project raised about $675,000.
The Washington Examiner was unable to independently verify the exact amount raised, as the campaign is no longer active, but the amount was confirmed by Braynard during his testimony in front of the Georgia legislature as well as during an interview with the Washington Examiner.
The effort was among the dozen others, including from Trump’s own campaign, that sought to identify illegally cast ballots, either due to outdated voter rolls or other means, in states such as Georgia, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
Braynard’s efforts to investigate the election also included testifying in front of Georgia state lawmakers in December 2020 to share the findings of the voter integrity project that he claimed proved there were voting irregularities in the state. During his testimony, he confirmed that he was receiving a payment of $40,000 from a conservative nonprofit group to serve as a witness. He also claimed he was put on retainer by Trump’s legal team for his findings, though he never testified in court.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Trump’s campaign for confirmation.
As a result of his efforts, Braynard earned at least $230,000 in consulting fees, according to the Associated Press.
However, the data collected by Braynard’s nonprofit group were rejected by an expert who analyzed his report for the state of Georgia who said it was “riddled with errors and biases that render it invalid.” During his testimony in front of Georgia lawmakers, a Democrat revealed mistakes within his report that included incorrectly accusing people who lived in a building with a FedEx store in it of using a P.O. box.
Beyond his involvement in investigating the 2020 election, Braynard also made advocating Jan. 6 Capitol rioters who have been charged with crimes a cornerstone of his nonprofit group, organizing multiple protests dedicated to the effort.
Before the 2020 election, Braynard also attempted to join the former president’s reelection campaign but was unsuccessful. Braynard is not involved in Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Braynard also described himself as an “election agnostic” rather than an election denier and said he believes that the winner of the 2020 election was “undeterminable.”
“I guess it’s the difference between an atheist and an agnostic,” Braynard said. “So I mean, but somebody will say, ‘Well, you’re denying that Joe Biden won and or that you’re saying, which, by default, means Donald Trump won.’ And what I’m saying is that, well, I’m just saying is that we don’t know how who these illegal ballots were for.”
Braynard has a history of supporting efforts to increase voter registration and turnout, as both issues were key principles of what he found his Look Ahead America nonprofit group originally after departing from Trump’s 2016 campaign. His nonprofit group temporarily lost its tax-exempt status in 2020 before it was retroactively reinstated in December 2021.
Youngkin and DeSantis featured in appeal for mail-in support
The Virginia absentee ballot experiment includes sending out 54,000 pieces of mail and 27,000 text messages to Republicans in Fairfax County using different messaging tactics to appeal to voters, according to the committee.
“As a rule, we Republicans don’t like Early Voting or Absentee voting by mail. However, current VA law allows 45 days of early voting and no reason is required to vote by mail. We won’t be able to change election law until Republicans have control of all three branches of the state legislature, and that can’t happen until 2027 when the VA State Senate runs for reelection,” Committee Chairwoman Rosie Oakley said in a statement.
Oakley continued, “In the meantime, the decision has been made to try and encourage ‘low propensity’ Republican voters to sign up for Permanent Absentee Ballots (PABS). These are voters who would likely vote Republican, but don’t vote consistently. Signing up for a Permanent Absentee Ballot would make it convenient for them to vote every year.”
The experiment is set to collect its first batch of data in October, according to Braynard.
“It’s a very simple process to track, because there are 2000 people in each treatment group, and we know none of them are signed up for it now, and the state board of elections will tell us how many have signed up,” Braynard explained. “So it’s a very clear measure. There’s no guesswork here. It’s either they signed up or they didn’t.”
The mailers viewed by the Washington Examiner include appeals from prominent Republican figures such as Trump, Govs. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) and Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).
The Washington Examiner confirmed that Youngkin is aware of the mailer and is supportive of the initiative. The Virginia governor has previously promoted early voting through the SecureYourVote program.
The mailers will also be printed in different colors and feature different information, such as how to register for the permanent absentee ballot. According to Braynard, the experiment will consist of 33 different groups, including a control group, of 2,000 voters each.
Despite his complex history with the 2020 election, Braynard affirmed that he believes his involvement in the experiment will help reach Republican voters skeptical of absentee ballot voting.
“I think that if I’m advocating for this program and people [go], ‘Oh, that’s Matt Braynard. He did a lot of work on election integrity, and he says that this is the best way to secure your vote.’ And look, that’s how I vote. So in fact, I vote the very first day I can,” Braynard said.
Fairfax County Democratic Chairman Aaron Yohai said in a statement to the Washington Examiner that “Democrats believe in democracy and the fundamental right to vote. Access to early voting and voting by mail ensures every eligible voter’s voice is heard.”
Despite his concerns surrounding voting irregularities and illegal ballots, Braynard sees the absentee ballot experiment as separate from those issues.
“There’s some folks say, ‘If you vote your ballot early, makes it easier for the steal.’ I’ve heard that argument before. All the evidence I’ve seen of illegal ballots being cast have nothing to do with that,” Braynard said. “It’s happening in an entirely different space.”
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He continued, “There’s not really — there’s no contradiction. There’s no contradiction.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the offices of Haley, DeSantis, and Scott for comment. The Washington Examiner also reached out to the Virginia Republican Party for comment.
