27 Jul 2020 12:54 pm
It's almost like he doesn't want to win.
'He's scaring our own voters': Republicans run into a Donald Trump problem as they push mail voting.
WASHINGTON — As the Republican Party county chairman in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Rohn Bishop isn't just working to get President Donald Trump reelected by again carrying the Badger State.
He has his eyes down-ballot where Republicans in his mostly rural county are fighting to hold on to a congressional seat and reclaim a pair of state Senate seats.
Amid a raging pandemic, that means encouraging the Republican base to request mail-in ballots for the November election.
But Bishop said he's encountered a recurring problem: Many Republican voters are "skittish" about voting by mail.
He pointed to strong anti-vote-by-mail rhetoric from Trump, who regularly assails mail voting as fraudulent and an attempt by Democrats to "rig the presidential election."
Just this week,Trump tweeted that mail-in voting will lead to the "most corrupt election in our nation's history!"
Bishop fears it's putting Republicans at a disadvantage.
"What the president is doing when he keeps saying that this mail-in balloting thing is fraudulent, he's scaring our own voters from using a legit way to cast your ballot," Bishop said.
"We're kind of hurting ourselves, and I don't think that's the wisest way to go."