HARRISBURG (TNS) — Saying that Pennsylvania Republicans are “far behind the curve on voter turnout,” a new political-action committee is focused on increasing GOP mail-in voting.
The Win Again PAC unveiled itself Friday during the conservative Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Cumberland County.
“While Democrats and their allies have diligently encouraged early voting via mail-in ballots amongst their base, Republicans continue to rely on election day voting,” the PAC’s announcement said.
“In doing so,” Win Again continued, “we have given Democrats an extraordinary turnout advantage, allowing our opponents several weeks to vote while only allowing ourselves one day.”
Win Again has two former Lehigh County commissioners spearheading the effort in Lisa Scheller and Dean Browning. Scheller lost to Democratic Rep. Susan Wilds in the 7th Congressional District races in 2020 and 2022.
Browning lost to Democrat state Sen. Nick Miller last November in the 14th District race and lost primary races for the 7th Congressional District seat in 2018 and 2020 when Scheller defeated him.
Not encouraging Republican voters to use mail-in voting cost the party the state House, “key” state Senate races and two congressional races, Win Again lamented.
Win Again said that Democrats spend months signing people up to vote by mail and focus on “low-propensity voters” who do not vote that often, while Republicans seek “commitments” from voters.
“In short, Democrats are collecting ballots while Republicans are collecting promises,” said the PAC.
The mail-in voting numbers from the November election paint a stark picture of the task ahead for Win Again.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, received more than 1 million mail-in votes, while GOP state Sen. Doug Mastriano received about 187,400. U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat, garnered more than 960,000 mail-in ballots compared to only 234,900 for Republican candidate Mehmet Oz.
Those defeats have spurred other Republicans, including Mastriano, to reluctantly call for GOP voters to embrace mail-in voting.
On Friday night, Kellyanne Conway, a former senior White House aide to former President Donald Trump, told the crowd at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference that Republicans need to use mail-in voting.
“We’re in a battle for ballots and we’re not going to win again unless we start to play ball with the new rules,” Conway said, quickly adding that she doesn’t like mail-in voting.
Conway noted that Fetterman received four times the number of mail-in ballots that Oz did last year. “You can’t catch up on one day,” she said. “You can’t.”
Win Again said its strategy is to build a grassroots network across the state championing mail-in voting to Republicans and undertaking outreach efforts, including going door-to-door, making phone calls, sending texts and mail, and running digital, radio and television ads.
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