Former President Donald Trump appeared to suggest on Wednesday that Republican voters would boycott future elections unless the alleged voter fraud of the 2020 election is resolved.
“If we don’t solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented), Republicans will not be voting ’22 or ’24,” he said. “It is the single most important thing for Republicans to do.”
🤔 Trump just threatened to have Republican voters stay home in 2022 and 2024 unless the party is able to "solve" (by which he seems to mean overturn) the result of the last presidential election, which he lost. pic.twitter.com/sHvXHrKZtH
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 13, 2021
Leading up to the Georgia senate election earlier this year, President Trump strongly pushed the voter fraud angle, which possibly led to Republicans staying home on election day, contributing to Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D-GA) and Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D-GA) victories. As the Washington Post noted:
A historic Democratic sweep in Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoffs rested in large part on half a million voters who stayed home, and on black voters who did not, according to preliminary results.
With control of the Senate at stake, following unprecedented campaign spending and with both President Trump and President-elect Joe Biden rallying for support, fewer people voted across the state. Runoffs often draw fewer voters, and this time the drop from the November general election amounted to about one voter in eight.
But turnout in Republican strongholds dropped by more. And differences across the state highlight the key role of black voters who powered the sweep.
President Trump has not yet committed to running in 2024, though he has strongly hinted at it in interviews and speeches. Speculation of a 2024 run was further heightened this past weekend when the president held a rally in Iowa, a state he won handily in 2020 – 53.1 percent to Biden’s 44.9 percent.