In what is being described as “blatant election interference,” a left-wing group is pushing ads insisting Pennsylvania Republicans “listen to” former President Trump and forgo early voting.
The ad, paid for by liberal super PAC “Pennsylvania Values,” uses old clips from Trump talking about how corrupt mail-in voting is — a statement grounded in a fair amount of truth but a message that Trump and the GOP have moved past as they urge Republicans to vote early in November’s rematch of the 2020 presidential election.
“MAGA Patriots Listen To Our President!” the ad, using a black and white photo of Trump, declares.
“Mail-in voting is totally corrupt. Get that through your head!” Trump says in a clip punctuated by dramatic music.
Conservative organizations working get-out-the-vote efforts in battleground Pennsylvania and elsewhere say the ad is the kind of “disinformation” campaign that the left, Big Tech and the Deep State have railed against — and shut down.
“Pennsylvania Values is a Left-wing super PAC dedicated to silencing conservative voices and keeping Republican voters home, no matter the tactics,” Sentinel Action Fund, Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), and Keystone Renewal PAC said in a press release response.
“To use the Left’s terminology, this new ad buy is ‘disinformation,’ completely mischaracterizing conservatives’ views of early voting,” said Sentinel Action Fund President Jessica Anderson, RSLC PAC President Dee Duncan, and Keystone Renewal PAC Spokesman Kaelan Dorr in the joint statement.
‘Forecasting Dirty Tricks’
It should come as little surprise that a liberal group would package an ad using the former president’s previous statements against him. While doing so may be legal, it’s undoubtedly a level of sleaze that Americans should expect from the political left, “forecasting the dirty tricks” Trump-hating liberals are “willing” to employ in their quest to reelect Joe Biden, the conservative groups say.
“President Trump and Republicans across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have fully embraced mail-in voting, as seen both from the Republican National Committee’s ‘Swamp the Vote’ campaign and the largest ever vote-by-mail initiative launched by the Sentinel Action Fund, RSLC, and Keystone Renewal PAC earlier this year,” the conservative political action committees state in the press release.
In March, the groups announced a “historic” eight-figure investment to put Republicans in a position to win in November by doing what Democrats have historically done so well: use voting by mail to harvest victory.
By late April, Sentinel Action’s Anderson told me the GOTV effort had sent out multiple rounds of mailers and hit Pennsylvania’s airwaves with digital ads to go after about 1.2 million low-propensity voters in the Keystone State — eligible voters who infrequently participate in elections. The campaign is targeting Republicans who have only voted once or twice in the last four election cycles, Anderson said. The effort has only intensified.
“Those voters are key for us [in the presidential election] and for David McCormick winning Pennsylvania,” Anderson said.
‘New Tactic’
Contacts listed on Pennsylvania Values’ filings with the Federal Election Commission did not return requests for comment. Maria L. Galdo is listed as the treasurer for the Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based leftist super PAC that pumped nearly $470,000 into the 2022 election cycle, according to Open Secrets.
Liam Donovan, a frequent commentator and writer on national politics, posted on his X account that the misleading PAC ad is the “first time” he’s “seen this tactic.”
“Pennsylvania Values is a super pac funded almost entirely by the building trades that was most active in 2018 the last time [Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. Bob] Casey was up, spending $1.1M against [Republican challenger Lou] Barletta. Spent another $285k in 2020 against Trump,” Donovan wrote.
Trump haters may correctly say that Trump said what he said. The former president saw the unprecedented use of mail-in ballots and the many irregularities and suspicious activities surrounding them as a big part of a rig job by Democrats and their allies in the 2020 election.
But Trump and the GOP, as corporate media outlets have taken great pains to widely report, have “changed their tune” on early voting.
“Republicans must win – and we must use EVERY appropriate tool available to beat the Democrats, they are destroying our great country! Whether you vote early, absentee, by mail, or in person we are going to protect the vote,” Trump, the GOP’s presumptive candidate for president, said in a statement.
Sentinel Action Fund, Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC),and Keystone Renewal PAC say the message is clear: The same liberals that want to use the Biden Department of Justice to imprison their No. 1 political enemy are more than glad to engage in “blatant election interference,” only reinforcing the importance of getting out the conservative vote early.
“President Biden and Senator Bob Casey understand they can’t win on the policy issues, so Pennsylvania Values is trying to keep conservative voters home and kneecap our efforts to help voters engage early to kick Biden, Casey, and Democrats down the ballot out of office,” the groups say in the press release. “It will not work.”
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
