PHOENIX, ARIZONA – Former Trump administration official Kash Patel said the Republican Party needs to “go big” on mail-in ballots if they want to win future elections, and that the lack of attention to mail-in voting was a factor in the disappointing midterm results.
“If we want to get back and change the rules, we have to go big on mail-in ballots,” Patel, who served as chief of staff to former Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, told the Daily Caller. “If you want to change the rules later, that’s fine, but you can’t change if you lose.”
The Caller interviewed Patel at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference, asking the former Trump official what led Republicans to underperform in the midterms.
Patel stressed that many key elections, like Adam Laxalt’s Senate race in Nevada, came down to the margins, and that the Republican Party needs to go back to its roots of being the party of mail-in ballots.
“People gotta look at these margins. And I told [Trump] the same thing … We were the party of mail-in ballots. Why? Because we were the party trying to get our military, our men and women in uniform, the ability to vote when they were deployed overseas,” Patel said.
The Caller then pressed Patel on what effect he thought former President Donald Trump’s messaging on mail-in voting had.
“Hindsight is 20/20. I think we should have gone bigger on mail-in balloting, and it would have been great, had he said that then, knowing what we know now,” Patel said.
TUCSON, ARIZONA – JULY 31: Kash Patel, a former chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, speaks during a campaign event for Republican election candidates at the Whiskey Roads Restaurant & Bar on July 31, 2022 in Tucson, Arizona. With less than two days to go before the Arizona primary election, candidates continue campaigning across the state. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Donald Trump Jr., another speaker at TPUSA’s conference, also appeared to present mail-in voting as key to beating Democrats in 2024. (RELATED: Trump Jr. Says Republicans Have ‘No Chance Of Winning’ Against Joe Biden Unless GOP Plays Democrats’ ‘Game’)
“You can have the greatest platform in the world, you can have the greatest candidate in the world. It doesn’t matter if you have no chance of winning. And that’s where we’re at right now, folks,” the former first son said.
“The only issue that’s going to separate whether we win in the future, for our freedoms, our liberties, our rights, are if we spool up the same type of operation the Democrats have been running. That’s going to be really unpopular with a lot of people, but I don’t care, because we can’t change it, if we don’t actually win to change,” he added.