Less than six months away from November’s election, former President Donald Trump’s campaign is launching an initiative to encourage the use of mail-in, absentee and in-person early voting among its supporters. 

The move marks an effort to gain ground in an area that Democrats have already embraced and a sharp shift of perspective for Trump, who has long railed against such methods of voting.  

What You Need To Know

  • Less than six months away from November’s election, former President Donald Trump’s campaign is launching an initiative to encourage the use of mail-in, absentee and in-person early voting among its supporters 
  • The initiative, named “Swamp the Vote USA,” will seek to use voter contacts to get new absentee and mail-in ballot registrations or commitments from supporters to vote early in-person
  • The move marks an effort to gain ground in an area Democrats have already embraced and a sharp shift of perspective for Trump, who has long railed against such methods of voting
  • Trump has long criticized such voting methods, including as recently as last month, when he called mail-in voting “largely corrupt” during a campaign rally in New Jersey

“Republicans must win and we will use every appropriate tool to beat the Democrats because they are destroying our country,” Trump said in a statement announcing the new effort. “We make sure your ballot is secure and your voice is heard. Whether you vote absentee, by mail, early in-person or on Election Day, we are going to protect the vote.”

The initiative, named “Swamp the Vote USA,” will seek to use voter contacts to get new absentee and mail-in ballot registrations or commitments from supporters to vote early in-person. It will be managed by the Republican National Committee’s "Trump Force 47," a program focused on mobilizing voters in battleground states. 

“You need to make a plan, register, and vote any way possible,” Trump’s statement continued. “We have got to get your vote.”

President Joe Biden's campaign responded to the announcement in a statement by pointing to Trump's previous attacks on voting by mail, highlighting that he called the practice “totally corrupt” and proposed ending it. 

“Trump has spent years saying early and mail in voting was ‘fraudulent,’ 'cheating,’ and ‘crooked.’ Apparently his campaign feels otherwise,” James Singer, a spokesperson for Biden’s reelection campaign, said. “Trump should own up to the lies about voting and elections he’s been telling for years.”

The fresh initiative by the Trump camp is intended to succeed the RNC’s "Bank Your Vote" campaign launched last summer. That effort similarly was focused on getting Republicans to utilize early voting methods — whether that be through in-person early voting, absentee and mail-in ballots or “ballot harvesting, where legal.” 

Since then, the RNC has come under new leadership with Trump-backed leaders Michael Whatley and Lara Trump taking the helm from Ronna McDaniel. 

Despite promoting early voting and the "Bank Your Vote campaign" in a video – in which he also reiterated his baseless claim that the 2020 election was rigged – last summer, Trump has long criticized such voting methods, including as recently as last month, when he called mail-in voting “largely corrupt” during a campaign rally in New Jersey. 

Democratic voters embraced early voting in 2020, in which Biden defeated Trump, as well as in the 2022 midterms, in which Democrats retained control of the Senate and only narrowly lost the House. One survey of registered voters after the 2020 contest by the MIT Data and Science Lab found that about 60% of Democrats cast their ballots by mail compared to 30% of Republicans. 

A Stanford study similarly found that while Democrats were more likely to vote by mail than Republicans in 2020, it did not mean that gave them a boost in winning.