A top Republican legal strategist told a roomful of Republican donors over the weekend that conservatives should unite to limit voting on college campuses, same-day voter registration and the automatic mailing of ballots to registered voters.
Cleta Mitchell, a longtime Republican advocate and fundraiser who worked closely with former President Donald Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, made a presentation Saturday at the Republican National Committee Donor Retreat in Nashville.
The presentation, which included more than 50 slides and was labeled “a level-playing field for 2024,” provided a window into strategies that reduce voter access and turnout among specific groups, including students and mail-in voters. appears to be designed to do. Among them, they distort the Democratic Party.
Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment, and it is unclear whether he accurately delivered a presentation crafted from PowerPoint slides. But in addition to the presentation, The Post obtained partial audio of a presentation obtained by libertarian journalist Lauren Windsor in which Mitchell discussed campus restrictions and early voting.
“Where is this college campus located?” he asked according to the audio. “What are these youths trying to do? Basically, we put the polling place right next to the student dorms, so all you have to do is get out of bed, vote, and go back to sleep.
Republicans have not officially endorsed Mitchell’s plan, but have worked closely with Trump since leaving office. The presentation made it clear that at least some key figures within the party wanted to tighten voting and election rules. As the 2024 vote draws near, the continuation of the message comes despite the fact that candidates who exposed Trump’s stolen election narrative were rejected in several key statewide primary races in the 2022 midterms.
After the presentation, Michelle was seen meeting with donors and Republican strategists at the bar of the Four Seasons Hotel.
“As the RNC continues to strengthen its electoral integrity program, we are grateful to leaders like Cleta Mitchell for the important work they do for the Republican ecosystem. Our guests in Nashville appreciated her attending their event and sharing their efforts,” said RNC spokesman Keith Schipper.
According to the text of the presentation, Mitchell told the RNC audience that his organization, the Election Integrity Network, “wasn’t about winning the campaign”. But the slides offered a bit more rationale for why on-campus or mail-in voting should be curtailed. At another point in his presentation, he said the country’s electoral system needed to be saved “to give any non-leftist candidate a chance to win in 2024”.