It's no secret, and no small source of frustration to Republicans, that Democrats have outperformed expectations in recent elections. Whether it was the red wave-turned trickle of 2022, or this year's failure to win big races in Kentucky and Virginia, the GOP has been left disappointed on the last two election nights. Now, one Republican thinks he may have figured out why. Former Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz points to a 2021 executive order President Biden signed to promote 'voter outreach' that essentially weaponized the federal government to turn out Democrat voters.
Chaffetz further explains the order in a Fox News interview. "(Biden) directed all 600 departments and agencies within the federal government to get people registered, and make sure that they voted," he says.
But this get-out-the-vote effort is not aimed at all voters, and certainly not Republicans. "(Biden) specifically named felons, people of certain ethnic persuasions, he mentioned equity," says Chaffetz. "Everybody in the federal prison system---that's a couple million people---so yeah, they targeted Democrats."
The effort also targeted government employees, civil rights advocates, and those on public assistance. "If you get food stamps for instance, they can look at that person and say let's go get that person registered to vote," says Chaffetz. "Do you think they're going to vote for the Republican, or for the Democrat?"
Democrats have long outpaced Republicans when it comes to electioneering or getting out their votes, even using nonprofits to register Dem voters in the current cycle. But this plan goes a step further because it involves an order directly from the president that targets the entire federal workforce. "The federal government will not tell the American public what these plans are, they're hiding behind executive privilege," Chaffetz tells Fox. "But (the order) basically leveraged every federal department, agency, and personnel to get out the vote for their chosen constituencies."
This is why Republicans can't get overconfident with positive polls heading into 2024. As Chaffetz writes in his op-ed, "It isn't enough to be right on the issues...winning campaigns need a plan to get out the vote...this is the challenge for Republicans."