Conservative media figures are unable to agree whether Republicans should start incorporating early and mail-in voting in their election strategies or move to even further restrict voting in the wake of the GOP’s historically poor performance in the 2022 midterm elections.

Democrats performed far above expectations in the election, retaining control of the U.S. Senate while flipping one Senate seat and three governorships. Conservative media have already engaged in a circular firing squad to cast blame on former President Donald Trump and GOP congressional leadership for the poor performances of many Republican candidates. Now, many right-wing media personalities are divided about whether the GOP should encourage early and mail-in voting, which helped Democrats boost voter turnout in key races, or pursue further attempts to restrict voting.

During the 2012 presidential election cycle, right-wing media fiercely attacked the concept of early voting, falsely claiming it’s unconstitutional and rife with fraud. Many of the same outlets and personalities launched more baseless attacks on mail-in ballots during the 2020 presidential election, and Fox News prime-time host Sean Hannity called for the end of this method of voting following Trump’s defeat. (Hannity seems to have changed his mind after the 2022 midterms.) Prior to the 2022 midterm election, right-wing media yet again criticized the existence of early and mail-in voting, particularly in Pennsylvania, where Democrat John Fetterman successfully flipped a Senate seat.

And Republicans have previously passed laws to curtail early and/or mail-in voting. Before the 2016 presidential election, multiple GOP-run states passed laws limiting early voting, including Wisconsin, Florida, and Ohio. In 2021, Georgia Republicans passed a law that made mail-in voting more difficult and shortened the state’s runoff election period for statewide offices from 9 to 4 weeks, while limiting early voting days.

Now, conservative media figures are divided over whether the GOP should continue its decades-long assault on voting, or embrace early and mail-in voting to help with the party’s own voter turnout. Others suggest a hybrid strategy, urging Republicans to use early and mail-in voting until they’ve amassed the power to ban them. And some right-wing personalities, such as Tomi Lahren and Steve Cortes, have adopted contradictory positions on both sides of this issue.

Many conservative media figures urged Republicans to “adapt or die” by encouraging early or mail-in voting

• Hannity.com: “BANK BALLOTS EARLY! Conway Says GOP Needs to Get Smart About Early Voting.” [Hannity.com, 11/15/22]
• National Review: “To Stop Dems’ Next Perfect Storm, GOP Needs to Embrace Early Voting Now.” [National Review, 11/15/22]
• Breitbart senior editor-at-large Joel Pollak: “Voting will only return to the international norm -- one election day, in person, with photo ID -- once Republicans start winning through vote-by-mail and ballot harvesting. Then Democrats will magically rediscover the vital importance of safeguards against fraud. Get on it, GOP.” [Twitter, 11/15/22]
• Fox host Laura Ingraham: “As much as we all wish voting was limited to one day — and I would mandate that tomorrow, if I were queen — early voting is probably here to stay. So what’s leadership proposing that their state officials do to get better at this? You’ve got to hand it to them, the Democrats know how to game the system. But until Republicans can change election laws, they need to beat the Democrats at their own game.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 11/14/22]
• Fox contributor Katie Pavlich: “Republicans either adapt to mail-in voting and ballot harvesting or they don’t win. California Republicans have been doing it for years, catch up. Adapt or die.” [Twitter, 11/14/22]
• The Federalist: “Republican Leaders Have A Choice: Roll Back Early Voting And Mail-In Ballots Or Learn To Take Advantage Of Them.” [The Federalist, 11/14/22]
• Conservative radio host Erick Erickson: “The GOP is not going to end vote-by-mail and early voting, so they might as well figure out how to use it to their advantage. There was a time the GOP was dominant in early voting and absentee balloting.” [Twitter, 11/14/22]
• Republican strategist Greg Price: “Perhaps our problems are not so much about the quality of our candidates and more about Republicans shitting the bed when it comes to taking advantage of the evolving voting procedures Democrats have mastered to their advantage in states like PA and AZ.” [Twitter, 11/14/22]
• Outkick host Tomi Lahren: “Republicans, if we don’t get a handle on our election strategy we will continue to lose. We have to have a better early voting ground game and we have to push for voter ID! We can’t let them set the rules and then change them at their convenience!!” [Twitter, 11/13/22]
• Conservative author David Limbaugh: “I wouldn’t be saying this if we weren’t watching the devastating effects of this slow roll right before our eyes. Every day Democrats gain. Our election reform efforts will also have to be coupled with a mega-aggressive effort to master our own mail-in vote strategies, sadly.” [Twitter, 11/13/22]
• Far-right troll Ian Miles Cheong: “Republicans are never going to get good at this unless they're willing to embrace mail-in voting and beat the Democrats at their own strategy. Which of course will never happen because Trump already poisoned the well.” [Twitter, 11/13/22]
• One America News’ John Hines: “Republicans need to figure out a mail-in, early vote strategy. They need to figure out how to win that. They still, it seems like, really haven't quite gotten that figured out, and that cost us one Senate seat.” [OAN, Weekly Briefing, 11/12/22]
• Price: “In a state like Pennsylvania where Democrats are in control, we need to play their game. The GOP has failed to prioritize early voting and that needs to change. Play their game. Get dirty. Harvest ballots. That's the only way we can win.” [Twitter, 11/12/22]
• The Federalist co-founder Ben Domenech: “Mail in and early voting sucks and is dangerous for government also Republicans need a mail in and early vote strategy immediately.” [Twitter, 11/12/22]
• Domenech: “As soon as the GOP engages in early voting it will become a danger to democracy.” [Twitter, 11/12/22]
• Fox contributor Joe Concha: “Maybe embrace the advantages of early voting and not give the other side a five-week head start.” [Twitter, 11/12/22]
• Fox contributor Lisa Boothe: “I’ve said this on my podcast and radio this week, but we can’t be the Toys R Us of politics. We can either complain about this new era of early voting and lose or innovate.” [Twitter, 11/12/22]
• Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York: “But the fact is, mail-in voting exists and is the dominant form of voting in several states. Republicans can either adapt to it, encourage their voters to use it, or lose elections.” [Washington Examiner, 11/11/22]
• Conservative talk radio host Buck Sexton agreed with Fox contributor Mollie Hemingway that Republicans need to stop “thinking Election Day is a single day”: “GOP needs to fight fire with fire, no more ‘but voting should be one day!’ You play the game with the rules that exist, not the ones you wish. We need massive shift in focus to early voting and yes, mail in where it’s already the law. @MZHemingway gets it.” [Twitter, 11/11/22]
• Former CNN commentator Steve Cortes: “These lax voting procedures invite manipulation & fraud, and should be reformed. But if these practices remain, the GOP has to completely change voting habits and massively ramp up Get Out The Vote on our side.” [Twitter, 11/11/22]
• Right-wing magazine The Spectator: “Republicans need to figure out mail-in voting.” [The Spectator, 11/10/22]
• Fox host Jesse Watters: “This early voting thing Republicans have to get a handle on. We show up on Election Day and Democrats show up weeks before Election Day, day after day after day. What's the Republican strategy on early voting? I don't know. Do you? I'd like to find out, because the Democratic machine in Philly and all over Pennsylvania's grinding out early votes at a crazy clip and come Election Day, Republicans have a big mountain to climb. Unless we have a game plan for these mail-in ballots and early voting, this is is deja vu.” [FoxNews.com, 11/9/22]

Other conservatives still urged Republicans to end early and mail-in voting

• Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton: “End mass mail-in votes, require voter id, citizenship verification, and, generally, voting in person. And count the darn votes on Election Day!” [Twitter, 11/15/22]
• Lahren: “There shouldn’t be two months of early voting and this mass mail in voting is absolute horseshit!” [Twitter, 11/14/22]
• BlazeTV host Steve Deace: “Woke up this morning to a slew of tweets about ending early voting and ballot harvesting, which I’m all for. But precisely how/where will this happen? Democrats in AZ, PA, MI, NV, or DC are going to do this to themselves? Where is the power to do this? So what’s Plan B?” [Twitter, 11/14/22]
• Fox & Friends Weekend host Will Cain suggested reducing mail-in voting so that fewer Americans vote: “Do you think everybody is invested in this? Is everyone familiar with the candidates? Do they know the issues? I think that there is a minimal effort in going to the poll that reflects a certain level of investment and skin in the game.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends Weekend, 11/13/22]
• Fitton: “One of the reasons I object to vote-by-mail is because I know the voting rolls are a disaster! They’re hard to keep track of & the best way to mitigate against having dirty election rolls is to have folks vote in person.” [Twitter, 11/13/22]
• Newsmax host Greg Kelly: “CANCEL MAIL-IN VOTING.” [Twitter, 11/12/22]
• Townhall columnist Kurt Schlichter: “I would love to eliminate” mail-in voting. [Twitter, 11/12/22]
• Fitton: “Mass mail-in voting is incompatible with free and fair elections.” [Twitter, 11/12/22]
• Former Media Research Center Vice President Dan Gainor: “Voting early is a privilege that is much abused. The result is a lot of people vote without essential knowledge. Like knowing about Fetterman.” [Twitter, 11/11/22]
• Gainor: “Mail in voting is designed to Democrats can go and harass their base over a month to get them to vote. It’s a thoroughly corrupt concept.” [Twitter, 11/10/22]
• Gainor: “Every single GOP controlled state needs to end mail in voting. Except for the military.” [Twitter, 11/10/22]
• Lahren: “Unmonitored mail in voting needs to end!” [Twitter, 11/10/22]
• Newsmax host Benny Johnson: “👏BAN👏MAIL👏VOTING👏.” [Twitter, 11/10/22]
• Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham: “Want to restore trust in our elections? Have a very short window for voting; limit mail-in ballots to the infirm, overseas, and military; and tally the votes in one day. If you’re not willing to do that, you don’t actually care that much if people suspect there’s cheating.” [Twitter, 11/10/22]
• Cortes: “As the Great Sorting accelerates, in the states we control, election reforms MUST be enacted now, for 2024. a. In person voting, except for valid excuses like hospitalization or military deployment. b. Photo ID required c. No machines. Paper ballots.” [Twitter, 11/9/22]