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Trump Die-Hards Launch MAGA Voter Suppression Center
https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2021/09/14/trump-die-hards-launch-maga-voter-suppression-center/The America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a nonprofit spin-off of the Trump administration established in April, launched a new “Center for Election Integrity” on August 19 at the Metro City Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
Materials obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) detail a sophisticated, well-funded effort by the newly founded nonprofit to engage state-level allies and coordinate with national right-wing groups working on elections to advance voter suppression measures embraced by the far right.
The new Center’s priorities echo many of the far Right’s for suppressing the vote, including “to amplify the importance of voter identification, require ballots to be returned by election day, stop the practice of ballot harvesting, ensure voter rolls are consistently cleaned and kept up to date, prohibit the privatization of elections, and litigate cases of voter fraud,” according to a press release.
The church appears to have been chosen strategically, as it is a Black venue and has been used by the Christian Right and Republicans in the past. During the U.S. Senate runoff elections, the PAC of the anti-LGBTQ hate group the Family Research Council held a “Georgia Pastors Briefing” at the church, where then Senate candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock (D) was attacked for his support of a woman’s right to choose, and U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler (R) “appeared in a special video message.”
Hogan Gidley, director of the center and former deputy press secretary in the Trump administration, told supporters on a call following the event that, “we already have two people in every state at least, who are kinda heading some of our efforts and starting to take audits in different states,” materials obtained by CMD detail.
Gidley continued, “What we have begun to do and we’re getting closer to kinda releasing some more data and information around this is to develop around 15 to 25 to 30 things a bill needs.”
Some of AFPI’s recommendations for state level bills are included in its overview document, while others appear in papers on voter rolls, mail-in ballots, and voter ID.
Notes from the call show Gidley listed Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin—mostly swing states–as “target states” for the new group.
Materials obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) detail a sophisticated, well-funded effort by the newly founded nonprofit to engage state-level allies and coordinate with national right-wing groups working on elections to advance voter suppression measures embraced by the far right.
The new Center’s priorities echo many of the far Right’s for suppressing the vote, including “to amplify the importance of voter identification, require ballots to be returned by election day, stop the practice of ballot harvesting, ensure voter rolls are consistently cleaned and kept up to date, prohibit the privatization of elections, and litigate cases of voter fraud,” according to a press release.
The church appears to have been chosen strategically, as it is a Black venue and has been used by the Christian Right and Republicans in the past. During the U.S. Senate runoff elections, the PAC of the anti-LGBTQ hate group the Family Research Council held a “Georgia Pastors Briefing” at the church, where then Senate candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock (D) was attacked for his support of a woman’s right to choose, and U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler (R) “appeared in a special video message.”
Hogan Gidley, director of the center and former deputy press secretary in the Trump administration, told supporters on a call following the event that, “we already have two people in every state at least, who are kinda heading some of our efforts and starting to take audits in different states,” materials obtained by CMD detail.
Gidley continued, “What we have begun to do and we’re getting closer to kinda releasing some more data and information around this is to develop around 15 to 25 to 30 things a bill needs.”
Some of AFPI’s recommendations for state level bills are included in its overview document, while others appear in papers on voter rolls, mail-in ballots, and voter ID.
Notes from the call show Gidley listed Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin—mostly swing states–as “target states” for the new group.