On a rainy weekday afternoon, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin bounded onto a makeshift stage at a local firehouse here to rally turnout for legislative elections that could deliver his party full control of Virginia and cement his reputation as a national GOP leader.
He spoke scornfully of the Democrats who now control the state Senate and have blocked parts of his conservative agenda, and he praised individual GOP candidates on the ballot this fall. But Youngkin also zeroed in on how his fellow Republicans should cast their ballots – part of what his aides say is a seven-figure drive to encourage mail-in and in-person early voting in a state that allows for 45 days of balloting.
“Vote early. Vote early. Vote early,” he exhorted the small crowd gathered before his blue-and-red “Secure Your Vote Virginia” tour bus that’s barnstorming the state. “Folks, we don’t know if a child is going to get sick” on Election Day, he said. “We don’t know if something is going to happen at work.”
Following lackluster results in the past two federal elections, some prominent Republicans, including Youngkin, this year are mounting major campaigns to drive GOP voters to embrace practices, such as voting by mail, that former President Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly denigrated as rife with fraud.
But they face the formidable task of winning over the GOP voters who remain skeptical of mail-in voting, years after the 2020 election. Those voters also must navigate a raft of new laws that have imposed fresh restrictions on absentee voting in recent years.
The Republican National Committee has been at the forefront of the early-voting campaign, launching a “Bank Your Vote” effort aimed at next year’s consequential White House and congressional contests. The party has rolled out state-specific programs in places like California, Ohio and Nevada –…
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