ICYMI: GOP Senate Contenders Tell Rural Counties Their Votes Count, Unlike In Urban Counties [HuffPost]

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HuffPost: GOP Senate Contenders Tell Rural Counties Their Votes Count, Unlike In Urban Counties

By Igor Bobic

February 3, 2022

The subtext is less a dog whistle and more of a bullhorn.

Key Points:

• Scaring people about supposed election fraud isn’t a great strategy for motivating them to vote.

• Trump’s repeated lies about voter fraud actually dampened turnout in Republican areas of Georgia, GOP officials acknowledged, helping to cost his party not only the White House but control of the U.S. Senate.
  
• Now, some Republican Senate contenders are seeking to avoid that calamity in their races by absurdly claiming that only urban Democratic areas experience voter fraud, whereas rural GOP counties are perfectly safe from it.

• “Our concern is Milwaukee. …This is one of these big Democrat strongholds that just can’t seem to get their votes counted until they know exactly how many votes they need,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said during a tele-town hall on Wednesday. “Whether anything’s happening or not, this just looks suspicious.”
  
• The Wisconsin Republican, who is up for reelection this year, then praised election administrators in rural areas of the state, including in his hometown of Oshkosh, according to Heartland Signal.
  
• In Nevada, GOP Senate hopeful Adam Laxalt… is running the same playbook.

• During events on the campaign trail, Laxalt has sought to reassure supporters that their votes will count this year even as he has railed about election insecurity and made bogus claims of voter fraud.

• “Clark County? We got major problems down there. And we’ve got to fight that,” he added, referring to the state’s most populous and heavily Democratic county, which includes Las Vegas.
  
• “I do think votes count here. I do think votes count in at least 15 counties,” Laxalt said at another event, according to the audiotape. “Washoe County can be a little squirrelly.”
  

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