{"id":20075,"date":"2026-03-16T09:46:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/were-going-to-have-a-problem-republicans-want-trump-to-move-on-from-2020\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T09:46:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:46:37","slug":"were-going-to-have-a-problem-republicans-want-trump-to-move-on-from-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/were-going-to-have-a-problem-republicans-want-trump-to-move-on-from-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019re going to have a problem\u2019: Republicans want Trump to move on from 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Donald Trump is bringing back 2020. Many Republicans wish he wouldn’t.<\/p>\n

Conversations with nearly a dozen GOP state and county chairs and strategists reveal a party largely eager to move on from relitigating Trump\u2019s election grievances, which they\u2019re worried may detract from an economic message that actually motivates voters. But the president won\u2019t let it go, subpoenaing 2020 election records<\/a> and putting pressure on lawmakers<\/a> to pass legislation to overhaul voter registration laws.<\/p>\n

As Republicans stare down a treacherous midterm landscape, there’s a growing view inside the party that focusing on \u201cstolen election\u201d claims and voter fraud will kneecap them in the general election: That messaging might play well with the MAGA base in the primary, but it could alienate moderates tired of rehashing an election from nearly six years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always one to believe you should look forward, not backward,\u201d said Charlie Gerow, a Pennsylvania-based GOP strategist and Trump convention delegate who hosted a meeting of fake electors in 2020 at his Harrisburg-based public affairs firm. \u201cIt would be better if the midterms focused on the recovery of the economy and all the good things the Republican administration and Congress are doing to move the economy forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, Trump has turned his sights on Maricopa County \u2014 Arizona’s largest county \u2014 subpoenaing records just weeks after the FBI raided an elections office outside Atlanta. He has revisited grievances<\/a> that the 2020 election was \u201crigged,\u201d suggested Republicans should nationalize elections<\/a> and is demanding that lawmakers make passing the SAVE America Act, which would put in place stricter voting requirements, their \u201cNo. 1 priority.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of me understands it, and part of me just wants to move forward,\u201d said Todd Gillman, chair of the Monroe County Republican Party in Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cFocus on the things that matter to everybody throughout the whole country,\u201d he said, \u201cor we\u2019re going to have a problem in a few months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump does have backing from a number of Republicans, including some battleground-state GOP chairs who are not only embracing the president\u2019s election probe, but openly encouraging his administration to audit their states\u2019 records as they continue to push allegations of fraud from 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bruce Parks, the chair of the Washoe County, Nevada, GOP, said he would \u201cabsolutely\u201d welcome a probe into his county and Clark County, the two largest in the state. And Jim Runestad, the chair of the Michigan Republican Party, suggested a review of records in Detroit, long a focal point of Trump\u2019s 2020 election conspiracies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no problem at taking a look at this and making sure everybody\u2019s comfortable,\u201d Runestad said.<\/p>\n

Still, others say the risk is that voters simply don\u2019t care \u2014 or have moved on. Republicans, including Trump\u2019s own advisers, increasingly want him to focus on the economy<\/a> ahead of the midterms.<\/p>\n

That comes as polling repeatedly shows that economic issues \u2014 not election issues \u2014 top voters\u2019 list of concerns. In a February Blue Light News Poll, more than half of all Americans \u2014 52 percent \u2014 said the cost of living was a top issue facing the U.S. By comparison, less than a quarter \u2014 23 percent \u2014 said a top issue was the U.S.\u2019 democracy being under threat, a view held predominately by Democrats.<\/p>\n

Those cost of living worries are now being exacerbated by Trump\u2019s war in Iran, which is driving up gas prices and wreaking global economic havoc as it enters its third week.<\/p>\n

The White House said Trump\u2019s efforts are aimed at restoring confidence in elections and reiterated the importance of passing the SAVE Act.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Trump] is committed to ensuring that Americans have full confidence in the administration of elections, and that includes totally accurate and up-to-date voter rolls free of errors and unlawfully registered non-citizen voters,\u201d spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Buzz Brockway, a GOP strategist and former state representative in Georgia, called election issues a \u201chuge distraction,\u201d adding: \u201cNobody outside of a small dedicated group are talking about this, they’re talking about the economy, they’re talking about, now, the price of oil.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Georgia, long an epicenter of Trump\u2019s repeated efforts to litigate the 2020 election, some Republicans say voters are now largely \u201cimmune\u201d to the issue that\u2019s been rehashed endlessly for the past five years.<\/p>\n

Some state-level GOP officials are hoping Congress passes the SAVE Act \u2014 despite the reluctance of many Republican lawmakers<\/a> \u2014 so it will give them enough cover with MAGA voters but allow them to avoid talking about election issues themselves.<\/p>\n

While Trump\u2019s \u201cstolen election\u201d claims may still be a driving force for some primary voters, the general electorate is focused elsewhere. And if Republicans make those grievances central to their midterm message, they risk falling into a similar trap Democrats confronted during the 2024 presidential election \u2014 when former Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 warnings about democracy won over already loyal Democrats but failed to sway enough of the swing voters she needed to clinch the presidency.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to at least touch that base,\u201d said one Georgia-based GOP strategist, granted anonymity to speak candidly. But \u201conce you\u2019ve got the nomination, then I think it really collapses down into economic issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

That dynamic can create a political conundrum for Republican candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cA savvy Democrat will put a candidate on the spot and say, \u2018You agree with [Trump], don’t you?\u2019 and make a mess,\u201d Brockway said. Republicans have \u201cgot to figure out a way to deflect that question somehow, in a plausible way that doesn’t alienate this loud minority.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump is bringing back 2020. Many Republicans wish he wouldn’t. Conversations with nearly a dozen GOP state and county chairs and strategists reveal a party largely eager to move on from relitigating Trump\u2019s election grievances, which they\u2019re worried may detract from an economic message that actually motivates voters. But the president won\u2019t let […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}