DeSantis slams GOP ‘culture of losing,’ calls for ballot harvesting where legal

MIDLAND COUNTY, Mich. (FLV) – At a speech at the Midland County GOP’s annual breakfast, Gov. Ron DeSantis called on Republicans across the country to stop handing Democrats an “advantage” by not utilizing voting tactics like ballot harvesting where legal.

DeSantis pointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court elections, where the conservative-leaning candidate, Daniel Kelly, lost to liberal-leaning Janet Protasiewicz by double digits.

“What I see around the country with Republicans is they started to develop a culture of losing,” he said. “This is something we saw in Wisconsin with this Supreme Court race.”

“We [also] saw it with a very disappointing midterm election.”

DeSantis pointed to Florida, which he touted as having a “culture of winning” for Republicans.

“We have a culture of execution and we have a culture of delivering results, and you need to be able to win,” he said.

The governor bragged of Florida doing away with ballot harvesting “Zuckerbucks” funding elections, but noted other state Republican parties that do not have those types of election laws must use existing statutes to their advantage, not disadvantage.

“But if that’s not the law in your state, you need to use those rules for Republicans advantage,” DeSantis said. “You can’t have Republicans fighting with one hand behind their backs.”

“I think you should have ballot harvesting where it’s legal and then fight to have the legislatures in those states get rid of it, because that’s not the way you should conduct an election,” he said.

“But if you let Democrats do all this and all we do is complain about it. You’re giving the Democrats an advantage and I’m sick of that.”

DeSantis’ sentiments on utilizing stronger tactics like ballot harvesting where legal became more vocal in the wake of the 2022 midterm underperformances from Republicans across the country – except in Florida, where Republicans took advantage of both early and mail-in voting.

Christian Ziegler, chairman of the Florida GOP, recently announced an “Early Vote Operations Committee” to bolster turnout.

“News out of Wisconsin tonight is that we lost the vital Supreme Court seat due to Democrats outperforming us in Early Voting… That isn’t going to happen in Florida,” Ziegler said.

“We are going to aggressively go after every ballot and bank votes as soon as possible,” he continued.

Scott Presler, a conservative grassroots activist, has advocated for using such tactics for years before Republicans faced devastating losses with the alteration of election laws.

Earlier this year, Presler announced a PAC to target early and mail-in voting in crucial states for Republicans.

“This organization aims to build early/mail-in voting infrastructures in AZ, NC, NV, PA, & WI to win the White House in 2024,” Presler tweeted.