Welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining us today's press call. We'll be kicking off here in about a minute and 30 seconds. If you guys got any message beforehand disclaimer or what not concerning the rpw just to clarify this call is on record and may be recorded.
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All righty. I'll go ahead and hit record, and we will begin here in the morning recording in progress.
Good morning, everyone. Excuse me. Good afternoon, everyone, and happy Monday to you all. Welcome to today's press call hosted by the Republican Party of Wisconsin. I'm Matt Fisher Communications Director for the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
And joining us today on this call are Congressman Brian style, Congressman Derek Van Orton, state treasurer, John Leiber and chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Brian Shimming.
I'd like to thank all members of the press who are joining us on today's call to discuss the importance of early voting to winning in November and turning the page on the failed Biden Harris administration.
We look forward to taking a few questions as time allows at the end. As a reminder, everything discussed on this call today is on the record and may be recorded.
If there are any issues recording today's call, feel free to reach out to me at my email at mfisher at with GOP.org. That's mfisher at with GOP.org, and we'll be sure to help assist you in getting that recording.
Now we'll kick things off by turning the call over to Congressman style Congressman. Happy Monday. The floor is yours.
Hey, thanks, Matt. We are in the home stretch of this election and tomorrow is the start of in person early voting in Wisconsin. I'm going to be voting early in person in Jamesville tomorrow morning.
I would encourage anybody on this call to come and join me as we get the message out tomorrow in Jamesville to bank the vote to swamp the vote.
Thank you.
And my seat is here today and you're joining us today.
Thank you.
I do think in particular, this is our opportunity as Republicans as conservatives, as Trump supporters to make sure that we're using every legal means to get the vote out in that in particular means encouraging people to vote early in person, as though I'm going to be voting early in person
tomorrow, I encourage everyone listening and watching to this to do the same.
day in Wisconsin today as we know if you if you love the weather wait a few
minutes it'll turn you never know when a snowstorm is gonna come in November in
Wisconsin it's a great opportunity while the weather's nice to get out to your
local office and cast your vote and have that vote banked and so encourage
everyone to take advantage of all the legal tools in the toolkit to have their
vote counted and encourage anyone on today's call to come and join me in
Jamesville as we vote early and in person with that Matt I'll pass it back
to you. Thank you Congressman style next up Congressman Derek van Ordon it's
great to have you on call today the floor is yours. Thank you very much this
selection is about three things it's gas groceries and grandkids we're having
difficulty filling up a gas tank and a grocery cart on the same day in the
United States of America and it simply was not like that four years ago we're
concerned about the security and the future of our children and our grandchildren
like we haven't been for and been in such an incredibly long time it just
wasn't like that four years ago so how do we change this we go vote I will be
voting in person absentee ballot tomorrow also and I want all of my
Republican friends to get out there and vote I want you Democrat friends and
independent friends to vote also you know why because if you just believe
you're lying eyes look at your gas bill look at your grocery bill talk about
the security of your kids we've had what 200,000 plus American citizens die of
fentanyl poisoning since Harris took over the borders are them it simply has to
stop so join me and your buddies getting out tomorrow do in-person absentee
ballot and if you can't do it tomorrow do it the next day do not wait until the
actual voting election day polling day in case something does happen because
we're in the state of Wisconsin so get out make your voice sure God bless you
and your families we're looking forward to President Trump women taking the
Senate and us expanding our majority in the house thank you congressman Van
Orton next up state treasurer John Lieber it's good to have you on today the
floor is yours thanks Matt so it shouldn't come to as a surprise anyone
that the election in Wisconsin is going to be close but some people are really
surprised by how close that's going to be my race two years ago was a difference
of about 38,000 votes and that's practically a landslide when it comes
to presidential elections most of the last ones have been decided by 25,000
votes or less so I actually have the two congressman here beat I've already
voted I've already sent my absentee ballot in I checked on the website and
they've received it so I'm all done I don't even have to go vote I'm a right
I've already done it in fact on election day I'm going to be working at the polls
I signed up to be a poll worker so I can you know play my part and make sure
everything goes smoothly and I think you know the last ones I've worked at have
gone great I think this one's gonna get might take a while but I think we're
gonna get through it and whatever does happen it is going to be close so again
I want to echo the congressman if you haven't voted yet start you know start
making a plan go and vote tomorrow vote the next day the day after you know
try to do it as early as possible because if you're in Wisconsin right now
you you can look out the window it's what almost 80 it feels like it could be
50 tomorrow it could be snowing the next day it could be raining the day after
that we just don't know what's gonna happen so let's do it when the sun
shining and it's nice out and we can make a day of it go get some ice cream
afterwards whatever you decide to do make it fun but get it done and you don't
have to worry about it after that you can sit at home and watch the polling
numbers come in and have a party because I think we're gonna win this one
absolutely go for ice cream I'll still warm enough to go for ice cream I'd
last up chairman shimming great to have you on the day passing mic over to you
thanks mad and thanks congressman style and been ordered in state treasure or
library for being with us today I'm gonna declare today at the Eau Claire county
republican headquarters where they have people out on the doors tomorrow's the
big day in Wisconsin not because Barack Obama's hanging around town
but because it's early vote it's the first day of our early vote and that is a
significant day the Wisconsin Republican Party was the first state party in
the country to come out and endorse early vote and start its early vote
programming and so I'm excited about this and about the importance of it look I
spoke at the rally with president Trump back in Dodge County a couple of weeks
ago the biggest banner at that rally to the president's left was vote early
two words vote early and the president spoke passionately at that rally about
the importance of people voting early and not waiting until election day so the
signal has been sent out very clearly Wisconsin Republicans please vote early
and get your votes in the bank now with respect to Barack Obama coming into the
state there's a reason that Barack Obama is coming into the state and it's not
necessarily the most obvious one the reason that Barack Obama is in campaigning
for Kamala Harris is because Joe Biden can't she cannot possibly have herself
associated with the last four years of the Biden administration so she can't
have Joe Biden and campaign for her because if if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's records
are attached she loses the election there's no doubt about that on every
major issue on immigration on the economy and inflation on violent crime on all
the big issues they're upside down with all voters I would also note that in the
last 10 days for the first time since the democrat convention that Kamala Harris's
favorables are now upside down her unfavorables are higher than her
favorables and that's because every day that goes by people realize more they
remember more about why we're in the shape that we're in right now so Kamala Harris
can't afford to be associated with Joe Biden so whether it's Barack Obama or
Liz Cheney or just about anybody else she can have come in the state and
campaign for her she can't have the association with Joe Biden I would add
too to the comment made before about the weather by the state treasure remember
this is recent history it was back in April in the April elections when we had a
torrential snowstorm in Wisconsin really very heavy nasty snowstorm and rain in
that election that could easily happen obviously going into November again so
we can't afford to wait so we encourage people to vote early because you never
know what's going on with the weather and from my perspective as the party
chairman for every person that votes early we save resources and can spend it on
people who may be undecided we go out and get those many people who
think like us who act like us who believe like us who live like us there's
hundreds of thousands of them in this state they go out and vote this year
and Donald Trump will be back in the White House thank you chairman shimming
we'll now move on to the Q&A portion of today's call if you have any questions
feel free to submit them in the Q&A portion to the chat bar below or the
bar below the tool large and say feel free to submit your questions there
and from there I'll relate them to our panelists so yeah go ahead and open up
that time now and we will begin that in about 30 seconds or so
all right our first question comes from Sarah
Lair at WPR this summer the those constant Republican party criticized
the state supreme court decision that once again legalized ballot drop boxes
some Republican officials have suggested that drop boxes are not secure
would you encourage Wisconsin voters to vote absentee via drop box
chairman shimming we can go to you first and then if any one of the congressmen
or state treasurer live if you want to chime in afterwards by all means by
chairman shimming I would generally encourage voters to
either vote in person or in person that their clerk's office or by mail
as others have done look our issue with drop boxes is
because it's so even the regulation of drop boxes throughout the state we
don't know what we're going to get we do have areas who ban drop boxes you
have others that are using them but I always feel safe for myself
mailing it in or voting at my clerk's office but I will tell you if it's the
difference between getting a vote in or not getting a vote in
you know I say to Republicans put it in the mailbox or put it in the drop box
anyone else want to comment or we can move on to the next question
met up met there's a congressman friend style maybe I'll just jump in and just
add one thing I think the key here is we're encouraging
everyone to use every legal means possible to vote the frustration of
myself and a lot of conservatives is that the rules of the game continue to
change by activist judges and so what we want is one set of rules to
apply to the state that said in the home stretch of the
selection with just over two weeks to go I am
encouraging everyone to use every legal means possible to vote to make sure
that their voice is heard in particular the exciting news is tomorrow
in-person early voting starts and so you have an opportunity to go straight into
your clerk's office vote in person early that's what I'll be doing in
Janesville tomorrow all righty our next question is
oh did you ever say something I was just gonna jump in so all of these methods
are treated the same they're treated as absentee ballots so they're all
processed the same it all gets to the same place
so again what we're encouraging people to do vote
the best way to make sure your votes there and it's
been received is to go in person absentee and that starts tomorrow
Great for our next question will be from Scott Bauer this is for you Chairman
Shimming again for Brian besides simply encouraging people to
vote early what specific actions is the state GOP
and its allies taking to get that done yeah we have literally hundreds and
hundreds of people out on the doors throughout Wisconsin
on the phones we'll have put millions of pieces of mail
in mailboxes across the state we're on the phones we're in digital
we're in every imaginable way to go get people to vote in this election
I you know when I took over as chair I said I wanted to do some different
things and that included early voting because I think
we had spent too many years going into election day a hundred
thousand votes down and trying to make it up in 13 hours
and so I committed when I became chair we're not going to do that
and if that means using every available tool on the books
including mail-in voting including drop boxes especially now that they're
legal we need to avail ourselves of every
imaginable way to get votes in that's what I've done as chair and it
it you know to congress fund styles point
look we've got 15 days here to get this thing done
I don't want to get I've been say I was in Green Bay yesterday I was in
wasa this morning and I'll clear now I'm telling people look there's 15
days to get this done and I don't want to take the risk of
our people not availing themselves of all the opportunities to vote
and tomorrow's the big day because early in-person vote starts
and I encourage people to early vote if at all possible
awesome and our final question again for you chairman shimming this is from
Patrick Marley the Washington Post uh for the chairman
Trump has had mixed signals mismatch mixed messages excuse me
on early voting are you worried this could diminish Republican turnout
what would you say to Republicans who are reluctant to vote early because
Trump has said it's not secure uh president Trump at the
rally in Dodge County made it really clear it wasn't just the signage
uh vote early in the rally it was president Trump in his own words
telling well over 10 000 people and all the assembled media there
that it was important that they vote early so the message from the president
is very clear the message from us very clear the message from everybody on
this call very clear uh take an opportunity uh make a plan
to vote and if you can vote early do so hey Matt yeah
Congressman go ahead every single rally phone call tell a rally
thing that president Trump has been doing has been saying he's been very very
explicit if you can vote now do so if you want to do in-person absentee do
so the big call is to vote and here's the deal with Republicans man
you get done on a third shift and your back is sore you don't want to go
standing lying at the voting booth you just don't want to
if you got great weather like we do right now when you're out chopping all night
because it's got to get done you don't want to get out of that tractor and go
standing lying at a polling station for a couple hours
that's why Republicans aren't voting so listen to what president Trump said
look at the uh everything across all of his media
and get out and vote now or absentee in person absentee tomorrow do it
that's my sub box i'm out there you go anybody thoughts uh
treasure library congressman style
all righty well thank you all again for joining us on today's call thank you to
our panelists for participating and thank you to the press as well
again if you need a copy of the recording for today's press call feel
free to reach out to me at my email or you can give me a call or whatever
is most convenient thank you again for joining us
enjoy the rest of your monday and take care everyone
thanks everyone see you recording stopped back to work there we go
all right