A lot of factors contributed to the GOP underperformance in last year's midterm elections. But as NBC News' Allan Smith reports, one less-talked about factor may lie in the party's massive voter-contact operation, which some Republicans warn remains too vulnerable to fraud or reliant on questionable data.
Among the episodes detailed in Smith's new story – how paid canvassers who were supposed to be knocking on doors in Las Vegas were instead sitting inside a casino eight miles away as they were fraudulently checking off homes they supposedly were visiting. And in Georgia, canvassers drastically shifted away from electronic reporting toward harder-to-verify paper records, in the race's final weeks.
Read more on NBCNews.com.
In other campaign news…
On the trail: DeSantis' swing through Iowa continued Wednesday, where he sought to draw a contrast with Trump. Meanwhile, some Florida leaders are pushing back on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement "diverting waves of additional resources" towards DeSantis' "protection and priorities," NBC News' Matt Dixon reports.
Trump on tape: Federal prosecutors have reportedly obtained a recording that includes Trump acknowledging he held onto a classified document relating to Iran, CNN reports.
Scott's take: Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., became the latest presidential hopeful to criticize the debt ceiling deal, saying Wednesday that he would oppose it because he does not want Biden to have "an open checkbook."
Backing down: The pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down has scaled down its ad spending in recent weeks, while a pro-Trump group has continued to spend on the airwaves.
Haley's husband: Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley's husband Michael will deploy to Africa as part of the South Carolina National Guard, likely taking him off the campaign trail for the next year.
Border politics: Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who could still jump into the presidential race, announced Wednesday he is sending National Guard troops to the southern border.
GOP's gamble: The Nevada Republican Party filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging a 2021 law that established a presidential primary instead of a caucus, per the Nevada Independent.
Lump of coal: The Justice Department on Wednesday accused West Virginia GOP Gov. Jim Justice's son of failing to pay millions of dollars in penalties and fees for his coal companies' environmental violations. Justice's Senate campaign manager Roman Stauffer responded with a statement saying that Democrats are "panicking" about the Senate race, "So now the Biden Justice Department has decided to play politics."
Trouble in Trenton? The Wall Street Journal reports that New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, who faces another corruption investigation six years after corruption charges against him ended in a mistrial, met in 2018 with a meat importer who "is a focus of a federal public-corruption probe of the Democratic lawmaker."
Breaking with Biden: Three senators facing tough re-election races in 2024 – Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana, and Arizona Independent Sen. Krysten Sinema – sided with Republicans on Wednesday to advance legislation that would repeal Biden's student loan forgiveness program. (Manchin and Sinema have not yet announced if they are running for re-election.)
