ICYMI: Before Trump Rallies in Ohio, Try And Stop Us Exposes the Republicans Rigging Ohio's Election

Donald Trump lands in Vandalia tomorrow to rally for Sen. Jon Husted and Vivek Ramaswamy. His allies in Columbus have spent the year throwing out on-time mail ballots, purging voters using bad data, and thanking Trump's FBI for raiding a group that registers Ohioans to vote. This week, Try And Stop Us put names and receipts on every Republican behind the scheme.

Here's what you may have missed:

Ohio Republicans keep losing to Ohio voters, so now they're coming after the voters. A new Interested Parties memo from Try And Stop Us walks through the plan step by step. Weeks after Trump's DOJ threatened Ohio with a lawsuit, Republicans killed the four-day grace period for mailed ballots. In 2024, about 10,000 ballots mailed on time arrived in that window and were counted. This year, every one of them will get tossed. Republicans ordered monthly purges against BMV records and Trump's SAVE database that cancel voter registrations first and notify later, and Secretary of State Frank LaRose's office has flagged 208,856 more registrations for removal. Two Trump-appointed judges revived a proof-of-citizenship requirement at the BMV after married women were turned away under it. When FBI agents raided the Cleveland office of a voter registration group, LaRose's office said it appreciated the work of "our federal law enforcement partners." Ohio voters crushed the last Republican power grab by 14 points, and Republicans know they can't win a fair fight. Read the memo →

Vivek Ramaswamy told the truth about 2020, then flipped once he wanted MAGA votes. In his 2022 book, Ramaswamy defended Mike Pence's decision to certify the 2020 results and dismissed Trump's stolen-election lies. By the 2023 presidential debates, he was claiming Jan. 6 "now does look like it was an inside job" and that 2020 was "stolen by Big Tech." He refused to say he would have certified the 2020 election and said he would have held certification hostage to election law changes. Tomorrow he shares a stage with the man he once wrote had no evidence the election was stolen. Read the Conspirator File →

Frank LaRose and Robert Sprague know Ohio's elections are secure, and they keep attacking them anyway. In 2020, LaRose called Ohio absentee voting "trusted and secure" and dismissed Trump's mail-voting attacks as "absolute B.S." Then he handed the voter data of nearly 8 million Ohioans to Trump's DOJ and sent federal prosecutors a list of "noncitizens" built from unverified name matches. Now term-limited, he's running for auditor. The Republican running to replace him, Treasurer Robert Sprague, wants to eliminate drop boxes and limit who can vote absentee, and ran a campaign ad starring a puppet named "Lefty the Cheat" climbing out of a drop box. As a state lawmaker, Sprague twice voted to keep vote-by-mail as it is. Now he wants to take it from the 914,752 Ohioans who used it in 2024. Read the Conspirator File →

Max Miller and Derek Merrin backed Trump's 2020 lies, and now both could lose. Miller, a former Trump White House aide, promoted Trump's false claim that the 2020 election was "rigged." As a state lawmaker, Merrin signed a letter urging Ohio's attorney general to join Texas's lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to throw out every electoral vote from Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Ohio's Republican AG rejected the suit. Merrin is now in a rematch with Rep. Marcy Kaptur. Miller's once-safe seat is in play, and even Trump told him he didn't know if he could "pull this one out." Read the Conspirator File →

Ohio lawmakers to voters: your elections are safe, and Republicans are lying to keep you home. On a Try And Stop Us press call, Rep. Greg Landsman said Trump's attacks on mail ballots, new paperwork requirements, and federal voter database are all meant "to convince people to stay home that he doesn't want to vote, and then to contest the election when it's over." State Sen. Casey Weinstein said that by LaRose's own words, Ohio's elections are "secure and fair, and people should have the confidence to vote and should vote." State Rep. Latyna M. Humphrey put it simply: "Voting should not be a game of gotcha." Watch the call →