The Republican Party is launching an aggressive plan to ensure election integrity during the midterm elections in November.
The GOP has already deployed field staff in 17 states, according to Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Joe Gruters.
“We've hired state directors and election integrity directors and those are obviously where the target races are in some of the more competitive seats,” he said.
While Gruters did not mention the specific 17 states where staff have been deployed, election trackers identify competitive seats as those within states that have new redistricting maps, retiring incumbents, or swing districts where votes in the past have been narrowly split between one party or another.
“We only need to win eight seats out of 35 to maintain control,” Gruters said.
The chairman was referring to control of the U.S. House of Representatives, where there are 435 voting members. For a House majority, a minimum of 218 seats is required.
Currently, the party breakdown of the House is 217 Republicans and 212 Democrats, with one independent member and five vacant seats.
“People can say what they want about the party, but what we focus on is we focus on the big picture,” Gruters said. “We focus on winning. We have a plan. We're executing the plan.”
Gruters praised President Donald Trump’s populist appeal and characterized him as an asset to the party.
Trump popularized the Republican Party’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) slogan and focused his platform on immigration reform, trade tariffs, and energy independence.
"We have the most popular, the most successful president ever in Donald J. Trump and his ability to bring out these low propensity voters and his willingness to barnstorm the country,” Gruters said.
Low-propensity voters are typically described as people who are registered to vote but may not participate in elections regularly.
In recent primary elections in Ohio, billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy secured the Republican nomination for governor after being endorsed by Trump.
In Indiana, five state senate candidates backed by Trump won primary elections. They include Michelle Davis, Trevor De Vries, Brian Schmutzler, Blake Fiechter, and Tracey Powell.
“We're going to be able to be in an absolutely phenomenal position as we start gearing up and heading towards November,” Gruters added.
The next scheduled state primary elections are on May 16 in Louisiana for U.S. Senate and some local offices.
That same week, on May 19, Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon and Pennsylvania will also hold their primary elections.