Group will fund an ad campaign focused on swing states that asks voters to be patient as ballots are tallied; Alaska GOP senator’s race becomes competitive
A BIPARTISAN GROUP OF FORMER CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS and cabinet secretaries will fund an ad campaign defending the legitimacy of U.S. elections and asking voters to be patient as ballots are tallied this fall. The group, led by former Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle, a Democrat, and Bill Frist, a Republican, will spend $4 million on their campaign, focused on battleground states including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The group’s several dozen members also include former Democratic House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt and Bush Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
The group is stressing that the effort is a nonpartisan public education campaign focused on the importance of counting every vote. “The integrity of our democratic system is at stake,” Daschle said. It will also seek to remind voters that while the coronavirus crisis is in some ways unprecedented, the U.S. has an uninterrupted streak of administering elections, even during the 1918 influenza pandemic and the Civil War. The U.S. has a “history of holding successful elections during challenging times,” Frist said.
