Many Republicans will be shocked to learn that Election Day 2024 happens long before Nov. 5.

In fact, it hurts the Republican cause – and the elections of President Donald Trump and House and Senate Republicans – to focus narrowly on Nov. 5.

The first election dates are Sept. 16 in Pennsylvania and then Sept. 20 in Minnesota and South Dakota. The next election days are Sept. 23 in Mississippi, and Sept. 24 in Missouri. There are 43 other states and the District of Columbia that follow with their early voting dates. Only Alabama and New Hampshire do not have early voting.

Here’s an example of why this matters: In 2022, the Republican Senate campaign in Pennsylvania was focused on Election Day in November. The campaign did not begin advertising until long after early voting had started. As a result, 40% of Pennsylvanians had already cast their ballots before the first major Republican ad had aired. 

This pattern was not unique to that race.

Republicans have a history of failing to get the vote out early. This has a compounding negative effect. 

First, it means Republican turnout on Election Day must be dramatically higher to make up for the number of Democratic votes already in the ballot box. Second, and probably more important, it means that Republican candidates have not been able to focus on the low propensity voters – those who are least likely to turn out.

The Democrats have focused on early voting in large part because they want to be able to identify everyone who has not yet turned out. That way, they can focus on phone calls, direct mail, text messages, and even visits to remind those voters that they should vote. They keep it going until the people vote, and their name comes off the list.

Republicans have a history of failing to get the vote out early. 

This long campaign approach has proven for the last decade that it is more likely to win close elections than the focus on the federally designated official Election Day.

Shifting Republicans from their focus on Election Day – and their reluctance to vote early – is a major job. Getting it done in one year will require a really focused, determined, and enthusiastic effort. 

The fact is that, despite all the talk about ‘Bank the Vote,’ it had no discernible impact on the special election for New York’s 3rd District. Republicans lost the early voting decisively and simply could not make it up on Election Day. It wasn’t due to any conspiracy. There was a big snowstorm on Election Day which reduced turnout. The Democrats already had a head start on ballots, so they were fine.

Turning around the Republican attitude, getting people to vote early, and creating a new commitment to win the vote throughout the campaign will require new focus and determination.

Every time we focus on Election Day, we undermine and weaken our chances of winning the early vote.

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As my friend and former U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg Randy Evans suggested in a recent paper, Republicans should start by focusing on ‘winning day one of voting.’

As Evans wrote: ‘This means identifying the first day of voting of every kind in each State and D.C.; educate GOP voters of that day with an explanation of how to vote that day; set as an objective to win the voting on that day with commitments by Republican voters to show up and win beginning on day one.’

Evans then suggested that Republicans should then continue to build momentum by focusing on ‘winning week one of voting.’ 

As he put it, ‘To generate momentum this requires full follow-up to all who commit to vote on Day One who fail to do so that we can win Week One. It also involves pushing hard to create a sustainable push throughout early and absentee voting beyond Day One and Week One.’

He then suggested systematically following up with voters in each state up to their official election days. By Evans’ theory, the cumulative effect of this focus on winning early voting should culminate in winning all the pre-election day activity and, of course, election day voting (which should be a simple cleanup day).

The Republican National Committee should establish a set of 51 Election Day countdown clocks that include early voting-to-election day periods for each state and the District of Columbia. 

President Trump and all the Republican candidates should begin emphasizing early voting.

The party and campaign systems should focus on winning the first day of early voting, because it will give them the organization and momentum to continue executing on turnout.

Conservative radio and TV hosts and key activists should be encouraged to quit focusing on Election Day and instead focus on winning the early vote in every state. Every time we focus on Election Day, we undermine and weaken our chances of winning the early vote.

A serious win from day one approach will significantly increase the likelihood of Republican victories in 2024. And it is the right response to the campaign world the Democrats have built.

The time to change is now.

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The U.S. will face a difficult decision if the Palestinians should succeed in establishing a workaround toward official recognition, which could trigger America pulling all funding from the U.N. in protest, according to experts.

‘If the draft resolution as it currently stands is adopted, U.S. law demands that the U.S. withhold all funds from the U.N.,’ Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro University Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, told Fox News Digital. ‘The question is: Where is Congress? It needs to make it very clear, very publicly, that American law will be upheld and take immediate steps to do so.’

The U.S. in 1990 passed Public Law 101-246, which focused on authorizing appropriations for fiscal 1990 and 1991 for the Department of State. Section 414 of the bill highlighted concerns over the inclusion of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the United Nations and specialized agencies.

The section states, ‘No funds authorized to be appropriated from this act or any other Act shall be available for the United Nations or any specialized agency thereof which accords the Palestine Liberation Organization the same standing as member states.’

The broad language – ‘any other Act’ – has created some confusion about what the U.S. would need to do if the PLO, a group internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinian people, were to obtain the privileges and powers of a full and recognized U.N. member. 

‘It is no surprise that Biden officials are not hitting the airwaves clearly announcing that a General Assembly end run around the U.N. charter, purporting to grant the so-called state of Palestine the trappings of full-member state status, is not only contrary to the spirit and intent of the U.N.’s own charter but is contrary to American law,’ Bayefsky said.

‘A majority of U.N. member states are not free democracies,’ she said. ‘The Islamic and Arab blocs of states, a large percentage of which continue to dispute even Israel’s right to exist, wield enormous power, and despite American isolation in U.N. circles on issue after issue of importance to the United States, including the constant aggression and antisemitism meted out to Israel, American citizens still bankroll the place and host the institution in its midst.’

The U.S. likely did not think it would have to wrangle with this problem, especially as American representatives at the U.N. continue to veto measures to recognize the Palestinians as a full member of the organization.

However, a new draft resolution would seek what some have called a ‘workaround’ that would seek the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to approve powers to vote and veto without official recognition as a full member of the organization.

‘They’re still carelessly killing Americans and killing Israelis through terrorism and then giving those who do it if they’re arrested, if they don’t die to a suicide bomb, payments and a guaranteed position in the PLA when they get out of prison,’ Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., told Fox News Digital. ‘That’s [one] of the ugliest, most anti-democracy and anti-human rights policies I’ve ever heard of.’ 

‘Pay-to-slay is exactly what happened with Hamas just recently; obviously it’s been an ongoing problem with Oct. 7, [and] they’re part of the Palestinian effort,’ Smith said, calling the approach an ‘impermissible act’ and asking ‘how do you reward’ an organization like Hamas that ‘calls for the evisceration of Israel.’

‘If you’re going to play some game at the United Nations that somehow this isn’t a full-blown membership, [then] this shows a deceptive approach to dealing with member states,’ Smith added. ‘How dare they even think of doing this? It may pass in the General Assembly – they need two thirds, as we all know – but they also need the Security Council to do it as well, and thankfully, the United States will veto that.’

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the U.S. is ‘aware of the draft resolution and reiterate[s] our concerns with any effort to extend certain benefits to entities when there are unresolved questions as to whether the Palestinians currently meet the criteria under the U.N. charter.’

‘The United States is committed to intensifying its engagement – with the Palestinians and the rest of the region – not only to address the current crisis in Gaza but to advance a political settlement that will create a path to Palestinian statehood and membership in the United Nations,’ the spokesperson added, noting ‘direct negotiations’ as the path toward statehood.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan said the resolution provides de facto status and rights of a state and that he fully expects the U.S. to ‘completely stop funding the U.N. and its institutions, in accordance with American law’ should the resolution pass, he said in a recorded video statement.

Then-President Obama, for example, cut funding to UNESCO (U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 2011 after the organization granted full membership to the Palestinians, which crippled the agency as the U.S. accounted for 22% of the budget. UNESCO froze job hires and cut programs after losing U.S. funding, according to Reuters. 

‘We are coping in very difficult circumstances,’ UNESCO’s Irina Bokova told reporters at the time. ‘We’re fundraising this year, but it’s not sustainable on a long-term basis. We’re not closing UNESCO, but member states will have to rethink the way forward. UNESCO will be crippled.’

The U.S. fully left the organization in 2017 as part of concerns over perceived anti-Israel bias from the group, with Israel following out the door in 2018. The U.S. rejoined UNESCO in July 2023 over concerns that China had gained an outsized level of influence in the group during America’s absence.

But that absence provided a glimpse of the impact the U.S. could have if it cut its broader funding to the United Nations. Brett Schaefer, the senior research fellow in international regulatory affairs at the Heritage Foundation, noted the U.S. currently accounts for around a quarter of all funding to the U.N. regular budget and the peacekeeping budget.

‘In one fell swoop, one rash decision, they could essentially prohibit the U.S. from providing a fifth of the U.N.’s funding,’ Schaefer told Fox News Digital. But he noted that the way the resolution’s adoption plays out could provide the U.S. some wiggle room.

‘If the Palestinians don’t join other organizations, technically, that funding could continue to the special interest groups,’ he said. ‘However, every single one of those specialized agencies basically grants membership opportunities to any other member of the United Nations.’ 

‘They have been successful in getting into several U.N. special organizations, especially agencies including UNESCO,’ Schaefer added. ‘So, if they have the votes to get into the U.N. in this manner, what’s to stop them from doing and following a similar path with specialized agencies?’

Schaefer laid out the ongoing issues that admitting the Palestinians into the United Nations would pose, such as the fact that Hamas remains the official ruling party of the Gaza Strip, which would mean admitting a terrorist organization into the United Nations with the power and benefits of a member state. 

‘There is no question that Palestinians do not meet that criteria,’ Schaefer insisted. Referring to Hamas, he noted that ‘their founding documents call for the destruction of Israel. They have sponsored terrorist acts for decades.’

‘Even the Palestinian Authority, which the United States has been negotiating with … celebrated the terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, so this is not a situation where there is a peace-loving state,’ he added.

More importantly, however, Schaefer said China has become the second-largest funding source for the United Nations, which would revive U.S. concerns over what influence Beijing could command in the absence of the U.S. 

According to Schaefer, China tripled its contributions over the past decade to account for around 15% of the regular budget. Other wealthy nations, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, contribute about 1% to 2% of the U.N. general budget, respectively.

But the impact of America cutting its funds from the U.N. would still prove crippling to the organization, according to Schaefer. 

‘Your entire operations would come to a halt right away,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t mean you couldn’t do your job, but it would have a massive impact on your daily operations’ and that the bulk of the U.N. general budget goes toward staff salaries and benefits, utilities and maintenance.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Biden is getting a boost from a major group of former medical officials who say they are concerned about the ‘threat’ former President Trump poses to public health.

The group of 48 individuals is led by Dr. Andrew Gurman, former president of the American Medical Association (AMA), and includes six other former AMA presidents, a former U.S. surgeon general, four former acting surgeons general, a number of other former deputy and assistant surgeons general and former representatives of the American College of Physicians.

‘We write today as people who have dedicated our lives to helping people. As former leaders of national health care and delivery organizations, we have come to understand how policy can impact public health and, just as importantly, the ability of American families to afford the healthcare they need,’ the group wrote in a letter addressed to the American People and shared exclusively with Fox News Digital.

‘If he is elected president, Donald Trump will make our fears a reality. The price of healthcare for American families under Trump would skyrocket, while millions would lose access to healthcare altogether. While his specific policies are at best ambiguous, his track record and his words make clear the damage he would do.

‘We therefore encourage anyone concerned about the price, availability, and safety of healthcare to keep Mr. Trump out of the White House,’ they added.

The group argued that because of Trump’s ‘ambiguity’ concerning health care policy, all they could do was ‘surmise’ how the former president might proceed based on his record in office and his remarks on the campaign trail.

They described what they foresee as ‘troubling,’ including Trump’s expressed desire to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Additionally, the group argued Trump would cut funds from the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), eliminate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), cut funding for veterans’ health care and try to further restrict abortions.

‘I am concerned that, based upon what I saw during the Trump presidency and what I have heard him say during the campaign, that returning Mr. Trump to the Oval Office could have real and negative effects on the health of our country,’ Gurman told Fox News Digital ahead of the letter’s release.

‘I am concerned that millions might lose access to health care altogether, and that for the rest it might well become much more expensive. I think that people need to hear those concerns, and that’s why I signed the letter.’

Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler reacted to the letter by telling Fox News Digital ‘every chance Trump got while in office, he made it his mission to rip health care away from working families.’

‘Pushing to ‘terminate’ the Affordable Care Act is just the start for Trump if he’s re-elected. He’s now running to go even further. A second Trump presidency would mean the American people would risk getting sicker, going broke, both or worse with soaring prescription drug costs, the elimination of protections for patients with preexisting conditions and wins for Big Pharma at the expense of working families,’ he said. 

‘This November, voters will send President Biden back to the White House because he is the candidate who won’t just protect our health care, but will do everything he can to lower costs and improve our health care.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment and a Trump spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, said the claims were false.

‘These claims are outright lies. While President Trump is running to make less expensive healthcare options available for people without eliminating the Affordable Care Act, Joe Biden is destroying Obamacare and the entire healthcare system with his open borders invasion,’ said Leavitt. ‘It was recently announced that Joe Biden is giving free government healthcare to illegal aliens. Every penny of this will be funded by American citizens, taken out of their paychecks and wallets. It will mean higher taxes, higher premiums, higher deductibles, and longer wait times to see a doctor. And it will mean the border invasion Biden launched will become even larger as the world floods over in search of free government benefits. This is all part of Biden’s war on the working class. Day 1 of a Trump Administration we will seal the border, deport the illegals and cut off their government benefits.’

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As he helps raise money for former President Trump, Sen. Tim Scott says he’s got a message that he’s emphasizing as he meets with top Republican donors.

‘It is in the best interest of the United States of America to have four more years of President Donald Trump. It is in the best interest of our economy to have four more years of Donald Trump,’ Scott said in an interview with Fox News Digital.

Scott, who was one of roughly a dozen Republican candidates who unsuccessfully challenged Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination before ending his White House bid late last year, endorsed the former president in January.

The conservative senator from South Carolina over the past few months has become a top Trump surrogate and is considered to be among a small group of contenders being considered as Trump’s running mate on the 2024 Republican ticket.

Scott has been meeting with donors as Trump and the Republican National Committee try to close the large fundraising gap they face in the race against President Biden and the Democratic National Committee in the 2024 rematch between the president and his GOP predecessor.

‘The one thing you can discern as a top donor and Republican and, frankly, a strong business person is that a strong economy makes all things possible,’ Scott said in an interview Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, has been very active in helping Trump raise money. He was among the potential Trump running mates on hand this past weekend at an RNC spring donor retreat that was headlined by the former president.

The senator helped organize a major fundraiser for Trump this year ahead of the South Carolina primary. Next week, he’s scheduled to attend a top-dollar fundraiser in New York City for the former president. And as the New York Times first reported, Scott will host a gathering next month in the nation’s capital that will include major GOP donors who remain uncommitted to Trump.

‘What I’m going to say to the donors across the country and specifically next week is that four more years under Donald Trump is good for our economy. It’s good for your pocket book. But more important, it’s good for America’s future.’

Scott was a voracious fundraiser as he cruised to a very comfortable 2022 Senate re-election, and he transferred much of his unused campaign cash over to his 2024 White House effort.

Asked if his fundraising efforts on behalf of Trump give him a leg up in the competition for the vice presidential nomination, Scott kept on message, saying, ‘I certainly hope that all of our efforts will lead to a better America with one result: Donald Trump having four more years.’

As for any competition between him and the other potential contenders, Scott would only say that ‘my goal isn’t to be in a better position than someone else who wants something. My goal is to make sure that the next generation of leaders looks at me and others and says, ‘Those guys, they burned a path that we get to walk down.”

Scott was interviewed the day after Indiana’s Republican presidential primary, where former Ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley won over 21% of the vote against Trump, even though she ended her White House bid two months ago.

Haley, who was the last candidate standing against Trump before dropping out in March, has not endorsed the former president.

Asked if he had reached out to his fellow South Carolinian in an attempt to mend relations with Trump’s political orbit, the senator said no.

But Scott argued that ‘the good news is that the voters and the fundraising machine that supported [Haley’s] candidacy and our candidacy and other candidates are all coming back into the fold. The good news is President Trump is a unifying force for our party.’

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on Tuesday reignited his call to debate former President Trump, suggesting ‘perfect neutral territory’ at the upcoming Libertarian Party convention as the venue. 

In a message on X, RFK Jr. acknowledged how both he and Trump are already scheduled to speak at the convention on May 24 and 25 in Washington, D.C.

‘It’s perfect neutral territory for you and me to have a debate where you can defend your record for your wavering supporters,’ Kennedy wrote to Trump. ‘You yourself have said you’re not afraid to debate me as long as my poll numbers are decent. Well, they are. In fact, I’m the only presidential candidate in history who has polled ahead of both major party candidates in head-to-head races.’ 

‘So let’s meet at the Libertarian convention and show the American public that at least two of the major candidates aren’t afraid to debate each other,’ he added. ‘I asked the convention organizers and they are game for us to use our time there to bring the American people the debate they deserve!’ 

Kennedy said he was ‘grateful’ to Trump for ‘calling attention to the rigged polling methodologies that biased DNC-influenced media have used against you.’ 

‘We have this concern too, and I’m happy to show you the deceptive methodologies used by DNC-allied pollsters who pretend that I’m in single digits. You have correctly characterized these as ‘fake polls,” he said. 

Kennedy pointed to polling results from Zogby, an analytics firm he contracted. The independent presidential candidate said that poll shows Trump beat President Biden ‘handily’ in a head-to-head matchup.

‘I crush him as well, by even more. And against each other, I beat you in a nail-biter,’ RFK Jr. claimed. ‘In a three-way, you are ahead but I’m coming up strong. Two new polls (CNN and Quinnipiac) have me above the 15% debate threshold. Another (Activote) has me at 26% among young voters. And you and I are tied among America’s 70 million Independents.’ 

RFK. Jr. said he is also drawing a lot of voters from former Trump supporters who are ‘upset that you blew up the deficit, shut down their businesses during Covid, and filled your administration with swamp creatures.’ 

Six months before Election Day, Biden and Trump – the presumptive Democrat and Republican nominees – are locked in the first contest in 112 years with a current and former president competing for the White House. Kennedy, meanwhile, has increasingly been challenging Biden and Trump to debate him in recent weeks, hoping to bring his independent candidacy more mainstream.  

Kennedy’s campaign remains determined to get him on the ballot in all 50 states. So far, RFK Jr. is on the ballot in 10 states, The Hill reported. 

Either Biden or Trump would be the oldest president ever sworn in on Inauguration Day.

Trump is in the midst of the first of potentially four criminal trials and facing felony charges. The Constitution does not prevent him from assuming the presidency if convicted — or even if he is in prison.

Biden, who will turn 82 years old just weeks after Election Day, Nov. 5, is already the oldest president in U.S. history; Trump is 77.

Privately, Democratic operatives close to the campaign worry constantly about Biden’s health and voters’ dim perceptions of it, according to The Associated Press. In recent weeks, aides have begun walking at Biden’s side as he strolls to and from Marine One, the presidential helicopter, on the White House South Lawn in an apparent effort to help mask the president’s stiff gait.

Still, neither party is making serious contingency plans, assuming the general election matchup is all but set. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Former President Trump appears to be showing some support for a key demand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has made of Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., amid her threats to force a House-wide vote on the GOP leader’s ouster.

Greene took to social media on Tuesday evening to share a photo of a document shared with her by Trump. It shows an image of a reporter’s X post citing Johnson’s comments in a Tuesday morning press conference that the House was ‘looking very intently’ at ways to defund Special Counsel Jack Smith’s probe into the former president.

Underneath the post is what appears to be Trump’s handwriting with the brief inscription, ‘Great!’ followed by his signature.

Greene’s office told Fox News Digital on Wednesday morning that the message was sent to Greene by Trump. Fox News Digital reached out to a spokesperson for Trump for further comment.

‘I’m fighting for President Trump, our Republican majority, and every person who believes in our America First agenda. Proud to have the support of President Trump, and he has mine!’ Greene wrote when sharing the message on X.

Defunding the special counsel’s office is one of several demands Greene and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., shared with Johnson earlier this week.

Johnson, who has insisted he is not negotiating with the GOP rebels, similarly appeared to show support for the idea while downplaying their role in promoting it.

‘There’s discussion this week, as there has been for a long, long time, about what is the most effective way for Congress to take the reins of that and ensure that the special counsels are not abusing the law themselves,’ Johnson said Tuesday morning. ‘There’s a lot of ideas about that. Discussions this week are nothing new, but we’re looking very intently at it because I think the problem has reached a crescendo.’

The most likely place for that funding battle would be the looming fiscal year 2025 government funding talks, but Republicans face an uphill battle getting it across the finish line. Any proposal to defund Smith’s probe is likely to die in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

Massie and Greene, along with Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., are threatening to force a House-wide vote on Johnson’s ouster via a procedure known as a motion to vacate the chair. 

The push has fallen mostly flat among the House Republican conference, however, where even the speaker’s critics in the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus have shown little appetite for another three weeks of chaos like what followed the ouster of ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

Trump himself has voiced support for Johnson both publicly and privately amid Greene’s ouster threats.

‘It’s not like he can go and do whatever he wants to do,’ Trump said earlier this month to radio host John Fredericks, citing Johnson’s razor-thin House majority. ‘I think he’s a very good person. You know, he stood very strongly with me on NATO when I said NATO has to pay up… It’s a tough situation when you have. I think he’s a very good man. I think he’s trying very hard.’

He also referenced the November elections just six months away.

Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., another Trump ally, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday, ‘I was with President Trump over the weekend. He’s with Mike Johnson.’

‘He thinks he’s doing his best in a difficult situation,’ Meuser said when asked for details of their conversation. Of the motion to vacate, Meuser said of Trump, ‘I think he would prefer that not to occur right now.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Johnson’s office for comment on Greene’s push.