'That’s why we're losing': GOP insiders blame flawed 'canvassing operations' for election disappointments

It isn't hard to see why Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' cheerleaders view the Sunshine State as a "blueprint" for right-wing politics. Florida was the one state where the "red wave" that Fox News pundits spent months predicting really did materialize in the 2022 midterms.

But in many battleground states — Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada — Democrats performed much better than expected in 2022. Then, in April 2023, liberal Janet Protasiewicz enjoyed an 11 percent victory over far-right Republican Dan Kelly in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race.

A reason that many Democratic strategists and liberal pundits at MSNBC have given is that Republican ideas are simply unpopular, from draconian abortion bans to defunding Obamacare to election denialism.

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In a report published by NBC News' website on June 1, reporter Allan Smith gives another reason: a weak GOP "canvassing" operation.

"The large-scale voter contact effort that conservatives have put at the center of their political operations in recent years is plagued with issues, according to more than a dozen people who've worked in GOP-aligned field operations and internal data obtained by NBC News," Smith explains. "Those issues include fraudulent and untrustworthy data entries….. as well as allegations of lax hiring practices and a lack of accountability."

Smith reports that according to GOP sources interviewed by NBC News, a big problem for Republican candidates is "the right's increased reliance on paid canvassers rather than volunteers."

According to Smith, Democrats enjoy some "build-in advantages" with "in-person canvassing," including "a more ready supply of younger volunteers, allies in organized labor offering union workers to hit the doors, and a base of supporters who are more tightly concentrated in urban and dense suburban areas where canvassers can hit a lot more doors in a lot less time."

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A Republican source, interviewed by NBC News on condition of anonymity, said of problematic Republican canvassing, "That's why we're losing elections. Nobody wants to admit it."

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NBC News' full report is available at this link.