Scott Presler at the 2023 Turning Point Action Conference in West Palm Beach, Florida on July 16, 2023 (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
GOP organizer Scott Presler is an unlikely figure in the Republican Party. The 37-year-old Presler is openly gay, yet his history is that of a far-right MAGA culture warrior — from anti-Islam events to defending Christian nationalists.
In an article published by Slate on December 8, journalist Aymann Ismail stresses that Presler is trying to put his past behind him but may have difficulty doing so.
"Scott Presler deeply, desperately wants to be known as a winner," Ismail explains. "And for a moment, he was. Presler is a Republican campaign operative who travels the country as a kind of itinerant preacher of civics, rallying conservatives to register and vote en masse. His chosen cause is destigmatizing early and mail-in voting for Republicans. It's a noble-enough goal, only complicated by Donald Trump's incessant claims that mail-in ballots are tools of liberal fraud. In the 2024 election, Presler brought his get-out-the-GOP-vote magic to Pennsylvania — where Trump eventually won handily, a turning point that made Presler an instant Republican hero."
Ismail continues, "Presler, 37, is also a hell of character. He's a 6-foot-5 gay man who would stand out even if he didn't wear those flashy cowboy boots or his hair straight from an early-2000s Herbal Essences commercial. He's also a very effective speaker. I've seen him work a room full of pissed-off biker types and older housewives alike. It's genuinely striking watching Trump diehards dote on a flamboyant sweetheart like Presler."
The Slate journalist, a Muslim, notes that Presler "hates talking about his past," including "a long stint trafficking in anti-Muslim propaganda" as well as "'Stop the Steal' activism."
"Can someone build a shiny new political identity on top of years of dehumanizing rhetoric aimed at people like me, and simply bury that past altogether?," Ismail writes. "Presler clearly hopes the answer is yes, that he can become the unusual MAGA voice built on positivity and can-do bluster. But here, observing someone up close as they make that pivot, I found it's not so simple."
Read Aymann Ismail's full article for Slate at this link.