Former Ohio secretary of state says GOP needs to recruit, motivate and activate voters to victory

Former Ohio GOP Secretary of State Ken Blackwell said Wednesday that recruiting poll watchers and having people involved in the voting process is the way to win elections. 

"In 2020, there were a lot of polls in precincts where we didn't deploy people," Blackwell said on the John Solomon Reports podcast. "This time in 2022, that wasn't a problem. The problems were elsewhere." 

Blackwell said that the GOP did a better job in the 2022 midterm elections in terms of recruiting people for Election Day.

"In terms of coverage at the polls, we recruited folks to engage in this election as poll workers and poll observers," he said. "And they did it. We won at the precinct level, and those people who were early-on advocates for the Precinct Project don't get enough credit."

The Precinct Project is a nonprofit organization that was launched to educate and motivate conservatives to get more involved in the political process and to train people how to become precinct chairmen or committeemen.

According to Blackwell, while the anticipated red wave didn't happen, the GOP did get a majority-controlled House and should celebrate and learn from that. 

"We were blessed, not with a red wave, but with a margin," Blackwell concluded. "We were able to elect conservatives who didn't buckle and who didn't get weak in the knees. In fact, we now have a Republican majority with rules, regulations and an agenda to do the right thing and put us on a path of making America prosperous."