With an eye on judicial elections, conservative activist Scott Presler leads voter training in PA

Conservative activist Scott Presler visited the greater Harrisburg area on Friday for the Pennsylvania Republican Party’s annual summer meeting, where he led a training focused on how to build on the GOP’s recent voter registration gains in Pennsylvania – and stressed the importance of turning out voters for this year’s statewide judicial elections. 

Presler, the founder of Early Vote Action, moved to Beaver County ahead of the 2024 election to register GOP voters and has been credited as a major force behind President Donald Trump winning Pennsylvania by more than 120,000 votes last November. On Friday, Presler walked attendees through the finer points of registering others to vote and detailed his ongoing efforts to register more Pennsylvanians as Republicans ahead of this year’s judicial elections and next year’s gubernatorial election. 

Voter Registration

Presler was introduced by state Sen. Greg Rothman, the recently elected chair of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania. 

Looking back at Republican victories up and down the ballot in last November’s elections, Rothman said GOP wins were thanks in no small part to the work of Presler. “This is a guy who has one mission – and that’s to register voters … There is no doubt in my mind that this guy had something to do with Donald Trump winning Pennsylvania,” Rothman said. 

Presler said aggressive voter registration efforts in the commonwealth helped secure victories for U.S. Reps. Scott Perry and Rob Bresnahan and U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick. He also outlined tips for registering people to vote and discussed ways that Republicans can encourage more voters to cast their ballots for GOP candidates. 

Presler, the founder of Early Vote Action, said that increasing awareness among GOP voters of the importance of provisional ballots and mail-in ballots is key to continuing to win elections in the commonwealth. “I think the Republican Party must do a better job for our low-propensity voters, telling them if someone tries to deny you the right to vote – you demand a provisional ballot. You do not leave that polling location without having actually voted,” he said. 

Presler said that his organization is focusing on several voting blocs that could benefit Republicans in the coming election cycles. He’s visited truck stops, gas stations and service plazas to register truckers, while also frequenting farmers’ markets across the state to encourage Amish Pennsylvanians to register as Republicans. 

Other communities he’s targeting include veterans, hunters and felons who have been released from incarceration.”They can register on Day 1 of being released from incarceration ... We are courting the felon vote," Presler said.

The conservative activist said he hopes to flip Chester, Dauphin and Erie counties from blue to red ahead of the 2026 election cycle. 

Judicial Elections

Presler placed a heavy focus on this year’s judicial elections in Pennsylvania, telling Republican Party members that they should vote “no” in retention elections for three Democratic justices on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court: Justices Christine Donohue, David Wecht and Kevin M. Dougherty. 

In November, voters will have the option of retaining the three justices for a 10-year term.

The court currently has a 5-2 Democratic majority. Presler cited the court’s rulings on then-Gov. Tom Wolf’s COVID-19 restrictions and state election law as reason to vote against retention and oust the three Democratic judges. 

“They allowed Gov. Wolf to shut down Pennsylvania during COVID. Dougherty, Donahue, Wecht did that. They also allowed mail-in ballots to come three days after Election Day,” he said. “If you want justice and you want accountability, then you vote ‘no’ to these people. If we get a simple majority vote, you will remove three Democrats from the Supreme Court in one single election. That has never been done.”

He also boosted Republican judicial candidates – including Maria Battista, who is facing Democrat Brandon Neuman for a seat on the Pennsylvania Superior Court, as well as Matt Wolford, the GOP nominee running against Democrat Stella Tsai for a seat on the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court. Both GOP candidates were in attendance at Friday’s meeting. 

Planning for 2026

Both Rothman and Presler took time to look ahead to 2026, when Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro will seek another term in office. 

Rothman said he spoke with Trump about next year’s gubernatorial election during the president’s visit to Pittsburgh last week.

“We talked about Josh Shapiro,” Rothman said of his talk with Trump. “He said, ‘Can he be beat?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir. With your help, we can beat Josh Shapiro.’”

Presler noted that as of Friday, Democratic voters outnumber GOP voters in Pennsylvania by just 178,215 voters. When inactive voters are excluded, the number shrinks to 93,997, Presler said. 

“Shapiro is shaking in his gosh darn boots. These Democrats are nervous because they know you guys are on the verge of flipping this to a red commonwealth,” Presler said, adding that registering more GOP voters in Chester County, Dauphin County and Erie County will be key to winning the governor’s mansion. 

“Let’s make that our priority: that by 2026, all three of these counties we flip before we defeat Democrat Gov. Shapiro next year.”