Matt Schellenberg: Donald Trump Refighting the 2020 Election Won’t Help the GOP in November

The U.S. is confronting a host of serious issues including the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, out of control inflation and record-high prices for gas and food. Republicans should focus on those issues during the upcoming campaign instead of joining former President Donald Trump down the rabbit hole of refighting the 2020 presidential election.

Trump needs to stop his constant complaining about the 2020 election. Already a divisive figure, he has increasingly become a distraction.

If he is thinking about running for president again, Trump would be wise to follow Richard Nixon’s playbook as he made one of the biggest comebacks in political history. From his post as vice president, Nixon, who like Trump garnered a lot of hate from his enemies, declared John Kennedy the winner of the 1960 presidential election despite shenanigans in Illinois thanks to the Daley machine in Chicago and Lyndon Johnson’s homestate of Texas. Voter fraud in those two states could have made the difference in the 1960 presidential election. The popular vote was even closer than the 2020 election with 34.2 million for JFK and 34.1 million for Nixon.

In the midst of the Cold War–including Castro recently taking over Cuba–Nixon put the country over his own ambitions. Trump should do the same thing and let the 2022 campaign be about the issues impacting our daily lives instead of endless and unproven allegations about the 2020 presidential election. The country and all of us who love it–Republicans, Democrats and independents–would benefit.

While he lost when he ran for California governor in 1962, Nixon was ultimately rewarded for the way he handled defeat in 1960. In 1968, a more mature Nixon was elected president following some tumultuous years. Unlike Nixon, Trump does not have time on his side but, if he wants to be president again, he should get over the past election and talk about issues that impact our daily lives–and if Republicans want to control Congress in November they should do the exact same thing.

Matt Schellenberg was first elected to the Jacksonville City Council back in 2011 and won a second term in 2015. He was term-limited in 2019.