Former Rep. Allen West (R-FL), a star of the Tea Party movement, is joining forces with a pro-Trump super PAC to ensure the president is reelected in 2020.
West, who served one term representing Florida’s 22nd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives before moving to Texas, told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview he was compelled to act because of how far Democrats have moved leftward.
“The next election is critical, without a doubt there has never been a clearer choice between two different and opposing philosophies of governance,” he said. “The line has been drawn between progressive socialism and constitutional conservatism.”
“Either we abide by our Constitution and the rule of law, or we allow Democrats to trash it, institute their own rules, and take away our individual rights and freedoms,” West continued. “More and more people are understanding that is what this election is all about.”
In order to enlighten individuals about those consequences, West is teaming up with the Committee to the Defend the President, a pro-Trump super PAC, to help educate and register one million new voters in Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, and North Carolina ahead of 2020.
A significant portion of these new voters will be those who may not necessarily identify as conservative but “believe in securing our border, believe in the Second Amendment, are pro-life, and pro-military,” as Ted Harvey, the group’s chairman, told Breitbart News in June.
“We’re going after people that have been disenfranchised in the political process for one reason or another,” Harvey said at the time.
The Committee plans to build on the success it has seen over the past few election cycles. Formerly known as Stop Hillary PAC, the group spent more than $6 million during the 2016 presidential election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Most of the money was spent on targeted advertising highlighting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handling of the Benghazi attacks.
After the election, the Committee transitioned to fighting off what it saw as an organized attempt by the left to derail the Trump presidency.
Harvey previously said:
When we saw Democrats throwing a national temper tantrum after the election—literally the very next day having organized uprisings all across the country to discredit the election and the incoming administration—we decided to dedicate ourselves 100 percent to defending the president and his agenda from the left-wing media and Democrats.
Those efforts have been multifaceted, ranging from media campaigns informing voters about Trump’s accomplishments in office to targeted ads countering the the Democrats’ call for impeachment.
It’s most high-profile effort, however, came in 2018, when the committee invested in races across the country to see Trump’s allies elected. One of those successful efforts took place in Tennessee, where the committee spent $1 million backing Marsha Blackburn’s campaign for the United States Senate.
The committee plans to utilize the lessons from those efforts to help Trump and the GOP sweep to victory in 2020. For that goal to be achieved, West said it would take a “strong ground game” that starts with the average American and ascends higher.
“Everyone used to somewhat ridicule Barack Obama for being a community organizer, but that’s exactly what we have to do,” West said. “We have to build from the ground up, this cannot be a top-down driven strateg. It needs to come from the people.”
His role, in particular, will be important not only as an adviser, but also someone who can combat the Democrats’ narrative.
“It’s very important that we have voices that can go out and take the offense against the progressive, socialist left and challenge them,” West said. “We cannot allow them to get away with their insidious, ideological agenda and their ad hominem attacks.”
For that offense to be successful, West asserted, the Committee and Republicans, in general, need to make inroads with communities outside of their base.
“It’s vital we take the message to traditional areas and communities that maybe would not be receptive to constitutional conservatives,” he said. “We cannot take anything for granted.”
One such area Republicans might find fertile territory is urban and metropolitan regions, which tend to favor Democrats despite decades of mismanagement.
“The left believes their control of major urban centers is a key to them taking victory,” West said. “We need to be able to point out the failures, much as the president has been able to do, that Democrats have caused in such areas.”