Trump Pushes Supporters to Become Poll Challengers at Unhinged Iowa Rally

Donald Trump encouraged supporters to take “election integrity” into their own hands by manning polling places during a Thursday night pre-midterm rally in Sioux City, Iowa. The former president was in Iowa to support Sen. Chuck Grassley and Gov. Kim Reynolds, who are both up for reelection Tuesday.

“We need a landslide so big that the radical left cannot rig it or steal it!” Trump told the crowd. “If you care about election integrity, volunteer as an election worker, poll watcher, or poll challenger,” Trump said. “We need you!”

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Poll challengers are election observers who have the ability to challenge whether or not an individual is actually eligible to vote. The specifics of the practice vary state by state. In the lead up to the midterms there have been reports of poll watchers intimidating voters at early voting locations and ballot drop boxes. Election workers and administrators who faced an avalanche of harassment at the hands of conspiracy theorists in the aftermath of the 2020 election are bracing for contentious days ahead, with expectations that many election observers are motivated by conspiracies regarding Trump’s loss in 2020.

Trump’s almost-election-eve rally is part of a multi-stop blitz aimed at giving Republicans a final push going into an election where they hope to regain both chambers of Congress. The former president could not resist teasing that he would “very, very, very probably” run for the presidency again in 2024, and to expect an announcement “very soon.”

Trump also brought his usual laundry list of grievances and bluster to Iowa. He complained that just earlier that afternoon New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron granted Attorney General Leititia James’s request to have the Trump Organization put under a court-appointed monitor while James’s civil fraud case against the former president and three of his children is litigated.

“Just moments ago a radical left lunatic judge in New York City who is totally controlled by my worst enemies in the Democrat Party started a process of property confiscation that is akin to Venezuela, Cuba, and the old Soviet Union.” Trump complained, calling James an “out of control attorney general” and likening the case against him to “communism.”

Trump’s appearance was preempted by a series of speeches, including ones from Sen. Grassley and Gov. Reynolds. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene also spoke, with the audience  a mention of Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was recently attacked by an intruder in his home in San Francisco. “The only crime victim you hear about from Democrats and the media is Paul Pelosi,” Greene said. “Paul Pelosi should have been a gun owner and shot his attacker.”

Americans are set to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 8. Both Grassley and Reynolds are favored to win the general election and retain their office.

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