Doylestown, Pennsylvania
CNN
—
Scott Pressler has developed a persona as the tall, super friendly, gay face of the MAGA movement. His long brown hair flows past his shoulders and his cowboy boots accentuate his 6’5” frame. His profile on X lists his location as “Make Kindness Cool Again.” Last week, he smiled in every photo and shook hands with all the fans who accompanied him to a county commission meeting in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The meeting itself was not very calm, with Pressler’s followers repeatedly shouting “Traitor!” Despite criticism from Democratic Party officials, Pressler himself remained upbeat.
“For the first time in modern history, we have more registered Republicans than Democrats here in our county,” Pressler told commissioners. “This speech that I am giving now will be seen by millions of people across the country, the Commonwealth and around the world, and my message is: The 45th and Congratulations to the 47th President of the United States and President-Elect Donald J. Trump” States of America! ”
It was a bold claim for a fluorescent-lit local government meeting, but it was true. Mr. Pressler’s speech was cut and shared on YouTube, X, Rumble, and other sites.
Pressler told CNN that he attended the meeting in part to celebrate Pennsylvania’s victory after it voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 election, breaking the Democratic Party’s “blue wall.” He said it was. He took credit for this change by creating a PAC (Early Voting Action) to register new Republican voters, targeting groups such as the Amish, Frat Guys and Hunters. The PAC received a $1 million donation from Elon Musk. This fall, he announced his vote-getting efforts on a slew of right-wing podcasts that are at the core of the pro-Trump media ecosystem, including those hosted by Donald Trump Jr., Stephen Bannon, Megyn Kelly, and Dan Bongino. talked about. , Benny Johnson, Charlie Kirk.
On Kelly’s show, Pressler referred to himself as a “data guy” and got into the weeds regarding voter registration numbers. Considering his history, this is a surprising change. He first rose to fame for provocative stunts that often made the local news, such as organizing an “anti-Sharia march” in 2017, despite the fact that America has no Sharia law. He organized a cleanup in Baltimore after President Trump tweeted that the city was full of trash. He was also involved in Gays for President Trump. He participated in the January 6, 2021 riots, calling it “the largest civil rights movement in American history.”
Mr. Pressler built his reputation on social media outrage and used that fame to launch more concrete political campaigns. You don’t have to take the mainstream media’s word for it. That assessment is shared by Steven Crowder. His YouTube channel has been monetized and suspended multiple times due to homophobic comments and cyberbullying, and he currently streams on Rumble.
“A lot of people come on as social media influencers and then quickly disappear. They’re not really doing anything — it’s just outrage porn,” Crowder said on the Rumble Podcast. He spoke while introducing Mr. Pressler. “But you actually took that opportunity and started something that is quantifiable.”
“I’ve grown in the way I approach politics,” Pressler told CNN. “I look at my work and the evolution in politics this way: I laid the foundation and now I’m building on that foundation to understand how politics wins elections and serves demographic groups. They are meticulously building an esoteric understanding of how to focus, get registrations, mobilize, and win elections. They go out to vote.”
When asked what he meant by esoteric, Pressler used the topic of voter registration as an example. But what about voter registration at every gun show? Each archery (event)? I’m going to take that and focus on a specific group of individuals that I know will vote more conservatively. ”
In the run-up to the election, Pressler spoke extensively about these small groups, including “our beautiful truck drivers” and “our beautiful hunters.” On Kelly’s podcast, he said: Some Amish elders are against it. We are using the Democratic strategy of mailing to the Amish. And when you tell Amish people that they can vote with secret, secret ballots that are mailed to their homes and that they don’t have to see the buggy going to the polling place, they love voting by mail. ”
Mr. Pressler’s work alone is unlikely to have made the difference, as Mr. Trump won all seven battleground states despite spending less than Kamala Harris and running a smaller get-out-the-vote operation. An early assessment of turnout by Lancaster Online also found that some precincts in areas with large Amish populations had high turnout, while other precincts had low turnout.
Bucks County Republican Party Chairman Pat Poplik said: So I know Scott may have collaborated there, but I can tell you that it’s been a continued effort by the party to get them, and they’ve finally started doing that. ” She was generally very complimentary of Mr. Pressler, and when asked about his future within the party said, “He’s very active. He motivates people. He has a great following… So I think there’s certainly a place for him to help us.”
The crowd at the Bucks County Commission was filled with die-hard Pressler fans. Julie Ambolino praised his “incredible effort”. “He’s been down to earth and has done an incredible job,” she said, but she’s seen it mostly through social media. Miriam Logan said she used the Early Vote Action app to reach out to voters with handwritten postcards.
“He’s the most dynamic Republican in Pennsylvania,” Edward Mackhouse said. “He’s the greatest dynamic leader I’ve ever seen…The way he just stands up and excites the crowd is amazing. I’ve never seen anyone do that.”
The beaming positivity before and after the meeting didn’t quite match what happened during the meeting. Pressler and his followers targeted the meeting because Democratic County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia wanted to count some ballots that were missing signatures and dates. Although the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had already ruled that such a thing would not happen, tensions were still in the air.
Ellis-Marseglia apologized profusely. “While I made a mistake, I am held to a much higher standard than others because I am an elected official. Therefore, I would like to apologize to the people I serve. ” She received many boos and jeers.
“I think what you heard today is the frustration of people who have been told that they are election deniers. We have sitting commissioners here who are election deniers,” Pressler said in a briefing. “It’s almost karmic, and yes, that’s partially why we came here to take a victory lap. We won, and we did it fair and square. I did it.”
