‘Trump lost’: Republican-led group launches billboard campaign calling for end to election audits

Updated: Oct 14, 2021 / 01:20 PM CDT

Republicans for Voting Rights (RVR) says they launched the campaign to put an end to “sham audits,” calling them “a waste of time and money.” (Republicans for Voting Rights)

(NEXSTAR) – A Republican-led advocacy group is calling for high-ranking Republicans to end their audits of the 2020 election. And they’re doing it with huge billboards that read “Trump Lost.”

Republicans for Voting Rights, an organization operating under Defending Democracy Together, has launched a quarter-million-dollar campaign to erect dozens of these billboards in major markets across the country, including one digital billboard right in the heart of Times Square.

Today, Republicans for Voting Rights (RVR) launched a billboard campaign across the country in response to reckless Republican calls for sham audits of the 2020 election. Here's one we've put up in New York City's Times Square: pic.twitter.com/96tweL9l9w
— The Republican Accountability Project (@AccountableGOP) October 13, 2021

On Twitter, the Republican Accountability Project — a sister organization of Republicans for Voting Rights (RVR) — confirmed the Times Square billboard was up as of Wednesday. A representative for the group said “dozens” of similar digital billboards were already running as of Thursday. More traditional static billboards, too, are scheduled to follow.

Many of the billboards are, or will soon be, situated in states “where there’s discussion about an audit of the 2020 election,” according to the Republican Accountability Project (RAP) website. Such billboards are going up in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin, per the RVR.

“The 2020 election was secure and fair,” said RVR Director Amanda Carpenter in a statement shared with Nexstar. “These sham audits are a waste of time and money.”

Trump himself has repeatedly urged Republican lawmakers to conduct audits of vote counts, despite allegations of voter fraud during the 2020 election having been dismissed by numerous state election officials and even Christopher Krebs, then-head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) during the Trump administration.

Despite these certifications, Republican politicians and supporters of Donald Trump have called for audits in multiple states, many at the cost of taxpayers. A few of the most notable audits conducted in Georgia and Maricopa County, Arizona, confirmed President Biden’s win, and in some cases increased his margin of victory.

Republican Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), has also called on Republicans to stop “perpetuating the Big Lie” in a recent tweet directed at Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), who, during an appearance on Fox News, refused to say the election wasn’t “stolen” from Trump.

“Millions of Americans have been sold a fraud that the election was stolen,” Cheney tweeted Sunday. “Republicans have a duty to tell the American people that this is not true. Perpetuating the Big Lie is an attack on the core of our constitutional republic.”

All of RVR’s billboards — both digital and static — will be live as of next week, according to the group.

Many of the billboards are, or will soon be, situated in states “where there’s discussion about an audit of the 2020 election,” according to the Republican Accountability Project (RAP) website. Here, a mockup of one of the static billboards is seen. (Republicans for Voting Rights)

Defending Democracy Together, the anti-Trump advocacy organization under which the RVR and RAP operate, was founded amid the Trump administration by “lifelong conservatives and Republicans” including Bill Kristol, who served as chief of staff under Vice President Dan Quayle, and Sarah Longwell, a former chair of the Log Cabin Republicans.

“We are Republicans, former Republicans, and conservatives committed to protecting every American’s right to vote,” explains a message that appears on the Defending Democracy Together website.