MSNBC host Chris Jansing and Republican strategist Stuart Stevens on MSNBC on September 3, 2025

One longtime Republican political operative is cautioning that President Donald Trump's latest pet issue may end up hurting Republicans in the long run.

During a Wednesday interview with MSNBC host Chris Jansing, GOP strategist Stuart Stevens – who was a top advisor to 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney's campaign — slammed Trump's focus on mail-in voting. He observed that Trump's decision to relocate U.S. Space Command from Colorado to Alabama specifically due to mail-in voting in the Centennial State not only hurt national security, but jeopardized Republicans' chances of winning future close elections if GOP voters who typically vote by mail no longer do so.

"What Trump is saying about mail-in voting is just crazy. Can we just be clear about this? That means Mike Lee — senator from Utah, where they have all mail-in voting — he should resign today," Stevens said. "It's a weird sort of obsession he has that really works against Republicans."

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"And when you start picking winners and losing in government by which states ... voted for you and which states have laws which increase participation of voting — which is all mail in voting does — there's no voter fraud," he added. "It's a terrible way to make national security decisions."

Stevens reminded MSNBC viewers that Republicans used to run the table on mail-in voting, and mentioned former Sen. Connie Mack's (R-Fla.) election as one example of the GOP succeeding in a close election thanks to voters who submitted ballots by mail. And he suggested that Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) likely gave Georgia's two Senate seats to Democrats in 2021 as a result of Trump discouraging Republicans against mail-in voting.

"He's very childlike in this sense — like his obsession with tariffs — and someone has put in his head this obsession about mail-in voting," Stevens said. "... So I can promise you if those who are executive directors and running the state Republican parties, they hate this because you're basically telling everybody who's working for you, who's focused on absentee ballots, that they're involved in illegal activity, which is not very encouraging. So it's like, why bother?"

Watch Stevens' segment below, or by clicking this link.

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