Political strategist Alexandra Wilkes has opened a new firm to inform New Jersey Republicans about the benefits, convenience, and necessity of vote-by-mail and early voting programs that have given Democrats an advantage in recent elections.
The firm, Perigean Strategies, will help GOP campaigns develop a fresh process to capture advance votes in the future.
“The Democrats’ vote-by-mail and early vote advantage pose an existential threat to future Republican pickups and even incumbents who have traditionally been considered safe,” said Wilkes. “The creation of this company is not to impugn the efforts others have made at great expense and care to solve this problem, but rather it is an acknowledgment that the Republican Party in New Jersey needs a dedicated, year-round focus on this particular issue.”
A grassroots campaign veteran, Wilkes is a former College Republican National Chair – the first woman to hold the post — and attorney who has spent years developing field and digital programs to draw young voters to the GOP for candidates across the U.S.
“Our challenges with vote-by-mail and early voting are inherently generational,” she stated. “While Perigean Strategies will aim to reach out to all Republican voters, I do think younger generations will be more amenable to these forms of voting with the right persuasion and outreach.”
In New Jersey’s 2023 mid-term elections, 65% of all vote-by-mail ballots mailed by county clerks were to registered Democrats, compared to 21% to Republicans. That 3-1 edge—and an advanced program to VBMs — helped the registered Democrats cast 60% of the statewide advance votes.
GOP State Chairman Bob Hugin said in a statement after Election Day that “turnout this cycle is an unacceptable outcome for our democracy.”
“We must accelerate and improve our plans for closing the gap with Democrats,” he said. “We cannot change the anti-democratic nature of these laws if we don’t win at the state level.”
In targeted legislative districts, that advantage helped Democratic candidates bank more than their margin of victory in advance of Election Day.
Wilkes believes her party’s VBM and early voting challenges are “inherently generational.”
“While Perigean Strategies will aim to reach out to all Republican voters, I do think younger generations will be more amenable to these forms of voting with the right persuasion and outreach,” she said.
In 2018, Wilkes said she was among the voters who found themselves “involuntarily placed on the permanent vote-by-mail list” under a new VBM law that sought to automatically send mail-in ballots to voters who voted in the 2016 presidential election, when Hillary Clinton carried New Jersey by fourteen percentage points.
She needed to restore her right to vote in person pro-actively.
“While I still disagree with the Democrats’ underhanded move that year, I have separately come to appreciate the benefits of vote-by-mail as a working mom,” Wilkes said. “In light of some of the difficulties the new machines have presented, causing confusion and long lines on Election Day, I am also grateful for the simplicity of a paper ballot I can mark myself and track all the way to the clerk’s office.”
Wilkes and Democratic strategist Dan Byran co-write Stomping Grounds, a weekly column for the New Jersey Globe. She will continue operating her political communications practice in addition to the new firm.
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