Presler, a Republican voter registration activist who campaigned for Donald Trump and other Republicans in 2024, sought to mobilize the “Make America Great Again” movement to vote against retaining the three justices, all Democrats, citing their past rulings on COVID-19 pandemic “lockdowns” and voting laws.
State Supreme Court justices are elected to 10-year terms in partisan elections. At the end of their terms, they stand for retention elections in which voters can decide if they should serve an additional term. During the 2024 election, the court leaned Democratic, with a 5-2 majority, prompting unprecedented attention on what are usually quieter races. If Republicans had been able to remove three of the Democrats, they might have been able to reshape the court’s ideological balance for years.
The campaigning against them prompted the three justices to make rare public appearances to defend their records. Ultimately, Early Vote Action’s efforts failed, and all three were retained.
However, Holman wants Early Vote Action to retroactively register and disclose its spending now as a way of “putting Presler on notice.” He said Presler has “a history of not registering and disclosing his expenditures in politics altogether.”
Holman had previously filed a federal complaint against Presler for failing to register under the Lobbying Disclosure Act after lobbying for the SAVE Act, proposed federal legislation that would mandate documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote, require specific forms of photo IDs to cast a ballot and place additional restrictions on mail-in voting. That legislation still faces some Republican opposition.
“I’m hoping the result of this [recent] complaint will put Pressler on notice that he is being watched as to whether he is complying with the disclosure laws at both the federal and state level,” Holman told WHYY News. “So when he decides to lobby Congress again or get involved in campaigns again, he’ll finally register and disclose promptly when he is supposed to.”
Failure to submit required campaign finance reports can carry civil penalties. Willful violations may bring more serious consequences, although criminal charges over campaign finance reporting are rare.
Presler, who resides in Beaver County, remains active in Pennsylvania as the midterm elections draw near, most recently campaigning to get people removed from voter rolls in Philadelphia and around the state.