MAGA influencer Scott Presler knows Bucks County is key to a Trump win. He’ll be back with two far-right figures Sunday.

MAGA influencer Scott Presler is laser-focused on flipping Pennsylvania red, including purple Bucks County.

Presler, a Virginia native whose activism focuses on mobilizing the Republican vote mainly through his organization Early Vote Action, has registered people in Bucks while wearing a Pennsylvania for Trump shirt and donned an Eagles jersey while being interviewed by Dom Giordano, a conservative Philly talk-show host.

With his long hair tucked into a ponytail beneath a backward baseball cap, Presler pumped up the crowd at an event hosted by the Trump Store in Bensalem last month by touting the county’s recent preference for early and mail voting. And on Sunday, he’ll be joining two far-right figures for an event in Newtown, a little more than a week after speaking at former President Donald Trump’s highly anticipated rally in Butler, Pa.

The collar county, where voters often split their tickets, has proved to be critical for winning the White House. Coordinated by the Doylestown Republican Social Club, Sunday’s event is called “Power of Unity” and features right-wing commentator Tim Pool and far-right activist Jack Posobiec, along with Presler.

All three individuals have a history of spreading baseless conspiracy theories. In September, Pool and other conservative commentators contended they were victims of a Russian disinformation campaign after the Justice Department charged that a U.S. content-creation company they were associated with never disclosed its ties to the Russian government.

Posobiec is best known for spreading a far-right conspiracy theory called “Pizzagate,” an outlandish and baseless claim that Democrats were running a satanic child abuse ring out of a Washington pizza parlor. In September, after lambasting Philadelphia’s elections to a group of Michigan campaign volunteers, he said that “it doesn’t matter who votes. It matters who counts the votes.”

And Presler peddled disinformation surrounding the 2020 election and has been doing the same in the lead-up to the 2024 election. Back in 2017, he attracted attention for organizing “March Against Sharia — March for Human Rights” rallies across the United States while employed by ACT For America, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has called an anti-Muslim group.

Presler, a 36-year-old who cofounded Gays for Trump, has been deemed a “valuable voice” by the RNC, but was ultimately not hired for a job with the party, NBC News reported in March. Lara Trump, RNC cochair and the former president’s daughter-in-law, had wanted to hire him.

She brought him to the stage on Saturday at the former president’s return to Butler — the scene of a July 13 assassination attempt — to talk about voter registration successes, citing Republican registration surpassing that of Democrats in Bucks and Luzerne Counties. Republicans currently have a 936-person registration lead in Bucks, according to the county’s voter statistics. In Luzerne, Republicans have a 3,965-person edge.

In a statement to The Inquirer this week, she said: “Scott Presler has shown what a single individual can accomplish when it comes to activating voters across the country. I look forward to having his support as both of our organizations share the same goal of getting our friends and neighbors out to vote in this crucial election.”

Presler did not respond to repeated requests for an interview for this article.

Jim Worthington, the major Trump donor who owns the Newtown Sports Training & Event Center, where Saturday’s rally will be held, said that while he doesn’t necessarily agree with the conspiracy theories promoted by Pool, Posobiec, or Presler, it’s their First Amendment right to state them.

“They feel passionate about something, and they want to discuss it, they believe it, and that’s their opinion, and so be it,” said Worthington, who chaired Pennsylvania’s delegation at the Republican National Convention and hosted a rally for Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, at this same building. “I mean, no different than when, you know, when people on the other side, the Democrats, tarnish President Trump.”

He said Presler “deserves a lot of credit” for his voter registration efforts and his recent move to Pennsylvania so he could cast his ballot for Trump in a swing state.

While Presler came up short of holding an official title within the RNC, his influence on the GOP’s base is undeniable.

In an interview with the Alec Lace Show in Butler on Saturday, the conservative host said Presler would be “a major part” of Trump’s success in Pennsylvania if he wins. He has catered to everyday GOP voters, but also to Pennsylvania’s hunting community and the Amish community — including those who feel strongly about access to raw milk.

His actions have culminated in real-life mobilization. At a recent Trump rally in Wilkes-Barre, the “MAGA Boys” said they were the “boots on the ground” to turn Pennsylvania red, the Wall Street Journal reported. If the vote totals in 2024 don’t align with partisan registrations, “They got some ’splainin to do,” one member said.

ACT For America, the anti-Muslim group, credits itself with training Presler on “every aspect of grassroots activism including structure, logistics and grassroots coordination and mobilization on the local and national level,” before he was released in 2019 for undisclosed reasons, its team said in a statement to The Inquirer.

Presler’s resonance owes thanks to the rise of the era of influencers that campaigns are readily embracing, said Brian Rosenwald, a University of Pennsylvania professor who specializes in how media shapes popular political culture.

“He’s their conduit to getting their slice of the young folk. He’s their conduit to reaching a population that they can’t reach through the traditional forums in the same way,” Rosenwald said.

Ahead of Presler’s appearance at Trump’s Butler rally, the conservative influencer falsely claimed on social media that the Pennsylvania Department of State intentionally scheduled maintenance on its voter registration system during the event, where Presler and others would be encouraging attendees to register.

The Department of State said in a statement that the system’s maintenance had been scheduled on Sept. 17. Trump announced the date of his Butler rally Sept. 25. The department eventually rescheduled the maintenance until after the rally finished, but did not cite it as a reason.

This is not the first time Presler has sewn distrust in Pennsylvania’s elections. Four years ago, he led a two-day “Stop the Steal” demonstration at the state Capitol with a group that baselessly claimed the election was stolen. Presler said at the time the protest was for “truth and justice” and not in support of a particular candidate. He also described his intentions to raise money for “an audit of the state’s vote count.”

He also attended rallies in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, securing VIP seats for his parents at Trump’s speech at the Ellipse and being scheduled to speak at another eventually canceled protest, but he did not enter the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection.

“Scott Presler is not a ‘grassroots hero’ — he’s an election-denying, far-right MAGA extremist who has peddled QAnon conspiracy theories, spread lies about the 2020 election, and was at the Capitol on Jan. 6,” the Democratic National Committee said in a statement in April.

False election narratives, like the one Presler spread, seek to delegitimize the democratic process and create the foundation for future claims of election subversion, said Richard Hasen, professor of law and director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at the UCLA School of Law.

“To convince people that the other side is cheating, which increases polarization, perhaps makes people more strongly support the party they’re already on the side of,” Hasen said.

Back in Butler, Presler offered one last rallying cry for the Pennsylvania crowd before he left the stage.

“I feel this from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. I love our great country,” Presler said. “President Trump took a bullet for us. Please use your ballot and have his back on Tuesday, Nov. 5, and deliver Pennsylvania for Donald J. Trump.”