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Many GOP candidates intend to use public office to affect electoral outcomes

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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The analysis offers a fresh portrait of the extent to which embracing Trump’s false claims has become part of a winning formula in this year’s GOP contests, and what it means for the immediate future of American democracy. The majority of the election-denying candidates who have secured their nominations are running in districts or states that lean Republican, according to Cook Political Report ratings, meaning they are likely to win the offices they are seeking.
Many will hold positions with the power to interfere in the outcomes of future contests — to block the certification of election results, to change the rules around the awarding of their states’ electoral votes or to acquiesce to litigation attempting to set aside the popular vote.
As the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol laid out in vivid detail at a hearing on Monday, Trump’s obsession with discrediting and overturning the 2020 result began even before Election Day. Members of his inner circle testified they repeatedly told him that his fraud claims were baseless.
“The election fraud claims were false. Mr. Trump’s closest advisers knew it. Mr. Trump knew it,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said.
But The Post’s analysis shows the pervasiveness of his untruths within the GOP a year and a half later.
Despite some high-profile setbacks for his candidates, notably in Georgia, Trump’s demand that fellow Republicans embrace the cause of election denialism has become a price of admission in most Republican primaries. The collection of falsehoods that committee members have described as “the big lie” is now a central driving force of the Republican Party.
“These officeholders are so important,” said Joanna Lydgate, who leads States United Democracy Center, a nonprofit that promotes free and fair elections. “They are going to be the ones on whose backs our democracy survives or doesn’t.”
The Post’s analysis includes outcomes in the 14 states that held nominating primaries or conventions through the end of May. The survey includes contests for Congress and all statewide offices with power over election administration: governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and, in most cases, secretary of state.
Voters in Atlanta cast their ballots in the Georgia primary May 24. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)
Those identified as embracing Trump’s lies have directly questioned Biden’s victory, opposed the counting of Biden’s electoral college votes, expressed support for a partisan post-election ballot review, signed onto a lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 result, downplayed or sought to recast the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, or attended or expressed support for the rally that day.
The candidates counted as winners include those who have advanced to runoffs but have not yet secured their party’s nomination.
So far, voters have chosen eight candidates for the U.S. Senate, 86 candidates for the House, five for governor, four for state attorney general and one for secretary of state who embrace Trump’s election denialism. The tally does not include the most recent round of primaries on June 7. The Post will continue to update its analysis throughout the year.
Many of the winning candidates are overt in their intentions to use public office to affect electoral outcomes.

 
There is a shitstorm about to happen in an upcoming election and we are powerless to stop it. It will make Bush v. Gore look like a pillow fight between two lesbians covered in baby oil. This is not a to blame one side or the other, its coming from a perspective of how ****ed up election laws are from both state and federal levels. The only way out is thru the SCOTUS and it has proven (whether from dem or repub viewpoint) that its rulings do nothing but make it worse.
 
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