NBC: Election-Denying GOP Candidates for Governor Fight for Control of Elections in Battleground States

NBC: Election-Denying GOP Candidates for Governor Fight for Control of Elections in Battleground States

New reporting from NBC highlights how “several Republican candidates for governor in key battleground states have repeatedly cast doubt on the results of the 2020 presidential election.”

GOP candidates Andy Biggs (AZ), Tom Tiffany (WI), John James (MI), and Rick Jackson (GA) have extreme records that range from sowing doubt and spreading lies to actively working to overturn election results. Instead of answering for their records, both John James and Andy Biggs refused requests to comment. If any of these election-denying candidates win in November, they would “play an important role in the certification of presidential election results, including submitting the winners of their states to federal officials.”

Additionally, Vox recently interviewed CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski about this dangerous trend, who said the election-denying Republicans in question are running in “true battlegrounds. So anything could really happen in them.”

Read more below:

NBC: GOP governor candidates cast doubt on the 2020 election. Now they’re changing their tune.

• Several Republican candidates for governor in key battleground states have repeatedly cast doubt on the results of the 2020 presidential election.
• And Democrats are actively reminding voters of these candidates’ views, framing the 2020 election as a litmus test in states that will be at the center of the next presidential contest. Governors play an important role in the certification of presidential election results, including submitting the winners of their states to federal officials.
• The issue has been particularly salient in Arizona and Wisconsin, where the GOP nominees for governor, Reps. Andy Biggs and Tom Tiffany, voted against certifying the 2020 election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. Biggs and Tiffany also signed on to a Texas lawsuit in December 2020 that sought to invalidate Biden’s win.
• Tiffany also supported an FBI investigation of the 2020 election in Wisconsin and has said that he would have voted to overturn his state’s election results if a vote had been held.

• For his part, Biggs has still refused to say Trump lost the election, but has sought to avoid engaging further on the topic as he prepares to face Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in November.

• Asked three times by USA Today in July who won the 2020 election, Biggs refused to answer.

• A Biggs spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from NBC News.

• In Georgia, Republican gubernatorial nominee Rick Jackson released an ad shortly after launching his campaign in February that referred to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as “Judas” for rejecting Trump’s demands to “find” votes after the 2020 election. During a June campaign event ahead of the primary runoff, Jackson told NBC News that “what happened in 2020 was a travesty” when asked who won the election.

• And in Michigan, Rep. John James, the GOP nominee for governor, has a mixed record on the 2020 election. He has repeatedly said it was “rigged” and falsely said in July that Trump won Michigan three times…

• A spokesperson for James did not respond to a request for comment.
• While Democrats plan to focus more on economic and affordability issues in the fall campaign, they say they will highlight Republican gubernatorial candidates’ approaches to the 2020 election because of the role they could play in critical states in 2028.

• “This just really elevates the stakes of these races, because who knows what could happen in future elections if election deniers are in charge of a swing state,” said Sam Newton, the communications director at the Democratic Governors Association. He added that Democrats should continue to push the issue because it’s “something that turns off independent voters, motivates Democratic voters and turns off some of these moderate Republican voters that you need to win really tough states.”

• Newton, of the DGA, also said Democrats would use the 2020 election as part of their attack that Republicans are prioritizing Trump’s own goals over voters’ well-being.
• “In terms of voters and its electoral impact, the fact that they continue to deny the results of the 2020 election, which was safe and secure, is just another proof point, along with their support for the war in Iran that’s raising gas prices, the tariffs that’s raising grocery prices, the budget law that’s cutting healthcare, that these candidates are going to put Trump and their party’s agenda in D.C. first, no matter what; that they are putting their own loyalty to Trump first,” Newton said.

###