The Washington Post: “Republicans Who Denied 2020 Election Results Could Be Governors Next Year”

The Washington Post: “Republicans Who Denied 2020 Election Results Could Be Governors Next Year”

New reporting from The Washington Post details how Republican election deniers could win the GOP nomination for governor “in several of the country’s biggest battleground states,” setting them up to hold “key oversight roles in the 2028 presidential election,” if they win this November.

Of Andy Biggs in Arizona, Burt Jones in Georgia, Stacy Garrity in Pennsylvania, Tom Tiffany in Wisconsin, and John James in Michigan, “none agreed to be interviewed,” but all have embraced a strategy of openly defending their efforts to undermine the 2020 election results. Many have been rewarded with Trump’s coveted endorsement, proving “baseless claims that the election was stolen have become an article of faith within the Republican Party”.

DGA Chair and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear slammed the GOP election deniers, saying “Almost everyone in this economy is struggling because of [Trump] and these folks that are running, these election deniers, were willing to do anything for this president. So, their past attempts to steal an election were to steal it for a guy that’s made life tougher. They’re certainly not going to stand up to him to try to make life easier.”

Read more from The Washington Post:

• Political figures who took leading roles in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election appear on track to win the Republican Party’s nomination for governor in several of the country’s biggest battleground states, including Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

• … victories in this year’s midterm elections would give Trump supporters who were central to his efforts to overturn the election key oversight roles in the 2028 presidential election, for which states hold main authority.

• At least 30 [candidates] have embraced overhauling election policies. Some promise to fight voter fraud and cheating, while others reference what they call “election integrity” policies such as mandatory voter ID and limitations on mail-in ballots, a Washington Post analysis of 145 Republican gubernatorial candidate websites shows.

• In Arizona, Rep. Andy Biggs, the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican nomination for governor, was central to the Republican effort in 2020 to block certification of the election results. Biggs, who is running with Trump’s endorsement, joined a friend-of-the-court brief in the Texas lawsuit aimed at voiding the election results in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin — all states Trump won in 2016 and that Biden carried four years later.

• Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican presidential elector in the state in 2020, signed an official-looking certificate that claimed Trump won in Georgia and pushed for a special session aimed at making it a reality. Jones is in a competitive race to win the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Georgia.

• Stacy Garrity, Pennsylvania’s Republican treasurer, who has Trump’s endorsement for the gubernatorial nomination, told a crowd gathered at the state capitol on Jan. 5, 2021, that “the election from this November is tarnished forever.” At a campaign event with Trump in 2022, she said, “We know that he won.”

• And in Wisconsin, Rep. Tom Tiffany, another Trump-backed candidate favored to win the GOP nomination for governor, voted to overturn Biden’s wins in Pennsylvania and Arizona and said he would have done the same for Wisconsin if such a vote had been held.

• Michigan has two election skeptics vying for votes. One of them, Rep. John James (R), asked a crowd last month if they believed Democratic state officials “screwed Trump in 2020” and promised on his website to take citizens off the voter rolls. And state Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt told the Midland Daily News he believed Trump won the state in 2020.

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