Massie Warns GOP Challenge Could End Party’s Ability to Win the Presidency: ‘Delegitimizing’ the ‘Only Path to Victory’

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) led several of his fellow Republicans on Monday in denouncing his congressional colleagues for their plan to reject the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 Electoral College victory.

Massie’s office released a statement co-signed by Reps. Kelly Armstrong (ND), Ken Buck (CO), Mike Gallagher (WI) Nancy Mace (SC), Tom McClintock (CA), Chip Roy (TX). The group expressed outrage over “significant abuses” in the 2020 election, but said a challenge being led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and other Republicans could end their party’s ability to win the presidency in the future.

“From a purely partisan perspective, Republican presidential candidates have won the national popular vote only once in the last 32 years,” the group noted, referencing President George W. Bush’s win in the 2004 presidential election. “They have therefore depended on the electoral college for nearly all presidential victories in the last generation. If we perpetuate the notion that Congress may disregard certified electoral votes — based solely on its own assessment that one or more states mishandled the presidential election — we will be delegitimizing the very system that led Donald Trump to victory in 2016, and that could provide the only path to victory in 2024.”

A number of Republican members of Congress have said they intend to object to certifying the 2020 election results on Jan. 6. However, a little more than a dozen Senate Republicans have said they oppose that course of action.

“The text of the Constitution is clear,” the group added. “States select electors. Congress does not. Accordingly, our path forward is also clear. We must respect the states’ authority here. Though doing so may frustrate our immediate political objectives, we have sworn an oath to promote the Constitution above our policy goals. We must count the electoral votes submitted by the states.”