Stunning Report Finds Over 100 GOP Primary Winners Parroted Trump’s Debunked Claims of 2020 Voter Fraud
With the 2020 primary season hitting its mid-point, already over 100 winning Republican candidates are those who have backed former President Donald Trump’s claims the 2020 election was stolen, according to a new analysis.
Those candidates include “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,” notes the Washington Post.
The Post categorizes a candidate as having backed the so-called “big lie” if they “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.”
Trump’s allegations of widespread voter fraud in 2020 have been roundly debunked by multiple statewide audits, run by Republicans in many cases, and government agencies.
The 100-plus candidates the Post believes fall into that category will all be on the ballot in November and only represent the outcomes from the 14 state primaries or nominating conventions that took place prior to June. With dozens more states yet to have their primaries, the number of 2020 election-denying candidates on the ballot is likely to grow significantly.
“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,” notes the Post, explaining that while there has been some push back against Trump election fraud claims, they have been the exception
One of the leading candidates to carry the banner of Trump’s “big lie” is Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania. Mastriano led the effort following the 2020 presidential election by state Republicans to try and decertify Biden’s win in the state. He has since pushed debunked allegations of widespread election fraud in the state, despite Biden beating Trump by more than 75,000 votes in the state.
On Monday, Mastriano announced he hired former Trump election lawyer Jenna Ellis to be his campaign’s legal adviser.
Ellis was a member of Trump’s legal team that unsuccessfully filed dozens of lawsuits aimed at supporting Trump’s debunked allegations that the 2020 election was stolen. She participated in the wild press conference with Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell alleging now-debunked conspiracy theories and elaborate schemes to steal the election from Trump.
The Post notes, that these candidates are also dominating Michigan’s slate of Republican candidates.
“Republican nominee for attorney general Matthew DePerno spearheaded a November 2020 lawsuit over an election night tabulation error in Antrim County that Trump supporters have seized on in their efforts to perpetuate unfounded claims of fraud,” the Post explains, adding that “Secretary of state nominee Kristina Karamo served as an observer in Detroit during the 2020 absentee ballot count and claimed without offering supporting evidence that she had witnessed fraud.”
Former Trump senior adviser Steve Bannon has made no secret of his plan to recruit and run 2020 election-denying candidates for local office, particularly for offices that oversee local and state elections. Bannon argues this is a key component of retaking control of the U.S. government from the Democrats.
“These officeholders are so important. They are going to be the ones on whose backs our democracy survives or doesn’t,” Joanna Lydgate, who leads States United Democracy Center, told the Post.
