Republicans who rejected and sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election results – including Trump-backed candidates who amplified his election lies – lost nearly every statewide race in which they sought to take control over how elections are run, a result hailed as a significant victory for free and fair elections in the US.
Voters rejected election deniers who sought to become the top election official in Arizona, Nevada and Michigan – all key battleground states – as well as Minnesota and New Mexico. In Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano, a state senator who has been among the most prominent spreaders of election misinformation, lost his bid to be the state’s top election official. Kari Lake, a Republican who built her campaign around election denialism, also is projected to lose her bid for governor in Arizona.
“We see the voters clearly saying trying to delegitimize democracy is not a winning strategy,” said Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat who defeated Kristina Karamo, a Republican who spread baseless misinformation about the 2020 election results, to win a second term last week. “But we still have a presidential election now under two years away in which we anticipate a lot of the same challenges.”
In Michigan, Democrats defeated election deniers in the governor and attorney general’s race as well, beating back what many feared could be an election denialism trifecta in a key battleground state.
In 94 statewide races this fall, just five non-incumbent election deniers won their elections as of Monday afternoon, according to States United Action, a group that has been tracking election deniers running. Those candidates won in Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas and Wyoming.
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Donald Trump is expected to announce his 2024 presidential bid tonight at his Mar-a-Lago residence and resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
The big announcement that the former president has been teasing since before the midterm elections will come as he faces intense scrutiny from within his own party. After a number of far-right, Trump-endorsed candidates lost their elections, advisers had urged the ex-president to delay announcing a 2024 candidacy.
Meanwhile, Trump is facing a deluge of legal troubles and investigations. Today, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, testified in the tax-fraud trial of Trump’s family business. Prosecutors are also investigating whether he criminally retained national security documents at Mar-a-Lago.
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