Washington
CNN
—
It’s not simply Donald Trump and JD Vance. Quite a few different 2020 election deniers are operating in 2024 elections.
A minimum of 23 of this 12 months’s 51 Republican nominees for governor, state elections chief or the US Senate have rejected or contested the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump.
The checklist consists of outstanding Republican nominees in aggressive states, like gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson of North Carolina and Senate candidates Kari Lake of Arizona, Bernie Moreno of Ohio, Sam Brown of Nevada and Ted Cruz of Texas. It additionally consists of the favorites to develop into elections chief in Missouri and West Virginia and the favorites within the races for governor in Indiana, Missouri, Montana and West Virginia.
The success of so many 2020 election deniers in Republican primaries this 12 months demonstrates that Trump’s ongoing marketing campaign of election lies continues to have a robust maintain on his social gathering. Even 4 years later, candidates’ views on the 2020 election are related in essential sensible methods.
Governors and election chiefs play key roles in setting voting guidelines and certifying the outcomes. US senators have extra restricted elections-related obligations, however they will object to the congressional counting of electoral votes, pursue nationwide elections laws, and typically maintain hearings and challenge subpoenas on elections points.
A minimum of 5 of this 12 months’s 11 Republican nominees for governor, at the least 4 of this 12 months’s six Republican nominees for state elections chief, and at the least 14 of this 12 months’s 34 Republican nominees for the US Senate have rejected or contested the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.
There are key variations between the 23 candidates. Some have explicitly known as the 2020 election “stolen” and denied that Biden was the true winner, whereas others have solid doubt on the result with vaguer rhetoric. Some are incumbents who used their workplaces to again makes an attempt to overturn Trump’s defeat, whereas others promoted these efforts from exterior authorities.
Some adopted by means of on their introduced plans to vote towards counting Biden’s electoral votes on January 6, 2021, whereas others deserted these plans after a mob stormed the US Capitol that day. And a few are veteran lawmakers cruising to reelection, whereas others are longshots in Democratic-dominated states.
Here’s a information to the statements and actions of the 23 candidates. We are going to replace this text if we discover proof that further candidates belong on the checklist.
Candidates for governor
Eleven states are holding elections for governor this 12 months. A minimum of 5 of the 11 Republican nominees – Mark Robinson of North Carolina, Mike Braun of Indiana, Mike Kehoe of Missouri, Greg Gianforte of Montana and Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia – have supported efforts to overturn Biden’s victory in 2020 or denied the legitimacy of that victory, although Braun ended up discarding his plan to object to Biden’s electoral votes.
CNN couldn’t discover any public statements on the legitimacy of Biden’s victory from one main Republican gubernatorial candidate, former Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. Her marketing campaign didn’t reply to CNN’s requests for remark.
Braun, who’s now operating for Indiana governor, announced on January 2, 2021, that he was a part of a group of Republican senators who would object to the congressional depend of “disputed states” received by Biden and would as a substitute push Congress to authorize an “emergency 10-day audit” of the election in these states. He reiterated in a social media post within the early afternoon of January 6, 2021, that he deliberate to object that day, writing that “I’ll object right this moment and assist an emergency audit into irregularities within the 2020 election.”
After a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, although, Braun modified his thoughts and determined to not object. He wrote on social media late that night time: “At this time’s occasions modified issues drastically. Although I’ll proceed to push for a radical investigation into the election irregularities many Hoosiers are involved with as my objection was meant, I’ve withdrawn that objection and can vote to get this ugly day behind us.” He told reporters, “No matter level you made earlier than, that ought to suffice.”
Requested throughout a televised debate on Wednesday whether or not he believes Trump misplaced the 2020 election, Braun said, “I consider that election had irregularities to it, I feel they had been investigated; licensed the vote, and we’re speaking about 2024.” When the moderator once more requested Braun if he believes Trump misplaced in 2020, Braun mentioned, “I do.”
Braun was not requested in the course of the debate if he thought Trump’s defeat was official, and his workplace did not reply to a earlier CNN request to touch upon whether or not he thinks Biden was the official winner. His Democratic opponent is Jennifer McCormick, a former Superintendent of Public Instruction within the state.
Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, now the Republican nominee for Missouri governor, rejected the legitimacy of Biden’s victory when requested for remark for this text in July.
In an emailed assertion, Kehoe’s marketing campaign mentioned the televised debate between Biden and Trump the week prior made clear that “Joe Biden has no enterprise being president.” The marketing campaign then continued: “He’s illegitimate within the eyes of the voters, of his social gathering, and of the world. He ought to have by no means stepped foot within the Oval Workplace, and in November, we’re going to proper that fallacious by overwhelmingly reelecting Donald Trump.”
Kehoe’s Democratic opponent is state Rep. Crystal Quade, the state Home minority chief.
Gov. Greg Gianforte has served as governor of Montana since early 2021. As a member of the US Home of Representatives in December 2020, he was one in every of 126 Home Republicans who signed on to a authorized brief in assist of a Texas-led lawsuit that requested the Supreme Court docket to overturn Biden’s victory by invalidating his wins in 4 swing states.
Gianforte supplied this comment to Lee Newspapers on the time: “To guard the integrity of the 2020 elections and elections to return, I encourage the Supreme Court docket to just accept Texas’ lawsuit and reply the essential questions which were put ahead.”
Gianforte’s workplace didn’t reply to CNN’s requests for remark this 12 months on his present views on the legitimacy of Biden’s victory. His Democratic opponent is Ryan Busse, a former government at a gun producer who has develop into a critic of the firearms trade.
Robinson, now the Republican nominee for governor, has explicitly rejected the legitimacy of Biden’s victory.
Robinson falsely claimed in a 2021 speech at a church that Biden “stole the election,” in response to audio obtained by The News & Observer newspaper. And in Robinson’s speech on the Conservative Political Motion Convention in 2022, he said he didn’t consider Biden’s 2020 vote complete: “I don’t care what you inform me, 83 thousand individuals [sic] didn’t vote for Joe Biden. I don’t suppose 83 million individuals know who Joe Biden is.” (Biden acquired about 81.3 million votes nationwide, so Robinson was misstating the overall whereas denying it.)
Requested by CNN in March 2024 whether or not Robinson accepts that Biden was the official winner in 2020, Robinson’s marketing campaign supplied a response however didn’t reply the query – as a substitute altering the topic to Democrats who’ve disputed the legitimacy of different elections.
Robinson’s Democratic opponent is state Legal professional Common Josh Stein.
In December 2020, West Virginia Legal professional Common Patrick Morrisey joined the Texas-led lawsuit that requested the Supreme Court docket to overturn Biden’s victory.
Morrisey, now the Republican nominee for governor, said in an announcement on the time: “Many People and West Virginians have seen their confidence within the electoral system undermined as they watch one report after one other outlining the numerous, many issues with the 2020 elections. That should change.” He additionally claimed that states had taken “many irregular, extremely problematic and unconstitutional actions” in the course of the 2020 elections.
The Related Press reported in Might 2023 that, in a latest interview, Morrisey had repeated his earlier claims about “important irregularities” in 2020 elections; the AP additionally reported that Morrisey had “refused to say definitively whether or not he believes Biden’s victory was fraudulent,” as a substitute merely stating the truth that Biden is the present president.
Morrisey’s workplace and marketing campaign didn’t reply to CNN’s requests for touch upon the topic this 12 months. His Democratic opponent is Huntington Mayor Steve Williams.
Candidates for the US Senate
There are 34 races for US senator this 12 months, together with two in Nebraska. A minimum of 14 of the Republican nominees have supported efforts to overturn Biden’s victory in 2020 or denied or questioned the legitimacy of that victory.
CNN couldn’t discover any public statements on the legitimacy of Biden’s victory from the Republican candidates in 4 states: Tim Sheehy of Montana and longshot candidates in Democratic-dominated Delaware, Connecticut and Hawaii. Their campaigns didn’t reply to CNN’s requests for remark.
Lake, a former anchor on the native Fox tv station in Phoenix, put lies concerning the 2020 election on the forefront of her unsuccessful marketing campaign for Arizona governor in 2022. And she or he continued to push false election claims after her defeat.
Throughout Lake’s gubernatorial marketing campaign, she falsely claimed the 2020 election was “stolen” and known as it “disqualifying” {that a} rival within the Republican main wouldn’t say the identical. She additionally falsely claimed Biden didn’t obtain the 81 million votes he certainly acquired; falsely claimed Trump received Arizona in 2020, although he misplaced by greater than 10,000 votes; said she wouldn’t have licensed Biden’s 2020 victory in Arizona if she had been governor on the time; and demanded the decertification of Biden’s victories in Arizona and Wisconsin, although that was a authorized impossibility.
Lake additionally baselessly advocated the imprisonment of Katie Hobbs, who was Arizona’s election chief in the course of the 2020 election and went on to defeat Lake within the 2022 race for governor. (After that 2022 race was marred by Election Day technical problems within the state’s most populous county, Lake baselessly called that race “rigged,” unsuccessfully challenged it in courtroom and proclaimed herself the true winner.)
Within the months earlier than Lake launched her Senate marketing campaign in 2023, she posted on social media that “the 2020 Election Outcomes had been rubbish,” wrote “81 Million Votes, My Ass,” and called to “decertify 2020.” Whereas she has not emphasized election denial in the course of the Senate marketing campaign, she has not deserted it both; she repeated her “81 million votes, my ass” chorus on social media in March 2024.
Lake’s marketing campaign didn’t reply to a CNN request for remark for this text. She is operating towards Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego for the US Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who was elected as a Democrat after which grew to become an impartial.
Sen. Rick Scott voted to object to the congressional depend of Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania, although he voted in favor of counting Biden’s victory in Arizona. On January 6, 2021, earlier than a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol that day, Scott issued a statement wherein he argued that election rule modifications made in Pennsylvania amid the Covid-19 pandemic violated the state’s legislation and structure.
Scott acknowledged after January 6 that Biden legitimately received the election, which units him other than many of the others on this checklist. On January 8, 2021, Scott urged Trump to rethink his choice to skip Biden’s inauguration, saying Trump ought to attend although “I can think about dropping an election may be very onerous.” Scott said in a Fox Information interview in February 2021 that Biden “completely” received honest and sq..
Nonetheless, Scott is on the checklist due to his objection to Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania.
Requested for remark for this text, a Scott spokesperson pointed to his post-January 6 feedback accepting Biden’s legitimacy. Scott’s Democratic opponent is former congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.
Indiana Rep. Jim Banks voted to object to the congressional depend of Biden’s victories in Pennsylvania and Arizona. Within the days previous to the depend session that was held on January 6, 2021, Banks said he can be objecting as a result of some states’ governors, election chiefs, judges and different officers made modifications to election guidelines (amid the Covid-19 pandemic) with out the approval of state legislatures.
Banks additionally joined 125 different Home Republicans in affixing his identify to an amicus transient in assist of the Texas-led lawsuit that sought to get the Supreme Court docket to overturn Biden’s victory.
Banks said on Fox News in Might 2021 that he stood by his selections. He mentioned he continued to have “severe considerations about how the election in November was carried out,” although he famous that he had not gone as far as to name it “stolen.”
Banks’ workplace didn’t reply to a CNN request for remark for this text. He’s operating towards Democrat Valerie McCray, a psychologist, for the Senate seat being vacated by Braun.
Maine: Demi Kouzounas
Demi Kouzounas, a dentist and Military veteran who was chair of the Maine Republican Social gathering on the time of the 2020 election, questioned the legitimacy of Biden’s victory in a November 2020 written statement 5 days after media retailers unofficially projected that Biden had received.
Kouzounas wrote that, together with the chair of the New Hampshire GOP and different People, she was “deeply involved with the anomalies” in unspecified key states “and the potential for election fraud, and can proceed to full heartedly assist our President till all counting and litigation concludes. So far as we’re involved, President Trump remains to be our President till confirmed in any other case.” She wrote, “We is not going to relaxation till the reality concerning the 2020 election is revealed and we return belief to American elections.”
As beforehand reported by Beacon, a Maine progressive web site, Kouzounas additionally baselessly claimed on native speak radio after the election that China had intentionally unleashed Covid-19 on the US to harm Trump’s probabilities of profitable.
Kouzounas’ marketing campaign didn’t reply to a CNN request for remark for this text. She is difficult incumbent Sen. Angus King, an impartial who caucuses with Democrats.
Royce White, a former school basketball star, participated in a sport within the Big3 league in 2023 with the phrases “TRUMP WON!” scrawled on the side of his head. He posted the picture and repeated the phrases “Trump Gained!” in a subsequent social media post.
White didn’t reply to requests for remark for this text. He’s difficult incumbent Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
In early December 2020, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley applauded the Texas-led lawsuit that sought to get the Supreme Court docket to overturn Biden’s victory. Then, late that month, Hawley became the first senator to announce he would object to the congressional depend of Biden electoral votes the next week.
Hawley adopted by means of, voting to object to counting Biden’s victories in Pennsylvania and Arizona – after making a controversial raised-fist gesture towards pro-Trump demonstrators as he walked into the Capitol for the session on January 6, 2021, earlier than the beginning of the riot that day. Hawley was the senator who introduced the Pennsylvania objection, becoming a member of a Pennsylvania member of the Home.
Hawley mentioned in his late-December 2020 statement that he was objecting as a result of, he claimed, states together with Pennsylvania had not adopted their election legal guidelines and since, he claimed, expertise firms had interfered within the election. He additionally proposed a congressional investigation of “potential fraud and election irregularities.”
Each before and after the depend session, Hawley insisted he wasn’t making an attempt to overturn the election by objecting. However in a Fox Information interview two days earlier than the session, he suggested that Trump might presumably stay president past the looming Biden inauguration day due to the depend session later that week.
Hawley was defiant after the session, which was interrupted by a pro-Trump mob storming the Capitol. He told media retailers the following day: “I’ll by no means apologize for giving voice to the tens of millions of Missourians and People who’ve considerations concerning the integrity of our elections.” In mid-2022, when CNN’s Manu Raju asked Hawley if he regrets the raised-fist gesture he made previous to the riot, he mentioned: “I don’t remorse something I did on that day.”
Hawley’s workplace didn’t reply to a CNN request for remark for this text. His Democratic opponent is lawyer and Marine veteran Lucas Kunce.
Sam Brown, a retired Military captain, received the Republican nomination for a Nevada US Senate seat in June. Throughout Brown’s earlier Senate marketing campaign, an unsuccessful run within the 2022 midterms, Brown mentioned there have been “loads of questions” about Biden’s victory in Nevada in 2020, expressed assist for “audits” of the election outcomes months after Biden was inaugurated, and he ran an advert attacking his foremost Republican main opponent for supposedly having did not do extra to assist problem Trump’s 2020 defeat in Nevada.
Brown mentioned in an August 2021 radio interview: “I share a significant concern about election integrity. And in a way that, you realize, people have to have the ability to belief outcomes, proper? And the outcomes advised us this final election cycle that Joe Biden received Nevada. The issue we’ve obtained is there’s loads of questions on the market. And there’s an effort so as to add an opaque view at what’s actually occurred.”
Later within the interview, Brown praised individuals who had been “pursuing the reality of precisely what occurred” and appeared to name for judges to “mandate” election audits. He mentioned, “And so I’m all about us digging in and discovering out precisely what occurred. My concern is, is that except we’ve the judicial department backing up these audits, we’re not going to get the clear solutions that we’d like so as to have the ability to establish what’s going ahead.”
Brown ran an ad in 2022 that criticized Adam Laxalt, the eventual winner of that main, for supposedly ready too lengthy to file 2020 “voter fraud lawsuits,” with the advert’s narrator claiming Laxalt had let down Trump supporters. Brown delivered a similar attack on Laxalt at a 2022 debate.
Brown’s marketing campaign declined to remark for this text. He’s difficult incumbent Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen.
In late 2020, businessman Bernie Moreno made social media posts wherein he acknowledged Biden’s election victory, criticized Trump for making “claims of a fraudulent election with out proof,” and even tried to debunk these false claims.
However when Moreno was a candidate in a Republican main for a US Senate seat in Ohio in late 2021, he turned to election denialism himself – releasing a television ad wherein he mentioned straight to the digicam, “President Trump says the election was stolen, and he’s proper.”
Moreno dropped out of that aggressive main in early 2022 after a gathering with Trump. In March 2024, after profitable the Republican nomination for Ohio’s different US Senate seat, he refused to answer directly when requested by CNN whether or not the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, saying the topic was not a precedence for the individuals of Ohio.
Then, speaking to CNN’s Raju in August 2024, Moreno mentioned it was “true” that the 2020 election was “rigged.” He refused to reply immediately when requested if Biden was legitimately elected, dodging by saying Biden is “legitimately the worst president of the USA.”
Moreno’s marketing campaign didn’t reply to a request for remark for this text. He’s difficult incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Throughout his Senate marketing campaign in Pennsylvania this 12 months, Dave McCormick, a former hedge fund chief government and Treasury Division official, has said the 2020 election “wasn’t stolen.” He said the same in a Wall Avenue Journal interview final 12 months. Marketing campaign spokesperson Elizabeth Gregory advised CNN this July: “As Dave has mentioned quite a few occasions, he believes Biden received the 2020 election.”
However McCormick is included on this article due to what he mentioned and didn’t say concerning the 2020 election on numerous events earlier than this 12 months.
Whereas operating unsuccessfully in 2022 for the Republican nomination for Pennsylvania’s different Senate seat, McCormick refused to reply immediately when repeatedly requested in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek whether or not he thought the election was stolen; he claimed there have been “all types of election irregularities” in Pennsylvania and “definitely there have been plenty of doubts” within the state. He made similarly evasive claims about “election irregularities” in different 2022 feedback. When repeatedly requested by NBC10 Philadelphia that 12 months whether or not he acknowledged that Trump had misplaced Pennsylvania and the final election in 2020, McCormick refused to reply immediately and ultimately mentioned, “Joe Biden is the president.”
McCormick wrote in a 2023 guide that, in the course of the 2022 main, he had rejected Trump’s direct request to declare that the 2020 election was stolen. (Quickly after that, Trump endorsed McCormick opponent Mehmet Oz.) However on at the least one event in 2023, McCormick continued to solid doubt on the integrity of the 2020 vote; The Philadelphia Inquirer quoted him as saying in a 2023 interview: “I by no means mentioned the election was stolen in the course of the marketing campaign. I mentioned, ‘I perceive the frustration.’ There was plenty of issues that occurred in 2020 that ought to sway our confidence: fraudulent actions on the ballots … ballots that had been misplaced that got here up in Philadelphia. … We’ve obtained an electoral course of in Pennsylvania and, I believe across the nation, that’s actually, actually problematic.”
McCormick is difficult incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.
Rhode Island: Patricia Morgan
Rhode Island state Rep. Patricia Morgan made quite a few false claims concerning the 2020 presidential election on social media in 2020 and 2021.
In December 2020, for instance, Morgan posted this: “It isn’t okay to rob voters of their simply victory by overwhelming the election with illegitimate ballots after which claiming that to seek for the fraud or require a brand new election would disenfranchise those self same voters. It’s nonsensical…however that’s the Democrats argument.”
Amongst her different false statements, Morgan baselessly called the election “not official,” wrongly accused Democrats of getting “cheated,” parroted others’ false claims that the election was stolen and that the “election fraud occurred nearly in every single place,” amplified debunked conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines, falsely said “there was sufficient voter fraud to place the election into query,” and falsely said the late-2020 hearings held by Republican legislators in some swing states Biden received had been “uncovering mountains of outrageous examples of vote dumping, fraudulent votes and tried coverups.”
She told The Windfall Journal in December 2020: “In fact, there was election fraud, aided by politicians who exponentially elevated the variety of mail-in ballots with out enough preparation.”
Morgan and her marketing campaign didn’t reply to a request for remark for this text. She is difficult incumbent Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.
Two weeks after Election Day in November 2020, and 10 days after media retailers had unofficially projected Biden because the winner, Sen. Marsha Blackburn wrote on social media that “this election is much from over.” In December 2020, Blackburn applauded Tennessee’s lawyer common for signing on to the Texas-led lawsuit that requested the Supreme Court docket to overturn Biden’s victory.
On January 2, 2021, Blackburn announced on social media that she and fellow Tennessee Sen. Invoice Hagerty “will stand towards tainted electoral outcomes from the latest Presidential election” and oppose the congressional depend of Biden’s victory. She additionally wrote that day, “I can not in good conscience flip a blind eye to the numerous allegations of voter fraud within the 2020 presidential election.” She was part of a group of Republican senators who known as for Congress to approve an “emergency 10-day audit of the election returns within the disputed states”; she said on Fox News on January 4, 2021 that she wished to ship “this challenge” again to elected officers in state governments.
On the morning of January 6, 2021, Blackburn wrote on social media, “The struggle for election integrity begins proper now.” After the riot, although, she abandoned her objection plans and voted to count Biden’s electoral votes.
Blackburn’s marketing campaign didn’t reply to a request to touch upon whether or not she thinks Biden was the official winner. Her Democratic opponent is state Rep. Gloria Johnson.
Sen. Ted Cruz, a key figure within the effort to overturn Biden’s victory, voted to object to the congressional depend of Biden’s wins in Pennsylvania and Arizona. Cruz was the senator who brought the objection to counting Arizona’s electoral votes, becoming a member of an Arizona member of the Home.
Cruz said in a January 6, 2021 speech that this objection was “broader” than simply Arizona.
Slightly, he mentioned, he wished Congress to authorize a fee to conduct “a 10-day emergency audit” of the election in “all six of the contested states.” Cruz had promoted this “audit” plan in the days prior, saying additional investigation was wanted in mild of “unprecedented allegations of voter fraud.”
When Cruz was asked on ABC in 2022 whether or not he believed Biden legitimately received the election, he wouldn’t reply immediately. When pressed, he responded, “So hear: Biden is the president right this moment. There’s loads of people within the media … that attempt to, any time a Republican is in entrance of a TV digicam, attempt to say, ‘The election was honest and sq. and bonafide.’” (He went on to complain that journalists supposedly don’t problem Democrats who’ve disputed the legitimacy of different elections.) In a televised interview on CNN in May 2024, Cruz mentioned, baselessly, that “I feel there was important voter fraud in 2020.”
Cruz’s marketing campaign didn’t reply to a CNN request to remark for this text on whether or not he thinks Biden was the official winner. His Democratic opponent is Rep. Colin Allred.
When Hung Cao, a retired Navy captain, was a candidate for the Home of Representatives in 2022, he was requested by Virginia information outlet Loudoun Now whether or not Joe Biden received the 2020 election. Cao responded by baselessly casting doubt on the legitimacy of Biden’s vote total.
“Once more, I’m going to let you know it’s very onerous to know how an individual who hid of their basement the complete time obtained extra votes than Barack Obama. It’s simply very onerous for me to know that,” Cao mentioned.
He had made related feedback at a fundraiser during that race, which he misplaced. And when requested at a 2022 debate whether or not he believed the 2020 election was “free, honest and untainted” and Biden was “duly elected,” Cao didn’t reply immediately – as a substitute stating the truth that “Joe Biden is the president of the USA” and saying that prime meals and gasoline costs proved it.
Cao supplied one other related reply when CNN requested him in July 2024 whether or not he accepts that Biden was the official winner. Declining to handle the legitimacy of Biden’s victory, Cao mentioned by way of e-mail, “Joe Biden is the President, and he’s chargeable for every part that has gone fallacious on this nation and all over the world since he took workplace.” When pressed for a direct reply, he added solely this: “Joe Biden was licensed the winner of the election, as President Trump was in 2016.”
Cao is difficult incumbent Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, now the Republican nominee for a US Senate seat, refused to reply immediately in Might 2024 when he was requested if he thought Biden had received legitimately in 2020. “What does it matter? I imply, what on this planet does it matter?” Justice mentioned in a press briefing that was covered by the Associated Press.
In December 2020, Justice said he “can be supportive” if the state lawyer common – Patrick Morrisey, who’s now operating for governor – determined to hitch the Texas-led lawsuit in search of to overturn Biden’s victory, although Justice mentioned the choice was as much as Morrisey and that he didn’t know “the particulars” himself. Morrisey announced the same day that he would certainly be a part of the go well with.
Justice’s workplace and marketing campaign didn’t reply to requests for remark for this text.
He’s operating for the US Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Joe Manchin, who was elected as a Democrat and is now an impartial. Justice’s Democratic opponent is former Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott.
Candidates for secretary of state
Seven states are holding elections for secretary of state this 12 months. In six of these states (not North Carolina), the secretary of state is the state’s high elections official. A minimum of 4 of the Republican nominees in these six states – Denny Hoskins of Missouri, Dennis Linthicum of Oregon, H. Brooke Paige of Vermont and Kris Warner of West Virginia – have both explicitly rejected or refused to affirm the legitimacy of Biden’s victory.
CNN couldn’t discover any public statements on the legitimacy of Biden’s victory from the Republican nominees within the different two states, Washington’s Dale Whitaker and incumbent Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen. Neither responded to CNN’s requests for remark.
Missouri state Sen. Denny Hoskins explicitly rejected the legitimacy of Biden’s victory in his written statement upon profitable the Republican nomination for secretary of state in August, saying that “we’ve to make sure that not one of the electoral fraud that happened in 2020 and stole the election from President Trump occurs right here.”
In 2022, Hoskins urged individuals to look at “2000 Mules,” a right-wing commentator’s debunked film that wrongly alleged mass election fraud in 2020 involving poll drop packing containers. In 2023, he shared another person’s social media publish that wrongly claimed the 2020 election was “rigged” and added the phrases “sure, election fraud is actual.”
Hoskins didn’t reply to a request for remark for this text. His Democratic opponent is state Rep. Barbara Phifer.
Oregon state Sen. Dennis Linthicum, now the social gathering’s nominee for secretary of state, signed a December 2020 letter that urged the Oregon lawyer common to assist the Texas-led lawsuit that sought to get the Supreme Court docket to overturn Biden’s victory.
Linthicum didn’t abandon his efforts to overturn the election after Biden was inaugurated in January 2021. Linthicum additionally signed an October 2021 letter, circulated amongst Republican state legislators across the nation, that baselessly declared the 2020 election “corrupted,” demanded so-called forensic audits of the election in all 50 states, and pushed an not possible plan to shortly make Trump president once more – saying that any state confirmed to have inaccurate 2020 outcomes ought to “decertify its electors” and that, if such decertification resulted in Biden falling under the 270 electoral votes wanted for victory, the Home ought to determine on the “rightful” winner “via one vote per state.” (Conveniently, a majority of states at the time had Republican-majority Home delegations.)
Linthicum has made a wide range of baseless claims about mail-in voting in Oregon and is trying to eliminate mail-in voting within the state. In 2022, he was one of many plaintiffs in an unsuccessful lawsuit that requested the courts to forbid mail-in voting in Oregon; the lawsuit repeatedly invoked “2000 Mules,” the debunked film that wrongly alleged mass election fraud in 2020 involving poll drop packing containers.
Linthicum didn’t reply to a CNN request for remark for this text. His Democratic opponent is state Treasurer Tobias Learn.
H. Brooke Paige, a perennial longshot candidate in Vermont, falsely claimed on his Fb web page in January 2021 that the left “stole” the 2020 election by means of a “subversive plan” involving “stuffing the poll field and corrupting the tabulation of the election outcomes.” In one other January 2021 post on Fb, Paige claimed that “a majority of the inhabitants is aware of that their authorities has been taken over by unlawfully chosen candidates who by means of fraudulent means and authorized jiujitsu have seized management.”
Paige, who previously owned a newsstand and low store enterprise in Philadelphia, ran unopposed for the 2024 Republican nomination for Vermont secretary of state, as he did in 2022. As in 2022, he declined in September to reply immediately when requested by CNN if he thought Biden was legitimately elected.
He mentioned he has little question that Biden had the ample variety of Electoral Faculty votes to be “rightfully put in” as president – but in addition mentioned “the query is how a lot mischief” there was in the course of the marketing campaign to permit Biden to acquire these electoral votes. He criticized states’ 2020 modifications to their election guidelines and raised uncorroborated claims of poll fraud in Philadelphia and elsewhere.
“All method of issues – good, unhealthy and ugly – went on, and no person is aware of the depth of the …depravity that was concerned in numerous elements of the election course of,” he mentioned. “We can not comprehend all the variations of issues that occurred to get to the end result.”
Paige’s Democratic opponent is incumbent Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas.
Kris Warner, a enterprise skilled who was appointed by the Trump administration to a place with the US Division of Agriculture, told media outlet West Virginia Watch in Might that he wasn’t positive if the 2020 election was stolen or not.
He mentioned he is aware of it wasn’t stolen in West Virginia, the place his brother, Mac Warner, is secretary of state, however that “I don’t suppose that I’m certified at this level to speak about what’s occurred in different states and whether or not the election was stolen or not.”
Kris Warner, who’s now the manager director of the West Virginia Financial Growth Authority, didn’t reply to requests to remark for this text on whether or not he thinks Biden was the official winner. His Democratic opponent is lawyer Thornton Cooper.