Despite setbacks, electoral denialist caucus shows strength in the US

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Some of America’s top election deniers may walk away empty-handed from midterm elections. Until early Tuesday morning (8), with the vote counting still in progress, emblematic figures of the “Stop the Steal” movement were behind their opponents. Arizona Republican presidential candidate Kari Lake, who accused Democrats of stealing the 2020 election and vowed to end automatic vote counting in the state by instituting manual counting, lost to her Democratic rival. Arizona secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, another ardent conspiracy theorist, was also losing. Ditto for Doug Mastriano, a Republican who made contesting the electoral system the main theme of his campaign for the governor of Pennsylvania – and had projected his defeat for the Democratic candidate.

But even with these setbacks, one thing is certain: the caucus of electoral deniers is here to stay. Of the 569 Republican candidates for seats in the House, Senate, governorships, state secretaries of state and attorneys general, 291 contested or refused to accept the 2020 election result of President Joe Biden, according to the Washington Post’s calculation.

Of these, more than 90 had already managed to get elected by early Wednesday morning, proving that electoral denialism is popular – or, at least, it doesn’t cost votes.

Among them, radicals like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, denier and disseminator of QAnon conspiracies; and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who stated, “The fraud happened, the election was stolen in many ways.”

A full 51% of Republican candidates embraced former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged — even though the Republican campaign lost more than 60 lawsuits contesting the election result.

In the wake of the invasion of the Capitol by Trump-inspired extremists on January 6, 2021, some Republican lawmakers took issue with the former president and his false claims, which resulted in violence. But they became the target of Trump’s wrath. In the primaries, Trump supported opponents of these lawmakers – most of those who dared to criticize the former president ended up defeated.

That’s because election denialism is on the rise among Republican voters – according to a September Monmouth University poll, 61% of party voters think Biden won in 2020 because there was fraud.

Trump tries to keep the conspiracy flame burning.

“Is the same electoral fraud happening as in 2020???”, wrote the former president on Tuesday afternoon on his social network, Truth Social.

The victory of the negationist candidates is a threat to the democracy of the United States. Governors and secretaries of state will be able to influence the rules of the 2024 presidential elections, make it difficult for voters to access the polls, delay results, and contest the count.

Another problem is that, for many American voters, democracy remains an abstract topic – and inflation and crime have been the most vocal when choosing their candidates. Democrats tried to turn the defense of democracy and the integrity of the electoral system into a banner. Apparently, the topic hasn’t gained much traction.

With the vote count stretching, the “midterms” version of the Big Lie was still expected, with Republican candidates preparing to contest the poll. For deniers, only one outcome is acceptable – victory.

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