By Joe Miller · July 20, 2022
This Week: MAGA Republicans Take Center Stage in the States
Over the past week, Republicans across the country continued to obstruct justice and avoid accountability. In Georgia, the Fulton County grand jury investigating Trump’s criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the state’s 2020 election is heating up. After weeks of testimony from high-ranking state officials, the grand jury has gone national, issuing subpoenas for Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and Cleta Mitchell—as well as Senator Lindsey Graham, who has denied any wrongdoing and refused to testify. Georgia Rep. Jody Hice is following Graham’s lead by challenging his own subpoena. Stay tuned for a busy month, as all sixteen of Georgia’s false electors attempt to fight subpoenas from the District Attorney’s office by pleading the 5th, including numerous Georgia GOP officials and candidates.
The Republican-ruled Pennsylvania legislature is threatening to undermine the work of local election officials across the state, who are facing new barriers and threats of prosecution as 31 new GOP-imposed penalties take effect. The state is already nearing a constitutional crisis, with three Pennsylvania counties still refusing to count the results of a primary election held nearly six weeks ago. Election workers are bracing for even bigger changes to state elections in the wake of a constitutional amendment placed on the ballot by the MAGA legislature last week.
In Arizona on Monday, Mike Pence endorsed Karrin Taylor Robson for governor. Pence joined incumbent Gov. Doug Ducey in supporting Taylor Robson over Trump’s pick Kari Lake, a far-right MAGA news correspondent who’s refusing to concede if she loses the primary. Though neither candidate believes the 2020 election was fair and both have detailed plans for sweeping new ballot restrictions if elected, many are watching the Arizona race closely as yet another proxy showdown between Trump and state-level Republican officials. Following the money, Taylor Robson out-raised Lake by just over $9 million during the second quarter, a financial advantage that’s certainly paying off this month with polls showing the two candidates in a dead heat for the GOP nomination.
Elsewhere, in Republican efforts to subvert the will of voters:
Once again, Trump has asked Wisconsin MAGA Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to illegally decertify Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election results. Days later, a judge ordered Vos to produce election review records after he demonstrated blatant contempt for state law by refusing to comply with Wisconsin’s open records law, and then had the audacity to submit over a thousand records completely unrelated to the initial request.
A Michigan lawsuit is asking a state court to declare MAGA candidate Ryan Kelley an ‘insurrectionist,’ following his arrest on Jan. 6-related charges earlier this summer—which would make him ineligible to run for governor under the fourteenth amendment.
And finally, defeated Nevada gubernatorial candidate Joey Gilbert has filed a lawsuit alleging that a “mathematical issue” led to his nearly 10-point loss in the June GOP primary. After refusing to concede and paying for a full recount, it appears Gilbert is doubling down on his election conspiracy theories.
