By Joe Miller
This Week: Republicans Are Working to Enact the MAGA Playbook In Key States
Across the country, Republican lawmakers are sticking to the election denier playbook, doubling-down on anti-voter election policies and appointing MAGA loyalists to top positions. Just yesterday, the Republican National Committee released a new report detailing plans to focus on disproved election fraud claims and use their power to expand restrictions on voting. Election deniers are shaping up to hold key election oversight roles in state governments across the country.
Arizona Republicans have advanced a new set of anti-voter bills based on conspiracy theories and political grudges aimed at making it harder to vote in the state after appointing fake elector and far-right extremist Wendy Rogers to the Senate Elections Commission. The Arizona GOP’s new chair has embraced Rogers in spite of her controversial record with white nationalism and conspiracy theories as part of his bid to court election deniers and appease MAGA Arizona Republicans who continue to push false narratives about voter fraud and election outcomes. Her top priorities include bills curbing ballot drop boxes, banning drive-through voting, and limiting early voting. In Pennsylvania, a state Senator who spearheaded a baseless 2020 election investigation and pushed to block the state’s electoral votes was appointed as chair of the Senate State Government Committee. In just a few weeks, he has already begun efforts to restrict voter ID requirements and impose mandatory post-election audits without the Governor’s approval.
Meanwhile, MAGA Republicans continue to profit off of election denialism. In Arizona, newly released campaign finance records have revealed that Kari Lake raised $2.5 million towards her efforts to overturn the election after Election Day but spent less than 10% of it on legal fees, prompting top Arizona election officials to weigh an investigation into Lake’s campaign for potential finance violations.
Elsewhere, local election officials are pushing back on election deniers who are still working to subvert democratic norms:
In Florida, local election officials are calling on Ron DeSantis and his administration to throw out new mail-in voting restrictions set to be rolled out over the next two years, warning that the new laws could disenfranchise large portions of the electorate (roughly one-third of Floridians voted by mail in recent elections) and will create serious election reporting delays at a high cost to local offices.
In Arizona, Cochise County’s elections director resigned from office last week, saying she faced a “threatening work environment” after she refused to cooperate with an illegal MAGA hand-count plan and protected the midterm ballots from far-right county officials.
And finally, the California state bar has officially filed disciplinary actions against John Eastman, one of Trump’s legal advisors who was a key figure in the criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.
