Ongoing threats to democracy persist after the midterm elections with ‘Stop the Steal’ lies still making headlines. Election deniers held onto power and even gained ground in key states like Arizona, Wisconsin, and Florida. Worse still, MAGA Republicans are already resuming efforts to overturn the will of voters by undermining democratic institutions, from usurping Boards of Education to impeaching elected prosecutors. MAGA Republicans never stopped trying to silence and overturn the voice of the American people and their attacks only stand to escalate as they look to 2024 – and beyond.
The ‘Stop the Steal’ Movement Continues. Despite some of the most prominent election conspiracists losing in the midterm elections this year, MAGA Republicans are already looking to 2024 for ways to overturn the will of voters. “[A]n entire swath of the Republican Party is now open to the idea that any narrow loss can be blamed on fraud. Trust in elections among rank-and-file GOP voters remains low, and in some respects has gotten worse, according to a recent survey from the Pew Research Center. The damage inflicted in 2020 endures. ‘He’s broken the seal,’ Sarah Longwell, the publisher of The Bulwark, told me. Election denial ‘is part of our politics now.’”
Threats to Local Election Administration Persist As Public Officials Are Forced to Relocate While Election Deniers Continue to Contest Results. Across the country, local election officials sounded the alarm about threats of violence and harassment in the lead-up to the midterm elections. Just weeks after Election Day in Arizona, Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates has moved to an “undisclosed location” patrolled by a security detail for his own safety due to security concerns connected to the 2022 midterm elections. Gates has been an “outspoken critic of false claims that the 2020 election was stolen,” prompting a wave of threats and harassment from MAGA Republicans emboldened by election deniers who continue to spread those same claims in 2022. In Cochise County, the board of supervisors delayed certifying the results after hearing from a trio of conspiracy theorists who alleged that counting machines “were not certified” – in spite of testimony from Arizona’s state elections director that the equipment had been properly certified and accredited according to federal and state regulations. In Texas, voter fraud conspiracies have similarly run rampant as election deniers have seized on routine Election Day issues like paper ballot shortages and late openings of polling places in Houston.
Scores of State and Local Election Deniers Will Take Power After Running Unopposed. In most states, 97% state legislators with far-right ties – nearly 22% of all GOP state lawmakers – won their elections. One of these nominees, Arizona Republican Liz Harris, is already pushing ultimatums over baseless election fraud claims. Harris is refusing to cast a vote on any bill unless the 2022 election in Arizona is completely redone, alleging “clear signs of foul play” without providing any evidence of so-called manipulation or large-scale malfunction. In Michigan, at least half of the incoming class of GOP state lawmakers are election deniers. Worse still, three Republicans who echoed Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and/or worked to overturn the results won in Republican-dominated states as an “untold number” of election conspiracists won local elections to control key positions that oversee and operate elections in counties, cities and other important municipalities across the country.
State-Level Election Deniers Held or Gained Ground In Key States Like Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, Republicans came just shy of a veto-proof supermajority in the legislature, gaining enough Senators to suspend rules, impeach and remove state officials, and speed up the process of passing bills, putting greater pressure on Governor Tony Evers’ to use his veto power sparingly or face the threat of impeachment. With a high-stakes Wisconsin Supreme Court race looming in April 2023 and prominent legislators continuing to call for “decertification” of the 2020 election results, Wisconsin remains “electoral ground zero” for threats to democracy following the midterm elections.
In Florida, MAGA Governor Ron DeSantis Was Re-Elected By A Landslide After Restricting Ballot Access. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who won re-election by a nearly 20-point margin, will remain a significant threat to democracy well into 2024. DeSantis’ administration refused to admit Justice Department monitors conducting routine monitoring required under the Voting Rights Act that has been conducted since 1965. In August 2022, Florida police arrested 20 people charged with casting ballots illegally – even though the state had told them they were eligible to vote. That same month, Gov. DeSantis suspended State Attorney Andrew Warren for exercising prosecutorial discretion. Ahead of the 2022 midterms, the Florida election denier did everything in his power to reduce the voting power of racial and ethnic minorities by gerrymandering Congressional districts.
Election Deniers Are Already Subverting The Will Of Voters By Undermining Democratic Institutions. MAGA election deniers in several states have resumed efforts to undermine the will of voters by targeting democratic institutions. In Ohio, the state GOP is already moving to strip power from the elected State Board of Education after losing control of the board to Democrats for the first time in years. The bill would revoke the Board’s power to develop educational policy, establish financial standards, or implement any programs, centralizing power in the hands of the GOP-controlled legislature. In Pennsylvania, the lame-duck GOP legislature is conducting a last-minute impeachment trial for elected Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, marking the state’s first impeachment in nearly 30 years. Finally, in Michigan, defeated Attorney General candidate Matt DePerno is campaigning for Michigan GOP chair. The MAGA lawyer spearheaded one of Trump’s lawsuits to overturn the 2020 election and is at the heart of a criminal investigation over breaking into several voting machines in January 2021.
