PRESS RELEASE Contact: [email protected]
For Immediate Release
Date: November 15, 2022
Washington, D.C. – In last week’s election, democracy was on the ballot and democracy won. Trump-endorsed election deniers at every level across the country decisively lost their races and conceded to the victors. Americans turned out in record numbers to reject those who rejected the results of our elections and instead chose to protect our core freedoms.
Last night, the governor’s race was called in Arizona, a state where Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans did more to overturn the last election and undermine democracy than in almost any other state. This defeat is a testament to Arizonans who reject Donald Trump and his MAGA allies in the name of democracy.
“With the Governor’s race in Arizona called last night – a stinging defeat for one of the most noxious election deniers in the country – the 2022 election will go down in the history books as a victory for democracy,” said Brad Woodhouse, co-chair of the Defend Democracy Project. “MAGA Republicans planned for an outcome that filled Congress with election deniers and radical extremists in the mold of Donald Trump, but Americans saw through the lies and conspiracy theories and voted to protect democracy. While Trump, MAGA, and the extreme far right will continue to pose a threat, democracy was the big winner on November 8th.”
Voters Rejected MAGA, Trump Republicanism
- Last Tuesday, voters soundly rejected election deniers running for key positions like Governor or Secretary of State in Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Arizona.
- Across the country, MAGA plans to use the levers of state government to change the rules for future elections through voting rights ballot initiatives were also defeated. In Arizona, voters rejected a restrictive proposal pushed by the MAGA state legislature while Michigan voters adopted a voting rights ballot initiative that will expand early and absentee voting and require counties to provide secure ballot drop boxes for future elections.
- Republicans are losing their grip on state legislatures across the country, with both chambers in Michigan, the Minnesota Senate, and even the Pennsylvania House poised to end years of Republican control.
Democracy played a major role in voters’ rejection of MAGA Republicans
- Voters heard the antidemocratic message from Trump and MAGA Republicans and rejected them. Americans saw that MAGA Republicans and election deniers not only continued to push false claims about the 2020 election, but also pose threats to future elections and, by extension, the future of democracy and many of our most fundamental rights and freedoms.
- Exit polls show Americans focused on democracy and protecting their rights to abortion care as motivating factors for heading to the polls.
- More than two-thirds of voters said democracy in the US was threatened.
- A majority of voters said abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
- Americans rejected Trump and MAGA Republicans’ dark and divisive view of the country and voted for freedoms: the freedom to choose our own leaders, the freedom to access abortion and make other decisions about our health, and other freedoms promised by the Constitution. Democracy was on the ballot, and it won.
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