in four crucial battlefield statesRepublican candidates who falsely assert that Donald Trump won the 2020 election are running for state attorney general.
If they win, they would serve as their states’ top law enforcement officers and have the power to use their position to sway the outcome of presidential elections. If Trump does run again in 2024, and the result is close in a handful of states, the actions attorneys general can take could also give Trump cover to falsely claim victory once again.
“To the extent that election results are called into question, or there are attempts to undermine the results, it will be the state attorneys general representing the state and the results in court that may matter most to protect the will of the voters. Joanna Lydgate said. , the executive director of United Action of the States, a nonpartisan group that follows the races.
With governor and, in most states, the secretary of state, the state attorney general is part of a trio of elected officials who oversee, administer, defend, and certify elections and election results. Election deniers are also running in many states to Secretary of state and governor
State attorneys general have the ability to initiate or defend against election lawsuits, such as those seeking to include or challenge ballots, which may ultimately affect how and which votes are or are not counted. They also provide legal guidance to election officials on how to interpret state policies governing elections and maintain prosecution powers for voter fraud, voter intimidation, and other potential election crimes.
“It really matters that your attorney general is committed to upholding the vote, no matter what the outcome is,” Lydgate said.
The power of state attorneys general was on display in 2020 in a federal lawsuit, one of at least 63 brought by Trump allies in various courts, brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, seeking to overturn the results of presidential elections in four changes. state
Sixteen state attorneys general supported her, while the attorneys general of the four purple states at the center of the lawsuit (Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) asked the United States Supreme Court to dismiss the lawsuit, which he did.
According to United Action of the United States, at least 15 men and women who have denied the results of the 2020 election are running to be attorneys general of their states in 14 states, almost half of the 30 where there are attorney general races in the midterm elections this year. . That includes four in the pivotal battlegrounds of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, whose 2020 results were decided by just a few thousand votes. In all four, there are also elections for governor and secretary of state this year, and election deniers are running in almost every contest.
Here’s what the attorney general candidates denying the election in those states have said:
Georgia
Conservative attorney John Gordon is challenging incumbent Attorney General Chris Carr in the Republican primary.
The election, along with the closely watched primary contests for governor and secretary of state in the state, is Tuesday.
Gordon, whom Trump has endorsed, has built his unlikely campaign around false claims that Trump won the state in 2020. (Biden won Georgia by about 11,800 votes. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the state.)
However, Gordon has promised, if elected, to open a new voter fraud investigation in 2020 and has said he will “expose the fraud” and “prosecute the people responsible for this.”
Gordon did not respond to questions from NBC News.
Carr, for his part, has repeatedly said there was no widespread voter fraud in the state, drawing the ire of Trump, who in his endorsement of Gordon criticized Carr for doing “absolutely nothing to stop presidential voter fraud.” of 2020 that, as the facts have shown”. shown, and they are showing, he was rampant.”
Carr’s office did not respond to questions from NBC News.
State Sen. Jen Jordan, the leading Democrat in the race, criticized Gordon in an interview.
“When you have a carefully selected candidate who has been chosen specifically because he has sworn allegiance to Donald Trump and has promised to do everything he can, if Trump does run again and when the election results go in his favor, everyone should be concerned.” , said.
“At the end of the day, the attorney general’s office should not be about partisan politics, about a politician or about a party,” Jordan said. “It’s about enforcing the law and, in this case, defending the popular vote.”
Wisconsin
Karen Mueller, one of three Republicans seeking a chance to take on incumbent Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, claims Joe Biden did not win the state in 2020. The other two attended a rally where a prominent right-wing La militia from the wing seeking to nullify the election was present.
Mueller, a lawyer who has promised to investigate doctors who do not prescribe the deworming drug ivermectin to treat covid-19 patients, was part of a failed trial nullify the 2020 presidential results in Wisconsin.
in a January memo written On behalf of the Amos Center for Justice and Liberty, a conservative legal organization she founded, Mueller alleged a broad conspiracy in Wisconsin that included “widespread voter fraud” that was in part a product of actions taken by the Obama administration and with the help of grant money provided by Mark Zuckerberg.
Your campaign website lists “election violations and fraud” as a core tenet of his platform, demanding that “the results of the 2020 presidential election be decertified to restore the integrity and transparency of future Wisconsin elections.”
Biden beat Trump in Wisconsin by 20,600 votes. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the state, and claims to the contrary have been filed. been fired repeatedly by the courts and the bipartisan state election commission.
Mueller did not respond to questions from NBC News.
Kaul’s office repeatedly defended the results of the 2020 election in Wisconsin in that lawsuit and others.
“A different attorney general who is not committed to protecting the will of the voters could have all kinds of negative effects on the future of democracy,” Kaul said in an interview. “We need an AG that upholds the will of the voters, not tries to undermine them.”
While Adam Jarchow and Eric Toney, the other two Republican candidates for attorney general, have not disputed the 2020 election results, both spoke at a rally where a flag of the Three Percenters, a right-wing militia group associated with the January 6 insurrection – it was outstanding. Members of the group has been accused with conspiracy on the attack on Capitol Hill.
Jarchow, a former state representative, did not respond to questions about the 2020 election. Toney, the Fond du Lac County district attorney, also did not respond to questions, though told the Wisconsin Examiner in January that he does not support the group and that he did not know the flag was on display at the event.
Michigan
Attorney Matthew DePerno, whom state Republicans have already endorsed as his nominee In the race for attorney general to take on Democratic incumbent Dana Nessel, he has repeatedly espoused debunked conspiracy theories surrounding Michigan’s 2020 election results, earning him the endorsement of former President Donald Trump in his primary race.
DePerno filed a lawsuit alleging widespread voter fraud in the state, citing a 2020 election night bug in County Antrim that showed Joe Biden reliably won the red county. The problem was fixed quickly. A state trial judge and a state appellate court judge, both fired Costume.
DePerno has also argued that Any Michigan resident must they have the right to demand a vote audit of state election results.
Biden won Michigan by more than 154,000 votes, a result confirmed by multiple lawsuits and audits.
DePerno did not respond to questions from NBC News.
Nessel said in an interview that “it’s absolutely essential that there be both an attorney general and a secretary of state in these really essential swing states that believe in democracy and the rule of law.”
“It’s not my job as the state’s top attorney to pick winners in presidential elections,” Nessel said.
“I don’t care if it’s a Democratic candidate or Donald Trump. If he gets the most votes in the state of Michigan, he gets our electoral votes whether I like it or not,” he added. “That is the job, to make sure that the will of the people is heard and that the election is duly certified.”
Arizona
Of the six Republicans running for the party’s attorney general nomination (incumbent Republican Mark Brnovich is running for Senate), at least two have falsely claimed that Trump won the 2020 election in the state.
“The hypocrisy of the media is on display when they point the finger at those of us who present evidence of a rigged 2020 election,” candidate Abraham Hamadeh, a former prosecutor, told NBC News in a statement.
Biden beat Trump in Arizona by some 10,500 votes, and none of the many lawsuits or audits of the state’s results uncovered widespread fraud.
However, in interviews Y tweetHamadeh has repeatedly reclaimed Trump won Arizona.
Meanwhile, attorney Rodney Glassman told the Arizona Republic last week that Biden did not win the election in the state and that Trump “was cheated out of Arizona’s electoral votes.” Glassman did not respond to questions.
In a discussion last weekTwo other Republican candidates in the race, attorneys Tiffany Shedd and Dawn Grove, joined Hamadeh and Glassman in saying they would not have certified the state’s 2020 election results if they had been in a position to do so.
Shedd, Grove and the other two Republican candidates in the race, Andrew Gould and Lacy Cooper, did not respond to questions.
Kris Mayes, the only Democrat in the race, called it “unfortunate” that “we have so many Republican candidates who have said they will try to undermine our voters’ faith in our electoral system.”
Mayes promised, if he wins, “to defend the outcome of the election here in Arizona, no matter who wins.”
Reference-news.yahoo.com