NotedDC — Election deniers angle for seats in Congress
2020 SAW AN INFLUX in the number of MAGA-aligned Republicans winning seats in Congress, with figures such as Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) becoming household names in their first terms (the latter won’t be returning in January after losing his primary in May).
Now, as Republicans look to flip the House in November, more far-right figures are poised to win a spot in Congress, joining a growing caucus of conservatives angling to take on President Biden and launch a series of probes into the administration. And many have aligned themselves closely with former President Trump.
Karoline Leavitt, a former Trump White House staffer running for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, has modeled herself after the former president’s bombastic style and has claimed the prior election was “stolen” from him.
Leavitt, 25, a proudly Gen Z candidate, could become the youngest woman elected to Congress if she wins. She faces Rep. Chris Pappas (D) next month in a race rated as a “toss up” by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
Bo Hines, a former college football star running for North Carolina’s 13th District, has similarly echoed Trump’s election claims and pushed to defund the FBI following its raid of the former president’s Florida estate.
He faces Democratic state Sen. Wiley Nickel in another race deemed a “tossup.”
In Ohio, Republican J.D. Vance has previously cast doubt on the last election’s results. In Vance’s battle against Rep. Tim Ryan (D), other issues such as abortion have garnered the most attention in the race recently.
“I think the fundamental problem is we had a massive effort to shift the election by very powerful people in this country. I don’t care whether you say it’s rigged, whether you say it’s stolen, like I’ll say what I’m going to say about it,” Vance told a reporter in January.
According to a tally from The Washington Post, more than half of the GOP candidates currently running for Congress have said they don’t believe the 2020 election of Biden over former Trump was valid — raising the chances of a large number of election deniers and political flamethrowers joining the House Republican ranks.
Unfounded claims about the 2020 election ultimately led to the violent attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 that temporarily disrupted the election certification process. Dozens of House Republicans raised objections to various states’ electoral results during that period.
“Obviously, it could be extremely dangerous,” Amy Fried, a political science professor at the University of Maine who studies political extremism, told us.
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