January 5, 2022 Press Releases

Ahead Of January 6th Anniversary, Here’s How “Trump’s Elections Lies Are Taking Over Republican Senate Races”

A series of reports across the Senate battlegrounds show how “Trump’s election lies are taking over Republican Senate races,” as GOP candidates make the Big Lie a “litmus test,” attack each other over past “disloyalty and squishiness” toward Trump, refuse to say if they would have certified the 2020 election results, and even preemptively pledge litigation to challenge the results in 2022.

See for yourself how allegiance to Trump’s Big Lie is fueling Republicans’ intra-party fighting and shaping GOP Senate campaigns:

In Arizona, supporting Trump’s election fraud claims has become a “purity test” for every GOP candidate in the primary – but even Republicans are calling it an “albatross around the neck for every Republican running.” Trump has repeatedly attacked Brnovich for failing to act on false claims of election fraud, while a super PAC supporting Blake Masters is “blast[ing]” Brnovich with TV ads. Now Brnovich has done a complete about-face, moving to investigate Arizona’s 2020 elections and even threatening to withhold public safety funds from Maricopa County, despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

In Colorado, GOP frontrunner Ron Hanks attended the January 6th insurrection last year and crossed police lines. Hanks is fundraising off of the Big Lie, suing the Secretary of State over the 2020 election results, and supporting Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters who’s currently under federal investigation for allegedly leaking election information to extremists.

In Florida, Rubio faced criticism from local columnists for his “hypocritical dismissal of Trump’s Jan. 6 insurrection,” and was labeled a “Trump sycophant” for voting against the creation of a bipartisan commission to look into the Capitol attack – leading the Orlando Sentinel editorial board to write it’s “time to give up on Marco Rubio, who will never do the right thing.”

In Georgia, Trump has sparked a “political civil war” centered around his false claims of election fraud, creating “a nightmare scenario for Republicans.” Trump’s handpicked candidate Herschel Walker, a “serial promoter of false 2020 conspiracy theories,” continues to defend the Big Lie.

In Nevada, Laxalt has led efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Nevada, becoming “the face of” Trump’s Big Lie in the state and “orchestrat[ing] a slew of failed lawsuits meant to stop the ballot tally.” Shortly after announcing his Senate campaign, the AP reported Laxalt was already planning preemptive election litigation to challenge the 2022 election if he loses. Nevada papers have slammed Laxalt as a “conspiracy-monger,” “‘Stop the Steal’ cheerleader” and “the Nevada version of Rudy Giuliani” for his continued peddling of the Big Lie, and called his preemptive election litigation pledge “a doubly bad idea” that should “disqualify him from elected office.”

In New Hampshire, the GOP primary is likely to become a race to prove their allegiance to Trump and embrace the Big Lie. Don Bolduc has set the bar low: repeatedly perpetuating false claims about election integrity and allegeding widespread voter fraud in New Hampshire in 2020; promoting potential military intervention in the next presidential election; and pledging to challenge the certification of the Electoral College vote if a Republican doesn’t win.

In North Carolina, GOP candidates are openly sparring over the Big Lie, with Pat McCrory “struggling to position himself” as he faces off “against challengers who vigorously defended Trump’s actions in the runup to the January 6 insurrection and backed Trump’s Big Lie.” Club for Growth, a super PAC backing Ted Budd, has repeatedly attacked McCrory for “publicly trashing” Trump and calling him a “disloyal, liberal, loser.”

In Ohio, Mandel has used January 6th to try to stand out in this crowded field, repeatedly stating “I think Trump won.” Other candidates are now following the same strategy, but that isn’t stopping their GOP primary opponents from launching a “frenzy” of attacks against Vance, Timken and Moreno over their perceived insufficient loyalty in the past to Trump and his Big Lie.

In Pennsylvania, GOP Senate candidates have endorsed Trump’s 2020 false election claims, “using their loyalty to the lie as a selling point in their bids for higher office.” Not a single GOP Senate candidate was willing to say if they would have certified Pennsylvania’s 2020 election results like Republican Senator Pat Toomey did.

And in Wisconsin, Johnson has been the “steadiest proponent of the lies and conspiracy theories that animated the fascist mob that attacked the Capitol,” leading Wisconsin papers to declare the senator “has to go,” “cannot be forgiven,” and should be “expel[led]” from the United States Senate.

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