How 6 GOP candidates shifted their tone on ‘stolen election’ claims – By Aaron Blake (The Washington Post) / May 7, 2022
Ohio held primaries for five statewide offices this week. And in two of the races, the victor was a Republican who once eschewed Donald Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud or a “stolen election” — only to warm to his position and earn a key endorsement from Trump in the process.
But Senate candidate J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Frank LaRose aren’t the only ones who have learned to adjust how they talk about the “Big Lie” in the service of winning an election. This is a fast-emerging trend in which candidates who initially hewed to something approaching the reality of the 2020 race later decided that was untenable, when their own political future is on the line.
Oftentimes, the shifts are more a matter of emphasis than full and complete flip-flops. Some candidates downplayed claims of fraud, or how much the results were truly in question — only to later get religious on rooting out the supposedly significant fraud. But in each case, the shift took place despite the nonexistent evidence remaining very much nonexistent.
