Opinion | ‘Big lie’ advocates are dominating GOP primaries in battleground states – By Zeeshan Aleem (MSNBC) / Aug 17, 2022
2020 conspiracy theorists are systematically seeking influential positions from which they can disrupt the democratic process.
A new Washington Post analysis of the Republican primaries so far has revealed a shocking statistic: In the battleground states that determined the 2020 election win for Joe Biden, Republican candidates who contested the legitimacy of that election have won “nearly two-thirds of GOP nominations for state and federal offices with authority over elections” this year.
Allow that to sink in. A huge majority of the candidates for positions including governor, secretary of state and U.S. Senate, with immense power to interfere with the certification of an election, are now headed to the general election in critical battleground states. According to these candidates’ own platforms, if they had been in power in states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan during the 2020 election, they likely would’ve aided former President Donald Trump in his efforts to overturn the election and helped take them much further. And if any of them are in power in 2024 during a potential Trump bid, they’d be well-positioned to disrupt a fair election process.
Keep in mind these are battleground states. This is not Trump country, where Republicans face no competition from Democrats and have incentives to take extremist positions to seduce the base. They’re states where the opinions of swing voters and Democrats matter. On one hand, the extremism of the emerging GOP slate might weaken their chances of getting elected in battleground states, but, on the other hand, any wins in these areas would provide Republicans with a disproportionately powerful foothold for contesting future elections.
