Meet the stars of the
ATTACK Of the Clown Show zombies
Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales
Headline: New Hampshire Bulletin, 2/20/2023
Morales defeated incumbent Holli Sullivan for the GOP nomination at the party convention, before being elected in November. He was the only successful candidate who was part of the “America First” coalition, which was founded by former Nevada state lawmaker Jim Marchant, a leading election denier.
Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray
Headline: New Hampshire Bulletin, 2/20/2023
Gray won a competitive race for the Republican nomination, then was unopposed in the general election. He has called the 2020 presidential election “clearly rigged,” and has hosted screenings of “2,000 Mules” at campaign events.
Gray campaigned on a pledge to “expose voter fraud” and “stop cheaters from trying to steal our elections.” He has zeroed in on banning ballot drop boxes, which he has said, with little evidence, pose a security risk. In February, Gray went before lawmakers to oppose a Republican bill that would have tightened the rules around the use of drop boxes, without eliminating them.
Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd
Byrd, a former state legislator, was appointed secretary of state by DeSantis in May. Unlike some other chief election officials, he hasn’t sought to make an issue of the 2020 contest. But, asked soon after taking office whether Biden won the election, he refused to say, pointing to “irregularities in certain states.” The Tampa Bay Times reported that Byrd, when asked, repeatedly said Biden was certified for the office by Congress, “but when pressed about whether Biden won the election, Byrd pointed to issues with voting in several other states.”
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen
Headline: New Hampshire Bulletin, 2/20/2023
Allen, a Republican who took office in January, has said that in 2020, “the election process did not work.” And, as a state lawmaker, he supported Texas’ effort to have the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Biden’s victories in four pivotal states.
Many election officials aim to encourage voting while also keeping elections secure, but Allen has said it isn’t his job to try to get more people to vote. Alabama’s voting rate in 2022 ranked 46th among states, according to estimates by the U.S. Elections Project.
South Dakota Secretary of State
Monae Johnson
Headline: New Hampshire Bulletin, 2/20/2023
Johnson disputes the denier label, but asked by South Dakota Searchlight during the campaign whether the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, she said: “I’m going to leave that question up to those people that are actually in the fight for it.” Asked in a different interview whether Biden won legitimately, she said: “I’m not going to acknowledge that.”
Johnson has said she doesn’t plan to propose any of her own bills this session, but has promised to fight any measure to allow voters to register online – a popular reform that all but 11 states now offer.
2022 AG race loser
2023 Loser to Karamo in GOP party chair race
Matthew DePerno
Headline: New York Times, 2/18/2023
While Mr. DePerno had nabbed the big-name endorsements, including that of Mike Lindell, the MyPillow chief executive who has sowed conspiracy theories about election fraud, it was Ms. Karamo’s fan base that ultimately delivered her the victory. And to them, her refusal to accept defeat last fall seemed to be a factor.
“To a lot of us, that makes her somewhat of a heroine,” said Mark Forton, a Trump loyalist who dropped out of the chairman race and said he would support Ms. Karamo instead. Mr. DePerno eventually did concede his defeat in the attorney general’s race.
Newly elected Michigan GOP party chair
Kristina Karamo
Headline: New York Times, 2/18/2023
Ms. Karamo won a majority of delegate votes at the state party’s convention in Lansing, the state capital, after three rounds of voting that — slowed by paper ballots and hand counting — went on hours longer than the period for which the party had originally rented the convention space.
Her victory appeared to be an upset of Matthew DePerno, another vocal champion of former President Donald J. Trump’s election falsehoods who had his backing in the leadership contest.
Despite Mr. Trump’s endorsement of her rival, Ms. Karamo’s victory in some ways signaled an even stronger recommitment to Mr. Trump as the state party’s north star: One of the biggest flourishes of applause from the crowd of more than 2,000 delegates came when Ms. Karamo reminded them of her refusal to concede the secretary of state’s race.
Both Ms. Karamo and Mr. DePerno lost resoundingly last fall: Ms. Karamo by 14 points and Mr. DePerno, in his bid for attorney general, by eight percentage points.
Wisconsin State Rep. Janel Brandtjen
Headline: AP, 2/18/2023
State Rep. Janel Brandtjen has spent the years since the 2020 presidential election loudly promoting unfounded conspiracy theories that President Joe Biden lost Wisconsin. She won praise from former President Donald Trump for pushing Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to overturn Biden’s 21,000-vote win in the battleground state.
She even went so far as to support Vos’ primary opponent last summer. Vos survived reelection and Assembly Republicans punished Brandtjen for her disloyalty by throwing her out of their caucus in November.
Surry County NC Election Board member
Jerry Forestieri
Headline: Elkin Tribune, 2/13/2023
A complaint was filed against Surry County Board of Elections members Tim DeHaan and Jerry Forestieri in November by Bob Hall, the former director of Democracy NC.
They (sic) men signed a letter after the election stating they had concerns about the legality of North Carolina elections, calling into question their legitimacy and preventing one from certifying the election.
In December, the state board of elections held an evidentiary hearing and voted to set hearings on the possible removal of the men “after finding prima facie evidence of a violation of election law, duties imposed on board members, and/or participation in irregularities or incompetence to discharge the duties of the office.”
No comments:
Post a Comment