Local politicians are embracing Trumpian tactics to fight election results
Published Date: 12/7/2020
Source: axios.com

President Trump may be leaving the White House on Jan. 20, but his legal challenges and refusal to concede could become far more normal in U.S. politics.

Why it matters: GOP support for his tactics has been far broader than immediately after the election.


The big picture: Lawmakers in battleground states are providing pedestals for the airing of baseless legal grievances, AP reports.

  • Arizona: The chairperson of the Arizona GOP asked a court to overturn Biden’s win. Republicans held a meeting where Trump's lawyers were permitted to claim the state's vote counts were fraudulent without providing evidence.
  • Michigan: Lawmakers allowed Rudy Giuliani to testify at a now-infamous legislative hearing last week. One Republican member of the state's board of election canvassers abstained from certifying the final vote.
  • Pennsylvania: 64 lawmakers asked Congress to decline to accept the state's electors.

Candidates are embracing Trumpian tactics, Axios' Ursula Perano reports.

  • House candidate Sean Parnell (R-Pa.) has declined to concede in his race against incumbent Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.) and has joined a petition in Commonwealth Court against the Pennsylvania general assembly arguing the state's mail-in ballots were illegitimate, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.
  • GOP gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp in Washington state has refused to concede after the election despite a shellacking from incumbent Gov. Jay Inslee (D).
  • Multiple other candidates insisted their losses were the result of widespread fraud. None have provided credible evidence.

The bottom line: Federal election security officials have repeatedly said this election was safe and free of widespread fraud.

Go deeper: The elected Republicans who acknowledge Biden won