Democrat Cisco Aguilar is seen on Election Day.
John Locher / AP
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John Locher / AP
Democrat Cisco Aguilar is seen on Election Day.
John Locher / AP
Democrat Cisco Aguilar has been elected Nevada secretary of state, according to an Associated Press run, dealing a blow to one of former President Donald Trump’s loyalists in the process.
Aguilar, an attorney who spent years on the state Sports Commission, defeated Republican Jim Marchant, who has long unfoundedly maintained that the 2020 election was stolen.
Aguilar — and election experts across the country — painted the race for Nevada’s top voting official as existential for the future of democracy in the swing state.
“Everything is based on truth, honesty and trust. And it’s my responsibility if I’m elected secretary of state to build that trust from the ground up,” Aguilar told NPR on Tuesday, before quitting. vote ends. “My opponent built everything he had on a false foundation of lies and misinformation.”
The Nevada race call, which took place on Saturday night, means that everyone who turned down to run for office in the secretary of state race in a competitive state was defeated, after the Republican candidates lost in Arizona, Michigan and Minnesota, among others.
Marchant lost the race for a seat in the US House of Representatives in 2020 and he later claimed that the election was rigged, although he never provided evidence to support that claim. He got Trump’s endorsement, and the former president rallied with him in October.
“We have something in common: President Trump and I lost an election in 2020 because of a rigged election,” Marchant told the crowd. “I have been working since November 4, 2020, to expose what happened, and what I discovered is horrifying.”
Jim Marchant is seen on September 10.
Jim Rassol / AP
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Jim Rassol / AP
Jim Marchant is seen on September 10.
Jim Rassol / AP
Marchant is one of the most radical candidates running for secretary of state this midterm. The League he began saying that eliminating early voting was one of its main goals, and on Tuesday, Aguilar told NPR Marchant was “the most dangerous candidate in America.”
In addition to saying he wants to severely restrict voting access in Nevada, Marchant has also lead a push in a situation where counties count votes by hand instead of using machines, although research has shown that method is less accurate.
Aguilar said before the election that his first priority as incumbent would be legislation to protect election workers and volunteers.
