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Trump ally secretary of state candidates lagged others in GOP : NPR


Jim Marchant, center, the GOP candidate for secretary of state in Nevada, lost his election and also underperformed Republicans running for U.S. senator and governor.

John Locher/AP


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John Locher/AP


Jim Marchant, center, the GOP candidate for secretary of state in Nevada, lost his election and also underperformed Republicans running for U.S. senator and governor.

John Locher/AP

For nearly two years, the political future of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger seemed to lie somewhere between uncertain and unmeasurable.

In 2020, incumbent President Donald Trump called him an “enemy of the people” after Trump lost to Georgia and the election. Then Raffensperger, who declined Trump’s request to seek votes, faced a main challenge this year from a Republican congressman who voted not to confirm the election results on January 6, 2021.

But in this month’s midterm elections, Raffensperger was the last to laugh.

He won re-election by 9 percentage points in a tightly divided state, while those who refused to vote ran for the same position in arizona, Nevada and Michigan all were defeated.

“I think what Americans are looking for, Georgians are looking for, they are looking for people with personality,” Raffensperger tell NPR one day after voting ends. “I think people want to see the country move forward.”

What they don’t want is for state election officials to deny the 2020 results, according to a new analysis of voting data by NPR.

Denials running for state elections for secretary of state – which in most places oversee the voting process – often outsold Republicans in voting for the other three positions across the country. statewide: U.S. Senate, governor, attorney general.

“Voters have sent a pretty big message about election denialism,” said Trey Grayson, who served two terms as the Republican state secretary of state for Kentucky. “The message has been sent. Voters have taken that information, processed it, and said, ‘We reject those candidates. We will reward candidates who will do their jobs, who will obey the law.’ “

For example, in Arizona’s race for state secretary, Republican Mark Finchem was one of the most radical candidates running for one of these statewide jobs. He was endorsed by Trump, as a member of extremist group The oath-keeper and his Twitter feed are a bunch of conspiracies.

In an election environment widely seen as GOP-friendly, Finchem fell behind most other Republicans running for statewide office in Arizona.

As of midday on Friday, Republican incumbent state Treasurer Kimberly Yee is top voter for any party, with nearly 1.39 million votes, and if Finchem keeps up with her, he will win the race for secretary of state over Democrat Adrian Fontes.

Instead, Finchem won only 86% of Yee’s total and lost to Fontes by more than 100,000 votes. Finchem also lags behind election denier Kari Lake – Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate, everyone loses – by more than 70,000 votes.

“These are winnable races with the right kinds of candidates,” says Grayson. “Unfortunately, on my side, we didn’t nominate the right person.”

A similar trend plays out in state competitions across the country.

NPR’s analysis found that secretary of state candidates who turned down state candidates in Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico and Nevada won about 90-95% of the Republican vote received. received the most votes out of the four positions statewide.

On the other hand, Raffensperger and GOP candidate for secretary of state in Colorado, Pam Anderson, who did not deny the 2020 election results, ended up with a total of just 1.5 percentage points below the party. The top republic of their state.

And in less competitive states like Iowa and Idaho, the GOP state secretary candidates who accepted the results of the 2020 election have even become the recipients of the most votes in their states, by count. Friday noon.

Democracy all year shown they think that Republicans running against radical candidates who refuse to vote will benefit them in this year’s midterm elections, and in an interview after the vote ended, the opponent Raffensperger’s Democrat, Bee Nguyen, tell NPR that she struggled especially because he did not deny the 2020 results.

“We also have a bigger challenge in Georgia, running against incumbents who are not viewed as radical by Georgia voters,” Nguyen said. “And so against that is obviously an uphill battle.”

Grayson said he hopes future Republican candidates will learn from that.

“Electoral denialism is a signal that you may not be able to do the job,” he said. “The numbers are clear.”

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