The Washington Post: “Over a third of Capitol members continue to deny election results”
Three years after a violent breach of the US Capitol, nearly one-third of its elected members have denied the election’s outcome, including 127 sitting members of Congress who refused to certify the 2020 results. This comes as a new report from nonpartisan democracy advocacy group States United Action found that the so-called “election denialism” movement continues to run rampant through the halls of the Capitol.
The report found that these members represent voters in 37 states and include 19 Senators and 152 members of the House of Representatives, including the Republican speaker, labelled “the most powerful election denier in Washington.”
Furthermore, the report found that 25 “election deniers” in at least 19 states currently hold a statewide office with election oversight, and since 2020, an election denier has run for at least one of the top three statewide offices that oversee elections in at least 42 states.
In response to these findings, States United Action’s CEO Joanna Lydgate, a former chief deputy Attorney General of Massachusetts, stated, “We’ve already seen what it looks like when members of Congress try to overturn the results, and the election denial movement continues to run rampant through the halls of the Capitol.”
The report also noted that Republican-led legislation to change the rules of election administration continues to surface in state legislatures across the country, what GOP officials have labelled as efforts to protect “election integrity” after elevating false claims that the 2020 election didn’t have any.
The report’s findings also shed light on the divide among voters on the issue, with more than a third of Americans falsely believing that President Joe Biden was illegitimately elected. Additionally, polling from States United Action found that 42 per cent of Americans are less likely to re-elect a member of Congress who refused to certify 2020 results.
In light of these findings, Thania Sanchez, States United Action’s senior vice president of research and policy development, stated, “The data makes it clear: If members of Congress won’t do their jobs and follow the will of the people, voters don’t want to re-elect them.”
This report comes ahead of the upcoming anniversary of the January 6 attack on the Capitol and serves as a reminder of the ongoing impact of the events of that day.