Republicans Admit Trump’s Election Fraud Obsession Could Screw Them

Republican lawmakers are moving on from Donald Trump’s election conspiracy.

The president spent more than 25 minutes last week addressing the public—and his supposed congressional allies—to revive his 2020 election fraud claims. He demanded that Republicans prioritize mail-in ballot bans and voter roll purges, and investigate what he claimed was a nationwide cover-up by the “deep state.” Days later, however, the conservative caucus appears to have completely missed the message.

Most GOP candidates aren’t willing to revisit Trump’s thoroughly debunked election fraud claims as the issue has failed to galvanize voters, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The day after Trump’s address, former Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley—who is trailing former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper in the race to replace retiring North Carolina Senator Thom Thillis—held a 34-minute campaign event that touched on none of Trump’s advertised priorities. Instead, Whatley told local voters that the number one issue this election cycle is “keeping our kids and our communities safe.”

Whatley had previously supported Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims. But when asked by a Post reporter to expound on Trump’s latest speech, Whatley simply mentioned that he is a “big proponent of election integrity.”

Top Republicans also seemed disillusioned with the president’s fixation. Outgoing Texas Senator John Cornyn lamented to the Post that “we have 109 days until the midterm elections, and I don’t understand talking about what happened six years ago in light of these upcoming elections.”

The situation for the campaigning caucus is precarious: if they attempt to get in good with the MAGA movement by publicly supporting the president in an act of fealty, they also risk alienating independent voters in their districts who have become increasingly disillusioned with Trump’s second term.

Paul Shumaker, a veteran Republican strategist and longtime political adviser to Tillis, told the Post that the “clear and simple” explanation for the difference in messaging is that voters are focused elsewhere.

“If candidates are not talking about the economy, if candidates are not talking about affordability, if they’re not talking about how they’re going to make people’s lives at home cheaper and less expensive, then they’re not talking about the issues that voters care about,” Shumaker said.

Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist who served in the State Department during Trump’s first term, said many GOP candidates seem relieved Trump’s prime time speech has failed to make major waves.

“If the president makes outrageous claims about an election and no one is listening, did it even happen?” Bartlett asked rhetorically when describing the Republican response to the Post.

Democrats have criticized the address for laying the groundwork for potential challenges to the upcoming midterm elections. They have good cause to believe so: last week, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced that the government already plans to take action against state election officials who refuse to bend to the White House’s demands. In a press conference, Mullin pledged that state officials that decide not to scrub their voter registration lists could be fined or even jailed for their disobedience.

Mullin does not have the authority to make such a threat, however. Homeland Security lacks the necessary authority to either withhold federal grants or force states to purge voter rolls. Only Congress has the power to do that. ...