More than 210 Republicans who cast doubt on President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory won congressional seats and races for governor, secretary of state, and attorney general on Tuesday night, underscoring the extent to which right-wing election denialism has become entrenched in the GOP and threatens to remain a noxious force in U.S. politics for the foreseeable future.
In a recent investigation of Republican candidates’ statements,The New York Times identified more than 370 so-called “election skeptics” who sowed doubt in some way about the 2020 contest. According to the newspaper’s Wednesday morning analysis, over half of them have won their midterm campaigns so far. It may take days or weeks for the final results to be tallied.
While more than 30 of these winning GOP candidates are outright “election deniers” who refuse to accept Biden’s presidency as legitimate, the majority have sown doubt “by suggesting, sometimes again and again, that there were irregularities or unresolved questions about the way the election was conducted, or by saying that…