When former Trump official John Gibbs moved to stage his challenge with Congressman Peter Meijer (R-MI) last week, he stopped at a candidate forum in the Dutch town to speak. Talk to Ottawa County Republicans.
After a slideshow presentation from an anti-vaccination activist about the contradictory link between vaccines and autism, Gibbs took to the stage and added some of his misinformation.
“More people are awake than ever, more people are participating than ever, more people are signing up to be poll challengers, poll followers, etc and I think that’s a very good thing, ‘ said Gibbs. “And I think what I want to do, two weeks from now, is win big enough for us to beat the cheaters.”
“Fraud” refers to the assumption – now an article of belief in the post-2020 GOP establishment – that all elections are rigged against Republicans.
Such rhetoric fits perfectly with Gibbs’ campaign. Endorsed by the former president, he is challenging Meijer almost entirely because the first-term congressman is one of 10 Republican lawmakers in the House to vote to impeach Trump after January 6.
But the Michigan 3rd District race is hardly the only one in the Great Lake State dominated by the GOP’s obsession with litigation and re-litigation — and re-litigation — the loss of Trump in 2020.
As the votes count in next Tuesday’s primaries, it’s likely that Michigan Republicans will nominate a pool of candidates that could be unmatched anywhere else in their commitment to the Word. big lie.
Not only the top GOP candidates for governor, the attorney general and secretary of state have supported and amplified election conspiracies. Some of them have become main party stars for their key roles in the crusade to authorize and overturn the 2020 election.
Ryan Kelleywho had frequently polled near the top of the crowded, riotous governors’ primaries at the Capitol on January 6, was arrested and later indicted for his actions that day. there.
The hypothetical gubernatorial frontrunner — former Real America Voice broadcaster Tudor Dixon — is arguably more moderate: She’s simply defending and downplaying the uprising instead of attending it.
Matt DePerno, nominated as attorney general’s nominee, is at the center of a weird attempt to check votes in a rural Michigan county resulted in the leak of massive amounts of voting data.
And Kristina Karamo, also nominated by the Michigan Republican Party as secretary of state, is a political newcomer who rose to fame in MAGA circles after claiming she witnessed widespread fraud in Detroit after as a site volunteer in 2020.
The 2022 GOP ticket in Michigan would represent a radical departure for the state party that spawned the Romney dynasty and, more recently, some of the only anti-Trump Republicans in Congress.
“Clearly the Trumpian side of the party has grown very significantly and there is a large percentage of voters who believe that the election was not held fairly, was not organized correctly and that they may have been stolen.” Saul Anuzis, a former Michigan native. President of the Republican Party.
“That obviously gave life to a number of other candidates who played the ‘I support Trump, I’m a Trump supporter who agrees he was screwed and the election’ was stolen’ and that gives them a sizable base of support,” he said.
But, Anuzis warns that, while it was helpful in the beginning, “I don’t think you can win in that regard alone.”
Incumbent Democratic Party — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson – all led their potential challenges in the initial poll.
But 2022 is set to be a tough year for Democrats in battlegrounds like Michigan. Democrats warn that fringe candidates could drive a red wave into office next November — and take control of state elections in 2024.
Mallory McMorrow, a Democratic senator from Michigan, on the Republican voter’s future ticket, said: “On the ground, it’s scary. “In Michigan, hyperbolic is almost a reality.”
But Gibbs’ campaign may have particular resonance in the way Republicans, from Trump to GOP insiders in the state, have campaigned not only to raise an election denier but to fire Meijer as well. , one of the few Republicans to support the Trump conspiracy.
Gibbs has made the endorsement of former President Trump a focus of his campaign and “election integrity” including his rebuttal claim that the 2020 election was stolen, a important pillar.
A few days after Gibbs spoke at the Ottawa GOP forum, a local news channel asked him if he would accept the results of the August 2 main race. After noticing an increasing number of poll followers. increase, Gibbs said “that remains to be seen.”
In an interview that aired July 27 on CNN, Gibbs compared the lack of evidence of widespread election fraud to crimes the Mafia has committed without immediate arrest.
“For years, you could never arrest them, you know they were throwing guys on the roof and stuff,” Gibbs said. “But I think we’ll go there like we did with the Mafia.”
In an email to The Daily Beast, AnneMarie Schieber, a spokeswoman for the Gibbs campaign, said questioning the validity of the election was an issue that appealed to the majority of Americans.
“The best place to address skepticism about election integrity is through state legislatures, not courts, not officials,” Schieber wrote. “Every voter should have 100% confidence in the electoral system and the United States must lead by international standards, not fall below them. Any elected official claiming that the 2020 election has been ‘fixed’ must be on board to confirm it. “
Gibbs’ rhetoric was so remarkable that it caught the attention of the National Democrats on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who put more than $400,000 in an ad during the race. called him “too conservative” for Michigan.
It is hoped that a DCCC ad calling him too conservative will boost his candidacy in the primaries and thus help Democrats ultimately win seats in the general election. (The move was quickly criticized by House Democrats as a waste of money and a dangerous gamble.)
A few days later, the Association of Democratic Governors made the impression by dropping a staggering $2 million in offensive ads against Tudor Dixon, the head of the GOP’s governing body, in primary conference home campus.
The ad attacks Dixon for her views on law enforcement funding, hitting the candidate at the heart of the GOP as soon as primary voters make their decision. But it differs from the Gibbs ad — an obvious ploy to interfere in a GOP primary election — in that it puts Dixon on a central issue that could resonate with voters in the general election. nominate.
Recent polls have shown Whitmer leading any of her potential GOP competitors by a comfortable margin. Ironically, a July poll found The strongest candidate against the incumbent is Ryan Kelley, who is currently entangled in legal proceedings surrounding his actions at the Capitol on January 6.
At the beginning of July, Kelley plead not guilty up to four misdemeanors stemming from his actions on Capitol Hill, including disorderly conduct and willful injury to federal government property. He used his status as a defendant on January 6 to strengthen his appeal to the GOP primary voters.
Re-litigation of the 2020 election is central to Kelley’s platform. His website says that on the “first day” of his term as governor, he will cancel his contract with voting machine maker Dominion – a prime focus of the plots – to “lay the groundwork for eliminate fraud and restore election integrity.”
In response to questions about how the stolen election message was able to play in November and whether he received a response from the campaign, Kelley responded by attacking the job. Whitmer’s handling of the COVID pandemic in nursing homes, the impact of closures on small businesses, and her supposed “rule for you but not for me” to lead.
DePerno, the hopeful attorney general, led an uncanny campaign to check Antrim County votes in rural Michigan, where election officials happened to report Joe Biden won the county before fixing it. error.
The Crusade made DePerno a star of the MAGA wing. But courts often find no basis for required “independent audit” of the total votes in the district 23,000 people. An investigation led by Michigan senators called for an investigation of “those who used false and misleading information about Antrim County to raise money or make it public for their own purposes.”
DePerno’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Karamo, the candidate for secretary of state, was a relatively obscure figure in Michigan politics before becoming a pollster in Detroit in 2020. She pushed claims that shady vote counting had taken place. out in the middle of the night after Election Day — claims were quickly debunked but made her a fixture on the Stop-the-Steal national track.
In 2021, Karamo appeared at a QAnon adjoining conspiracy conference in Arizona; Previously, on her podcast, she expressed her belief that “haunting is real” and that it can be spread through “intimate relationships.”
When Trump endorsed Karamo, he did so with an often unflattering expression of his expectations for her. “Good luck Kristina, and while you’re at it, watch the results of the Fake Election that took place in the city of Detroit,” the former president said.
Karamo’s campaign did not return a request for comment made on the campaign’s website.
Meanwhile, Democrats are grappling with how best to craft a message that highlights the fringe views of these Michigan GOP candidates while avoiding overstatement and ambiguity.
“We can’t just say things like, ‘If Ryan Kelley and Matt DePerno get elected, it’s the end of our democracy,'” said McMorrow, the state senator who found viral popularity She recently gave a speech on combating GOP culture war issues. “That really doesn’t make any sense to the average person.”
McMorrow continued that Democrats need to connect these candidates’ views to concrete things, such as the ability of the Supreme Court to consider a case that could go to elected leaders. unprecedented control over their presidential election.
Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive activist and 2018 gubernatorial candidate, said Democrats cannot disregard the fact that voters perceive the GOP candidates as self-excluded.
El-Sayed said: “I worry it’s lazy to assume that Republicans are pointing out themselves, that if you point to what they have – that’s a stinky diaper in a bonfire – then is enough.”
