Republicans Are Trying to Seize Veto Power Over the 2024 Election

[Valin]

Rolling Stone

In Michigan, MAGA election truthers are trying to install their people at key election positions on all levels, looking to “to set things up to succeed where they failed in 2020”

Kara Voght

Apr. 26 2022

Kristina Karamo, who is the Republican Party's nominee for secretary of state in Michigan, speaks at a rally hosted by former President Donald Trump on April 2, 2022, near Washington, Michigan.Scott Olsen/Getty Images

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — It was around 5:35 p.m. on Saturday when the leaders of the Michigan Republican Party, whose members had spent the day sermonizing about election integrity, realized their nominating convention might be lacking that virtue. This issue revealed itself at an ironic juncture: A runoff to determine who would be the party’s nominee for attorney general, the office that would be called upon to protect fair and free elections — or, perhaps, undermine them.

The heart of the confusion was simple: The order of the would-be nominees on the ballot given to delegates was different from what appeared on the projectors at the front of the convention hall. A crisis for democracy this was not — it was an inconvenience at best and quickly remedied. But after years of railing against rigged elections, delegates privately admitted this wasn’t a great look.

Roughly 2,000 Michigan Republicans had convened to choose their nominees for key statewide offices. A pair of Donald Trump acolytes were seeking the nominations for attorney general and secretary of state against less extreme alternatives. Attorney General candidate Matt DePerno is an attorney who gained acclaim for pursuing litigation against election results in counties throughout Michigan. Secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo is a community-college professor who rose to prominence claiming she witnessed election fraud in Detroit during the 2020 election. Their fealty to election conspiracies had earned them early endorsements from the former president, who — never one to let the inconvenience of election results stand in his way — congratulated the pair on their “incredible victory” three hours before the final results were tallied.

In the end, Michigan Republicans did choose Karamo and DePerno, who bested more moderate candidates many in the party’s establishment had hoped would prevail, as their nominees. The result validated not only Trump’s presumption but also his reason for backing them: their elevation of false claims of widespread fraud during the 2020 election. The outcome was a major victory for the faction of pro-Trump Republicans who deny the 2020 election — and who’re eager to seize the right to veto results they don’t like in 2024.

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