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On Tuesday, perhaps the biggest disapproval of Donald Trump’s election denial crusade to date came with Georgian Republican voters renaming Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for Trump’s election and overwhelmingly rejecting the challenge. David Perdue’s principal to Governor Brian Kemp.
A reality check arrived on Wednesday: another reminder that Trump’s effort to define his party with electoral denial and to purge those who were not loyal enough after the 2020 election continues to move forward in many other ways.
As reported by Rosalind S. Helderman of The Post, a GOP member of the Wisconsin Electoral Commission who had rejected Trump’s allegations of widespread election fraud issued a surprise resignation. And in doing so, he effectively said that the false narrative of the “stolen election” had consumed so much of his party that he could no longer represent it on the committee:
As a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, Dean Knudson led the legislative push to create the six-member panel, which provides guidance to local county employees and helps administer local and federal elections. state. But he told his colleagues at a public meeting on Wednesday that his refusal to spread falsehoods about the election had made him label RINO, a “name-only Republican,” after a life of conservative activism.
“Two of my core values are practicing service above myself and showing personal integrity,” he said. “For me, this integrity requires acknowledging the truth, even when the truth is painful. In this case, the painful truth is that President Trump lost the 2020 election. He lost the Wisconsin election in 2020. “And the loss was not due to election fraud.”
Knudson said he was anxious that elected officials and candidates at the highest levels of the GOP had “provided misinformation and perpetuated falsehoods about the 2020 election.”
“Now, it’s become clear to me that I can’t be effective in my role of representing Republicans on the committee,” he said.
Knudson’s resignation came amid pressure from Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). The practical implications of this will take some time to fully unravel.
As many have pointed out, his departure leaves GOP Commissioner Robert F. Spindell Jr. as the only president-elect for an upcoming term that will include much of the 2024 election. of widespread fraud in 2020, but he toured the state giving a presentation on how the election was allegedly “rigged,” and even served as Trump’s fake voter.
Since the chairman of the commission is empowered to approve the state’s ballot paper and certify the results, an electoral truth in this role could wield significant power. (Wisconsin Republicans are currently trying to abolish the commission and put those decisions in the hands of elected officials).
At the same time, it is unclear whether Spindell got the job. Although the commission was due to elect its next chairman on Wednesday, it ended up delaying the vote, with Spindell being the only “no” vote among six members. State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (right) will choose Knudson’s replacement, who could compete with Spindell for the chair. But Vos has also come under heavy pressure to follow Trump’s line and will surely do so again.
There is also the question of the election of the presidency which requires a majority of votes, that is, with the vote of at least one Democrat. What if neither Spindell nor the GOP alternative is considered acceptable? We don’t know yet.
Aside from that, however, the circumstances of Knudson’s departure echo many other cases in which those who confronted Trump’s claims or certified Trump’s loss have found themselves marginalized and ousted from power. It’s not just election truths that are gaining GOP support in key races, such as the two candidates for Michigan Attorney General and Secretary of State and Pennsylvania Gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano; there are also more subtle, low-profile instances.
In Michigan, the state party refused to rename a statewide collector that certified Trump’s three-point loss to the state, Aaron Van Langevelde. His replacement for the GOP, which was to be approved by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, was Tony Daunt.
Daunt was also marginalized. He resigned from the GOP state committee last month in a somewhat Knudsonian manner. He denounced that “the ‘leaders’ of the cowardly and insensitive parties have made the election here in Michigan a test of who is the most cowardly loyal to Donald Trump and re-litigate the results of the 2020 cycle.”
Van Langevelde is not the only collector moving forward under pressure or needs to be replaced. A Detroit News review found that the party named new collectors in eight of Michigan’s 11 largest counties, and in many cases the substitutes were election voters. One of the replaced collectors, Michelle Voorheis, told NPR that all the candidates nominated to replace her spoke about the fight against electoral fraud, although the collectors do not have the authority to decide these matters.
In case the significance of this does not sink, consider when two Detroit-based GOP collectors in Wayne County momentarily refused to certify the results in November 2020. Finally, they did. , but one of his new replacements, Robert Boyd, has done so. he said he would not have done so.
- In the very Republican county of Hood, Tex., An election administrator was expelled after an extensive campaign against her. The official, Michele Carew, was not technically partisan, but says she has voted Republican for more than a decade.
- In Scott County, Iowa, the top election official (a Democrat) resigned amid another campaign of pressure, and the GOP-controlled board of supervisors appointed a Republican alternate instead of holding special elections. Earlier, the president of the Republican Party of the same county had resigned after criticizing Trump after January. 6.
- Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt, the only Republican on the Philadelphia Electoral Board, provoked Trump’s anger by denying his claims. He resigned his term prematurely to join a control group in late 2021, though he insisted Trump had no role.
- A review of the PA in the summer of 2021 showed a number of election officials leaving their jobs in key 2020 states.
It is unclear whether this will be important in future elections, including in 2024. But it has become clear what the message is about who is welcome in the GOP to oversee the election. So far, Raffensperger is largely the exception.
And to say that the 2020 election was validly decided is too out of tune with the Conservative movement for officials to continue to serve, that is a state of affairs.