SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. — Rep. David McKinley, who is facing a heated Republican primary against colleague Rep. Alex Mooney, cast doubt on whether he believes the 2020 presidential election was legitimate during a town hall event Monday evening despite having voted to certify the results.
When pressed on his thoughts on the election, the West Virginia Republican said he thinks it’s unlikely the results could have been different in the states that were challenged, but he’ll “never know,” adding he has concerns about changes to voting laws during the pandemic.
“I’ll never know, to be honest with you, because I think in Pennsylvania, if you take those three that were being challenged, that would not have been enough votes to overturn it. What about the other elections? What about some of the other states?” he told the crowd. “I’d like to have known. That’s what we want to find out. I think it puts a shadow on the whole process.”
Pennsylvania changed its policy in 2019 to expand mail-in voting, but the law came under fire during the 2020 election cycle as former President Donald Trump alleged fraud in key swing states.
McKinley then blasted Democrats’ push for a sweeping elections reform bill that would have broadened access to mail-in voting and softened voter ID requirements, among other sweeping changes that Republicans have argued were aimed at giving Democrats an edge in elections.
“What they did, oddly enough, after the election — we had a complete election reform bill that Pelosi wanted to pass. Essentially, what they were doing is trying to codify all the things that the states did,” he said.
“For example, voter ID we have in West Virginia, I’ve used it for as long as I’ve been voting. Voter ID under this was going to be gone. You want to perpetuate the same problem we had after that election in November of ’20, codify those rules,” he continued.
“Things like ballot harvesting, we have a … Republican who went to prison because of ballot harvesting now because Pelosi is in control. Is that the right thing to do? Absolutely not. So we stood up to that. And even though we’re in the minority, we were able to defeat that legislation. … I think the election is tainted, and we will maintain it until the next election,” he said.
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Prior to casting his vote to certify the election, McKinley slammed changes to voting laws but said he did not feel that it was Congress’s role to change states’ policies after Election Day.
“In an effort to accommodate voters due to this health care crisis, state election officials, county officials, Governors, and courts circumvented state legislatures and unilaterally modified election procedures contrary to state laws and the U.S. Constitution. They failed to install safeguards to ensure only legitimate votes were counted. Consequently, I am outraged that these state legislatures abrogated their Constitutional authorities by allowing other officials to rewrite election laws. The legislatures failed to ensure a fair and transparent process that would renew the confidence of the American public,” he said in a statement ahead of the vote.
“Now they are relying on Congress to step in and mediate. What authority does Congress have? Having read Article II and the 10th and 12th Amendments to the Constitution, as well as Federalist Paper Number 68, it is clear Congress has no role to object to the states’ election results once they are certified,” he continued. “Therefore, I am compelled to vote against the proposed objections.”
Polling shows the race between McKinley and Mooney is neck and neck in the days leading up to the primary election, with Trump taking aim at McKinley over his vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill and support for an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
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McKinley has stood by his voting record, asserting that he felt his support of the infrastructure bill was in the best interest of the state and stressed that there is a difference between the 9/11-style commission, which ultimately failed to gain support in the Senate, and the Jan. 6 select committee.
The six-term congressman added that he supports individuals’ right to protest but strongly condemns those who breached the Capitol in an attempt to derail the certification of the election.
“I don’t like what happened on Jan. 6. I think it was an insult to the country for the most part — not the demonstrations, [as] people have a right to protest under the First Amendment, and I’ll support that time and time again,” he said, “but you don’t have the right to break a window, you don’t have the right to break indoors, and you have no right to see that someone dies. That’s inappropriate. Those people need to be prosecuted.”
