All of the election deniers former President Donald Trump tapped for key secretary of state posts lost their midterm races, signaling a resounding rejection of the onetime kingmaker’s unfounded claims of voter fraud and a dip in his influence in the Republican Party.
The string of losses in battleground states is a bruising defeat for the former president, who is expected to announce another bid for the White House on Tuesday.
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Democratic incumbents in Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, and Pennsylvania all beat back challenges from Trump-picked candidates. In Georgia, Rep. Jody Hice, the candidate Trump chose to take on his nemesis, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, failed to make it out of the primary.
Trump’s candidates in Arizona, Michigan, and Nevada parroted allegations he was the true victor of the 2020 presidential election and that a mass fraud perpetrated on the electorate was the only conceivable way President Joe Biden won.
During the 2020 elections, Republican and Democratic secretaries of state stood up to pressure from Trump and his allies to decertify election results. They protected election workers and absorbed aggressive insults and threats. Following Trump’s loss, he backed a string of loyalists pushing the false narrative heading into the 2022 midterm elections.
In Nevada, Republican Jim Marchant, the leader of a conservative group of Trump supporters, told the New York Times in January that he had been approached to run for the state’s top election position and had been encouraged to find other like-minded people to organize a national slate of candidates. Marchant said he found people to run in Colorado, Michigan, Arizona, and New Mexico. The group started touring the country, holding forums, and pushing conspiracy theories.
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When Democrats got wind of what was happening, they began to fundraise for races in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Arizona. By the end of the midterm cycle, more than $50 million was spent on advertising in those states. For his part, Marchant promised that if he was elected, Trump would cruise to victory in 2024.
“When my coalition of secretary of state candidates around the country get elected, we’re going to fix the whole country, and President Trump is going to be president again in 2024,” he said in October.
Marchant lost his race to Democrat Cisco Aguilar. In Nevada, the secretary of state does not have the power to certify election results but can set and enforce election rules. Aguilar pitched himself as the candidate who would keep democracy alive.
“Everything is based on truth and honesty, and trust,” he told NPR one week before Election Day. “It’s my responsibility if I’m elected secretary of state to build that trust from scratch. My opponent has built everything he has on a false foundation of lies and disinformation.”
In Michigan, Trump supporter Kristina Karamo lost her election to Democratic incumbent Jocelyn Benson by 14 points. In New Mexico, incumbent Maggie Toulouse Oliver bested GOP challenger Audrey Trujillo. And in Arizona, Mark Finchem lost to Democrat Adrian Fontes.
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Last year, Trump praised Finchem for his efforts as a state legislator to introduce multiple resolutions seeking to decertify the 2020 election.
“Mark was willing to say what few others had the courage to say,” Trump said.
