Will Candidates Accept Election Results?
Evers and Barnes say they will honor November results. Michels and Johnson refuse to say.
Tim Michels and U.S. Senator Ron Johnson.
Across the nation Republican candidates running for election in November are following in the footsteps of Donald Trump, who refused to accept the results of the 2020 election, though he lost by more than seven million votes and gained less than 44% of the Electoral College vote.
“When asked, six Trump-backed Republican nominees for governor and the Senate in midterm battlegrounds would not commit to accepting this year’s election results, and another six Republicans ignored or declined to answer a question about embracing the November outcome,” a New York Times story reported. “All of them, along with many other G.O.P. candidates, have pre-emptively cast doubt on how their states count votes.”
Both have also declined to respond to a request for comment on this issue from Urban Milwaukee.
By contrast their opponents both told Urban Milwaukee they would accept the election results.
“I will commit to accepting the result of the election and it’s shameful that Ron Johnson won’t do the same,” said Democratic Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes.
As for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, his spokesperson Sam Roecker said, “Gov. Evers trusts Wisconsin election officials and will accept the results of the 2022 election.”
Roecker notes that Evers responded directly to this question last week in an interview with Matt Smith on WISN-TV:
“Will you accept the results of the election?” Smith asked.
Both Johnson and Michels have cast doubt on the results of the 2020 election. Johnson’s staff tried to send a slate of fake electors from Wisconsin to Vice-President Mike Pence, who was being pressured by Trump to refuse to accept the election results. Johnson has urged the Republican-run Legislature to disband the nonpartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission and take over the oversight of elections.
Michels has claimed there “certainly was voter fraud” in 2020, while providing no evidence of this and has not ruled out an effort to decertify the results of the election should he become governor. He has also proposed replacing the Elections Commission with a board of representatives from the state’s congressional districts. which would mean Republicans would gain control over elections.
“Every time a Republican candidate like Tim Michels embraces radical and untrue conspiracy theories about our elections, it undermines the very foundation of our democracy and erodes trust in our election system,” Roecker said. “Our leaders should be fighting to strengthen our democracy, not dismantle it. Governor Evers is committed to making sure every eligible voter is able to participate in the democratic process and trusts that state and local election officials will once again deliver accurate results in the 2022 election.”
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The only acceptable outcome is for Republicans win. Otherwise they didnt do enough work fixing the outcome in their favor.
Any candidate who refuses to accept the results should be stricken from the ballot before the election. Are these guys also backing Gabelman’s call for blood and revolution?
When the repubs talk about “the fixed” elections, they are talking about their own actions to steal the election. They are projecting their own behavior onto their opponents. Old tactic.
They are Nazis.
Watch the first episode of Ken Burns new documentary on the Holocaust and the US. Just sub in TFG and the repubs and you have the 1930’s in Germany, or perhaps Spain or maybe Italy.
Just sayin’
Nope. @$$wioes that suck @$$ suck @$$ for profit.
Another one-day story that shouldn’t be. Some useful quotes that tell us where we are: “People don’t believe lies because they have to. They believe them because they want to.” (The pundit Malcolm Muggeridge). And, “It’s not a lie if I believe it.” (George Costanza of Seinfeld). The majority of one of the two major political parties in this country, most of their elected officials, and, especially in places like Wisconsin, their plutocratic backers, claim to believe the lies about the 2020 election, and do not believe in democracy or majority rule. But, they do accept – or in the case of people like Gableman, advocate – violence to maintain power.
In Arizona, the word “democracy” is now forbidden by the state’s Republican Party. In their words, we are not a “democracy, “ but a “republic.” That message will certainly arrive in Wisconsin in the weeks ahead.
As the Republican Party – well beyond Trump – rejects small “d” democracy, there is another process taking place. A few years ago, Republicans would freak out when someone suggested they were anti-democratic. Now they embrace it and reject democracy. The same is starting to occur with the term “fascism,” for which Fox News and far-right media sites, including Trump’s, are a useful barometer.
Here is an “if the shoe fits” summary of what fascism is from the standard work of the subject, “The Anatomy of Fascism”: “a sense of overwhelming crisis, out of reach of any traditional solutions; “the primacy of the group (in our case, white people) toward which one has duties superior to every right; the belief that one’s group (again white people) is a victim, a sentiment that justifies any action, without legal or moral limits…; dread of the group’s decline under the corrosive effects of individualistic liberalism, class conflict and alien influences; the need for authority by natural chiefs (always male) …capable of incarnating the group’s historical destiny; the superiority of the leader’s instincts over abstract reason….; the beauty of violence; the right of the chosen people to dominate others without restraint….”
Not exactly a perfect fit – at least not yet – and related in a lot of ways to the process of “otherization,” which is far-advanced in Wisconsin. It is no coincidence that, in the same week, Gableman has advocated violence on behalf of white Republicans, Michels comes out in favor of making life worse for transgender, and, almost certainly, other lgbtq people. Otherization at its best, or worst.
Final relevant thought related to Bruce’s column. They don’t ring a bell when you are on the brink. Think 1860 or September, 1929. As a clever man said about his country, “Last year we stood at the edge of the precipice. This year, we’ve taken a step forward.” In six weeks, there will be an election whose results Governor Evers and Lieutenant Governor Barnes say they will accept. But, what if that election is marked by Republican voter suppression and intimidation in Democratic precincts. What will they say then?
Gotta give Walker one thing. He took his election loss like a man.
Anyone who wants to run for office must sign a mandatory pledge that the candidate abides by the election results.
If they don’t, then they can’t run.
They cannot run again if they sign the pledge and resist acknowledging the results.
We have to find an end to this nonsense.