Key election deniers concede defeat after disputing Trump’s 2020 loss

Voters in several battleground states have rebuked state-level candidates who echoed former president Donald Trump’s false claim that the 2020 presidential race was rigged, keeping election deniers from positions with power over the certification of future presidential election results.

But dozens of other candidates who denied or questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 vote are projected to win seats in Congress.

At least 143 Republican election deniers running for the U.S. House had won their races as of Wednesday morning, ticking past the 139 House Republicans who objected to the counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021.

While Democrats are projected to prevail in gubernatorial contests in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, several high-profile races remained too close to call Wednesday – notably in Arizona, where Republican firebrand Kari Lake has made denying the 2020 election results a central theme in her campaign for governor.

“Just like yesterday I wasn’t prepared to say that democracy was dead, I’m not prepared to say this morning that the threat from election denialism is completely vanquished,” said Edward B. Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University who studies U.S. elections. “I don’t think we are ‘out of the woods’ yet by any means.”

The mixed picture for election deniers emerged Wednesday after an Election Day that largely went smoothly, with what experts described as normal hiccups but no systemic problems or violence. Threats of raucous protests and partisan challengers intent on interfering with the process had not materialized, they said. They cautioned that the process will continue for days and could turn tense in close contests.

Suzanne Almeida, director of state operations for Common Cause, said late Tuesday that monitors were relieved by how quiet the day had been.

“I am happy to report that today has been relatively quiet on the political violence front,” she told reporters late Tuesday.

“We were absolutely prepared for more significant incidents, but they simply have not come to fruition.”

That relative calm extended early Wednesday to the post-election democratic ritual of claiming victory and offering concessions.

Two years after Trump prematurely declared he had won a second term and falsely claimed widespread election fraud, Republican candidates he endorsed took a different tack, urging their supporters to be patient until the results were clear.

In Arizona, Lake on Tuesday evening assailed the “cheaters and crooks” she said were in charge of running elections and predicted she would win. But she stopped short of declaring she had.

“We’re going to be patient, guys,” she told a large crowd gathered in a ballroom at a resort on the outskirts of Phoenix. “We will take the victory when it comes.”

As of Wednesday morning, Lake was trailing her Democratic rival for governor, Katie Hobbs, with an estimated 66% of votes counted.

In Michigan, less than 20 minutes after Fox News called the race for her opponent, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon took the stage in a downtown Grand Rapids hotel late Tuesday to declare that the race isn’t over.

Earlier in the race, she had refused to commit to accepting the results of the election.

“This race is going to be too close to call, despite what Fox thinks,” Dixon told a crowd of supporters. “The results continue to trickle in. The major counties have a very, very long way to go. We stay up until we have every vote counted.”

But on Wednesday morning, Dixon conceded.

“I called Governor Whitmer this morning to concede and wish her well,” Dixon said in a statement emailed by her campaign.

Dixon thanked her supporters and volunteers, saying, “We came up short, but we will never stop fighting for our families.”

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) said she choked up with relief when Dixon conceded – not because Dixon lost, but because she endorsed the democratic norm of acknowledging election results.

“One of the most significant markers of a successful, smooth election is when the losing candidate graciously concedes defeat,” Benson wrote in a text message.

“So to see candidates who previously denied the accurate results in 2020’s election now graciously concede defeat in their own high profile races tells me we’ve truly succeeded in running a smooth and successful election in Michigan.”