The nine most dangerous anti-democracy candidates running to administer U.S. elections
In 2020, numerous Republican officials across the country worked with Democrats and independents to defend the integrity of the election and stand up to pressure from then-President Donald Trump, who sought to overturn the election and remain in power.
These individuals ranged from some of the highest officials in the nation to rank-and-file election workers at the precinct and county level. Many of them faced death threats, and they withstood the filing — and failure — of more than 60 lawsuits that falsely claimed the election had been corruptly compromised. Without the actions of these upstanding officials, our democratic system may have failed.
For instance, as has been widely reported, Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger resisted unprecedented pressure from the former president, who personally urged Raffensperger to “find” the votes necessary for him to win Georgia after Joe Biden’s narrow victory there — a pressure campaign that led to death threats against Raffensperger and his family.
Just as importantly, Republican Aaron Van Langevelde cast the pivotal vote to certify Michigan’s election results as a member of the board of state canvassers. Without that vote, the entire election could have gone off the rails.
Likewise, from his first days in office, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer — a Republican who was elected in November 2020 in the same election that some baselessly claim was stolen from Republicans — faced allegations of fraud in his jurisdiction. Despite death threats and harassing emails, he thoroughly defended the voting machines used to count ballots in Arizona’s largest county.
For his part, Nebraska’s Republican Secretary of State Bob Evnen created a robust PowerPoint presentation debunking election fraud myths that he shared with every state legislator in Nebraska.
And in the highest profile case, then-Vice President Mike Pence correctly maintained that he had no right to overturn the election when he presided over the joint session of Congress that met on Jan. 6, 2021, to count the Electoral College votes — even as some rioters who stormed the Capitol chanted that he should be hanged for not helping Trump overturn the election.
In 2020, election officials from both parties carried out a successful, smooth, and safe election amid the coronavirus pandemic. But now, propelled by the false claim that the 2020 election was “stolen,” the country is facing an influx of hyperpartisan, anti-democracy candidates running for important election administration positions who may not follow the rules or uphold the will of the people in future elections.
According to research by Issue One Action, nearly half of the 27 contests this fall for secretary of state — usually the top state official who oversees election administration — feature candidates who have little regard for democratic norms, deny the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election, and peddle disinformation about our elections.
Among them are individuals running to administer elections in the pivotal battleground states of Arizona, Michigan, and Nevada. In another battleground state — Pennsylvania — an election denier running for governor has pledged to appoint a like-minded secretary of state if he wins.
Election denier candidates include those who have falsely claimed that Trump won the 2020 election, taken specific actions to undermine the results of the 2020 election, or promoted disinformation about the administration of our elections. Several have signaled a willingness to override the will of voters in future elections.
They also want to enact policy changes inspired by election disinformation, such as restricting access to voting in their states, prohibiting their states from working with the nation’s preeminent nonprofit that helps keep voting rolls clean, and banning groups from providing nonpartisan grants to help administer elections in cash-strapped areas.
These election deniers include:
Jim Marchant of Nevada, a former state assemblyman running for secretary of state who has said he would not have certified Biden's victory in Nevada in 2020 had he been secretary of state at the time. Marchant has also expressed openness to sending an alternative slate of electors to Congress that would not support the winner of the popular vote in Nevada in 2024. He has baselessly claimed that Nevadans’ votes haven’t counted “for decades” because a "deep state cabal" has been rigging elections.
Mark Finchem of Arizona, a state legislator running for secretary of state who has called for the election results in several Arizona counties to be “decertified” — an act that isn’t even legally possible. Finchem has links to the Oath Keepers right-wing militia, and he was part of the crowd outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when rioters stormed the building in an attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
Doug Mastriano of Pennsylvania, a state senator running for governor who wants to decertify voting machines in Pennsylvania and require all Pennsylvania voters to re-register to vote — something experts say is unconstitutional. Mastriano was also part of the crowd outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, and his campaign helped bring pro-Trump activists to D.C. on Jan. 6. If elected, Mastriano could appoint a secretary of state of his choosing who also holds dangerous, anti-democracy views.
People who don’t accept the results of an election securely administered by independents and members of both major parties demonstrate that they don't respect facts, legal decisions, or the rules that underpin our democratic process. Such candidates are signaling that they only believe in elections in which their preferred candidates win.
Where the nine most dangerous anti-democracy candidates are running to administer elections
Election officials are tasked with enforcing the rules and respecting the will of the people, no matter who the voters choose as their elected leaders. Election officials should not undermine the bipartisan apparatus that helps make our elections work.
Should one or more of the election deniers running for election administration positions prevail in November, they would have the ability to restrict voting access, ban the use of voting equipment that has been deemed safe and secure, or even block the certification of legitimate election results. Anti-democracy extremists could create a constitutional crisis if they were to pursue their partisan goals by trying to exploit the perceived weaknesses in the Electoral Count Act of 1887, as some attempted to do in 2020, when they claimed that Pence had the power to unilaterally reject states’ certified election results.
Thankfully, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress has come together to update the Electoral Count Act and provide clear guidelines for the role of Congress, the vice president, and the counting of Electoral College votes. This legislation is expected to pass before the end of the year.
At the local level, extreme, election-denying candidates are also striving to obtain influential positions in the country’s election apparatus.
For instance:
Robert Boyd — a man who has stated that he would not have certified the results of the 2020 election — now serves as the vice chair of the board of canvassers in Wayne County, Michigan.
Nancy Tiseo — who, in November 2020, urged Trump to “use the Insurrection Act” to postpone the meeting of the Electoral College in December so “military tribunals” could investigate the presidential election — now serves on the board of canvassers in Macomb County, Michigan.
Stephen Lindemuth — who declared his candidacy to be a judge of elections in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, shortly after returning home from the pro-Trump rally in D.C. on Jan. 6 that preceded the attack on the Capitol — won his race.
All the while, Steve Bannon, Trump’s former adviser, has advocated for a “precinct strategy” to get conspiracy-minded individuals into positions at the lowest level of the GOP, where they can have influence over choosing poll workers and picking members of the boards that oversee elections. Bannon has said: “We’re taking action. We’re taking over school boards. We’re taking over the Republican Party with the precinct committee strategy. We’re taking over all the elections.” At the same time, the Republican National Committee has partnered with election-denying conspiracy theorists to recruit poll workers in multiple battleground states.
Read on to learn more about the eight most alarming anti-democracy candidates running for secretary of state — plus one election denier running for governor in Pennsylvania, who would have the power to appoint the secretary of state if he wins.
All of these candidates pose a threat to the administration of future elections, and all have a chance to win in November. One of them, in Wyoming, doesn’t even have a general election opponent, meaning he is on a glide path to becoming the next secretary of state after winning a competitive primary in August.
Alabama: Wes Allen
State Rep. Wes Allen, who is running for secretary of state in Alabama, supported the unsuccessful lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in four states — Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Allen has claimed that the “election process did not work” in certain states, although he has stressed that “Alabama’s elections were conducted in a safe and secure manner.”
In the wake of the 2020 election, he championed a bill, which was signed into law in April 2022, that bans state and local election officials in Alabama from receiving private funds for election-related expenses. His bill does not provide any additional funding for the state’s election infrastructure.
In 2020, election officials across the country and across the political spectrum — including in Alabama — accepted grants to help administer elections during the pandemic from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a nonpartisan nonprofit founded roughly a decade ago to improve election administration. The group received significant funding for the nonpartisan grants from Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, Facebook’s parent company.
Allen has also used Twitter to spread misleading claims about voter fraud. And he has peddled conspiracy theories about the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), the nation’s preeminent nonprofit working with states across the country for the express purpose of keeping their voting rolls clean and accurate.
Allen has pledged to remove Alabama from the multi-state effort if he’s elected, despite the fact that withdrawing from ERIC would weaken Alabama’s ability to maintain accurate voter rolls, as well as weaken the ability of other states that participate in the program to maintain accurate voter rolls. When fewer states participate in ERIC, there are fewer data sets for participating states to review for people who have moved or died, making it more difficult for both participating and non-participating states to keep their voter rolls updated.
Arizona: Mark Finchem
Mark Finchem, a current member of the Arizona House of Representatives, is running for secretary of state with Trump’s endorsement.
After Biden won Arizona in the 2020 election, Finchem co-signed a joint resolution calling for all of Arizona’s Electoral College votes to go to Trump instead.
On Jan. 5, 2021, the day before the riot at the Capitol, Finchem spoke at a pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C., falsely telling the crowd that the 2020 election was stolen. He was also in the crowd just outside the Capitol as it was stormed by rioters on Jan. 6. He has been subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.
Earlier this year, he introduced a resolution to “decertify” the 2020 election results in three Arizona counties. He also participated in a panel this year held by election conspiracy theorist Jovan Pulitzer, who claims to have developed technology to identify “fraudulent” ballots. At the event, Finchem allied himself with Americans who believe “we have compromised elections in every state and every county,” and he warned against “moving on” from the 2020 election.
When running for the state legislature in 2014, Finchem described himself as a member of the Oath Keepers, a right-wing, anti-government extremist militia group that was involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The Department of Justice has charged the leader of the Oath Keepers and ten other members of the group with seditious conspiracy for their roles in the Jan. 6 attack.
On his own social media accounts, Finchem has posted about stockpiling ammunition and maintained a “Treason Watch List” that featured photos of several prominent Democratic politicians.
Indiana: Diego Morales
Diego Morales, who is running for secretary of state in Indiana, has called the 2020 election a "scam" and "flawed." In an op-ed published earlier this year, he wrote: “If you agree with me that the Nov 3rd, 2020, vote was tainted, you are hardly alone.”
Morales previously served in Indiana’s secretary of state’s office, but he had a record of “incomplete” and “inefficient” work — offenses for which he was fired.
If elected, Morales has pledged to establish an “election task force” to investigate "shenanigans" in elections. And he has called for Indiana to mandate in-person voting, except for those who cannot physically get to the polls, such as the elderly, disabled, and those serving in the military.
Michigan: Kristina Karamo
Kristina Karamo is running for secretary of state in Michigan with Trump’s endorsement. She falsely claims that “Donald Trump won Michigan.”
A community college instructor who has never held elected office, Karamo rose to prominence after saying she witnessed election fraud as a poll challenger in Detroit while officials counted absentee ballots in 2020. The Detroit Free Press found that Karamo’s claims were based on misinterpretations of standard election processes, and a Republican-led investigation into Michigan's elections in 2020 found "no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud."
Nevertheless, she went on to make dozens of appearances on conservative media outlets, testify before a Michigan legislative committee, and sign onto a legal brief that unsuccessfully attempted to give Michigan’s Republican-controlled state legislature the power to certify election results. Last year, she traveled to Arizona to view that state's widely criticized partisan review of the 2020 election conducted by the Cyber Ninjas firm, and afterward, she said that Michigan should replicate the process.
Karamo has continued to make false claims of election fraud, even going as far as to call for a statewide audit of the 2020 election results. She wholly embraces Trump’s conspiracy theory related to voting machines, claiming that Dominion voting machines flipped Trump’s votes to Biden’s.
Karamo has also falsely claimed that “Antifa posing as Trump supporters” were behind the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and she has called for the Republican Party to kick out individuals who are insufficiently conservative because they are, in her view, “traitors.”
Minnesota: Kim Crockett
Kim Crockett, who is running for secretary of state in Minnesota, has asserted that the 2020 election was “rigged,” and during a debate earlier this month, she refused to commit to accepting the results of the upcoming midterm elections, something she later walked back.
Earlier this year, Crockett attended a showing of the film “2,000 Mules,” which advances conspiracy theories about fraud in the 2020 presidential election and has been widely debunked by journalists and fact checkers. She also campaigned at an event featuring retired Army Capt. Seth Keshel, who has teamed up with retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to spread election disinformation.
Crockett has alleged without evidence that policies like lengthy early voting periods are “an open invitation to fraud.” She wants to reduce Minnesota’s current early voting period from six weeks to just a “week or two.”
Additionally, Crockett has criticized the fact that Minnesota election officials accepted millions of dollars in grants to help administer elections during the pandemic in 2020 from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a nonpartisan nonprofit founded roughly a decade ago to improve election administration that is funded in part by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Crockett wants to ban such grants from funding elections, but she hasn’t offered other solutions on how to provide additional funding for critical election infrastructure.
Nevada: Jim Marchant
Jim Marchant, a former state assemblyman who is running for secretary of state in Nevada, has said that he would not have certified Biden's victory in Nevada in 2020 had he been secretary of state at the time. Marchant has also expressed openness to sending an alternative slate of electors to Congress that would not support the winner of the popular vote in Nevada in 2024.
After the 2020 election, Marchant was supportive of the efforts by Republican electors in Nevada who falsely certified Trump as the winner of the state’s presidential election. Despite Trump’s loss, they submitted their votes in hopes that Republicans in Congress would count them instead of those of the legitimate electors.
Marchant also helped form a pro-Trump “coalition of America First secretary of state candidates” whose members share a belief in election conspiracy theories. He announced the existence of this coalition in October 2021 at a conference held in Las Vegas by QAnon conspiracy theorists.
On his campaign website, Marchant refers to himself as a “victim of election fraud,” and he has claimed the 2020 election was “stolen” from both him and Trump. Marchant unsuccessfully brought legal challenges alleging voter fraud after he lost a congressional race in 2020 by roughly 16,000 votes. He has baselessly claimed that Nevadans’ votes haven’t counted “for decades” because a "deep state cabal" has been rigging elections.
If elected, Marchant has pledged to remove Nevada from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), the nation’s preeminent nonprofit coordinating with states across the country for the express purpose of keeping voting rolls clean and accurate. Experts say that withdrawing from ERIC would disadvantage both Nevada and the more than 30 other states that participate in the program.
New Mexico: Audrey Trujillo
Audrey Trujillo, who is running for secretary of state in New Mexico, has perpetuated false claims of electoral fraud and has routinely cast doubts about the legitimacy of the 2020 election.
Trujillo has falsely claimed that voting systems in the United States are “no better than any other communist country like Venezuela or any of these other states where our elections are being manipulated.” She has called the 2020 presidential election a “coup.”
On Jan. 2, 2021 — just four days before pro-Trump rioters attacked the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from counting the Electoral College votes that affirmed Biden’s victory — she tweeted, “We’re coming! ‘The fight for Trump’ Jan. 6th 2021.”
Additionally, Trujillo has called for a “forensic audit” to expose fraud in New Mexico. The state already conducts a traditional audit after each election, using an independent auditor. Accredited county canvass observers may be present during New Mexico’s audit process, and audit data is reported to the public.
Pennsylvania: Doug Mastriano
Doug Mastriano, a state senator running for governor of Pennsylvania with Trump’s endorsement, has been at the forefront of efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
After Biden won Pennsylvania by roughly 80,000 votes, Mastriano introduced an unsuccessful resolution that would have allowed the Republican-controlled state legislature to overturn the results and instead appoint electors who would declare Trump the winner. Mastriano served as the "point person" for the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania as it assembled a slate of “fake electors” loyal to the former president.
Mastriano himself was part of the crowd outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when rioters stormed the building in an attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power, and his campaign helped pay for pro-Trump activists to travel to D.C. on Jan. 6.
After the election, Mastriano attempted to launch a partisan “forensic investigation” of Pennsylvania's ballots.
If elected, he could appoint a secretary of state who also holds extreme views and is antagonistic to democratic norms. Mastriano has said he could decertify every voting machine in the state and force all Pennsylvanian voters to re-register to vote — something experts say is unconstitutional.
Wyoming: Chuck Gray
Chuck Gray, a state legislator who is running for secretary of state in Wyoming, has called the 2020 election “fraudulent” and “illegitimate.” After the 2020 election, he urged Wyoming to join an unsuccessful lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to overturn the results of the presidential election in four states — Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
In the wake of the 2020 election, Gray traveled to Maricopa County, Arizona, to observe the highly controversial partisan investigation of the county’s election results. He has called for “forensic audits” of Wyoming’s elections. Wyoming already conducts post-election audits.
While campaigning for secretary of state, Gray — who earned Trump’s endorsement ahead of Wyoming’s August primary — hosted numerous showings of the controversial film “2,000 Mules,” which advances widely debunked conspiracy theories about fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Gray has said that “2,000 Mules” demonstrates “how the woke, big tech left has stolen elections with ballot drop boxes,” and to that end, he has promised that, if elected, he will get rid of ballot boxes in Wyoming.