Brennan Center:

n battleground states’ contests for the offices that will run the 2024 elections, many campaigns are centered on the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

Since 2020, elec­tion denial — claims that the process or result of the last pres­id­en­tial elec­tion was ille­git­im­ate — has become prom­in­ent in Amer­ican polit­ics. Increas­ingly, it is a highly visible issue in races for elec­­tion admin­is­tra­­tion posi­­tions. Many elec­ted offi­cials, from county or town clerk or super­visor to statewide offi­cials like governor or secret­ary of state, play a role in decid­ing how people vote, how ballots are coun­ted, and how results are certi­fied. Candid­ates for these offices are making their claims about the legit­im­acy of the last elec­tion cent­ral to their case that the voters should choose them to run the next.

Even as some campaigns claim wide­s­pread fraud in the 2020 elec­­tion, others defend the vote as secure and accur­ate and raise alarms about the dangers of proponents of the Big Lie running future elec­tions. Both sides impli­­citly or expli­­citly argue that control of elec­­tion admin­is­tra­­tion decided in 2022 will determ­ine the future and survival of Amer­­ican demo­cracy.

In all six of the battle­­­ground states with secret­ary of state elec­­tions in 2022, there is at least one candid­ate who has ques­­tioned the legit­­im­acy of the last pres­id­en­­tial elec­­tion. The same stance is espoused by gubernat­orial or local candid­ates in almost all the 10 likely battle­ground states we are study­ing. 

In a related series, we are track­ing the finan­cing of contests for elec­tion admin­is­tra­tion posi­tions in battle­ground states.

Here we collect state­­ments, ads, and the like that indic­ate each of these candid­ates is making elec­­tion denial an issue in their campaign, includ­ing those running in oppos­i­tion to elec­tion denial. We focus on the states with the closest margins in the 2020 pres­id­en­tial elec­tion: Arizona, Flor­ida, Geor­gia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hamp­shire, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wiscon­sin (North Caro­lina does not have races for elec­tion offi­cials in 2022). We are track­ing contests for governor, secret­ary of state, as well as local elec­tion offi­cials in key juris­dic­tions.