Fascinating New York Times deep dive on the strategy underlying the decision by some Republican lawmakers to reject the 2020 election results, and how this approach has impacted the party orthodoxy in the 20 months since January 6th. In the wake of the violence, Republican lawmakers shifted from demanding accountability for those endorsing the Big Lie, to endorsement of the Big Lie becoming a badge of honor within the party ranks.

This shift was facilitated, in part, by a change in strategy. Republican lawmakers who had once pushed specious claims of voter fraud now argued that the results in some states were constitutionally infirm. Since state officials loosened voting rules in response to the pandemic, departing from the election regimes established by their respective state legislatures, this could serve as constitutional grounds to reject the election results. Notably, the Supreme Court will resolve a variation of this issue–involving the independent state legislature theory–this term in Moore v. Harper.