A Connecticut mayor whose September primary election win was invalidated after ballot-fraud allegations won a do-over primary Tuesday, months after his case became a flash point in conservative arguments about debunked theories of voter fraud.
s Donald Trump barrels toward the Republican nomination and continues promoting debunked claims that the 2020 election was rigged against him, he and his allies have seized on this case out of Democratic-leaning Bridgeport. They see the case — which resulted in a mayor formerly convicted of conspiracy winning a general election that had been voided by the courts — as evidence that Democrats are committing widespread fraud. Elections experts say those claims are baseless and that the Bridgeport case is unique.
“There is no indication to say that what took place in Bridgeport is happening nationally,” said David Levine, a senior fellow with the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy. “But election deniers just need a toehold to get greater traction on a bigger claim. For those that want to make mountains out of molehills, it’s incumbent on them to bring the evidence to support those accusations.”