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No ones paying any attention to it, said Christopher Nicholas, a longtime Republican consultant based in Harrisburg.

Ever since the 2020 election, the Republican Party has been transfixed by Trumps baseless claim that the 2020 election was rigged, a falsehood large majorities of Republicans still believe. Its an obsession that has animated primary campaigns across the country. And it will almost certainly resurface in the general election, when Republicans are running against Democrats, not one another.

Yet in Pennsylvania, Trumps earliest effort to graft his 2020 complaints onto ballot counting in a midterm primary is falling flat. MAGA hard-liners whove lost primaries in other states in recent weeks have not contested the results. And when the primary calendar turns to Georgia on Tuesday, Trumps election conspiracy crusade is likely to take another hit.

In that state, Gov. Brian Kemp is widely expected to finish first in his gubernatorial primary, despite being savaged by Trump for his resistance to Trumps efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Its an indication, early in the midterm primary calendar, that even in a party beholden to Trump, there is a limit to his reach.

I think the shine has gone off a bit, said Jason Shepherd, a former chair of the Republican Party in Georgias Cobb County, in the Atlanta suburbs.

Republicans, he said, are realizing its great to have Trumps endorsement, but that the former president is not going to be the end-all and be-all.

In Pennsylvania, where votes are still being counted, the Oz and McCormick campaigns are preparing for a potentially fierce recount, including bringing on alumni of Trumps 2020 campaign. Its possible, once the result comes in, that the party will once again abandon pre-Trump norms.

Mehmet Oz, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, waves to supporters at a primary night election gathering in Newtown, Pennsylvania on Tuesday.|Seth Wenig/AP Photo

But one Republican who has advised Trump and is familiar with both the Oz and McCormick operations said nobody wants to be viewed as a sore loser and make allegations they cant sustain.

Theyre both intelligent guys, the person said. Theyre both sane guys, and neither of them wants to embarrass himself.

Two years ago, Republicans did not have such reservations with losing candidates up and down the ballot copying Trumps fraud claims or refusing to concede. They may do so again in the fall.

But Trump never limited his complaints about rigged elections to match-ups with Democrats. He accused Sen. Ted Cruz of stealing the Iowa caucuses in 2016, calling for a do-over.

Yet losing candidates so far in this midterm have been reluctant to go there. In Nebraska, Charles Herbster, a Trump megadonor and friend of the former president who attended the Jan. 6 rally in Washington that preceded the riot at the Capitol, conceded after losing his gubernatorial run. So did Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, after her failed, Trump-backed bid to unseat Gov. Brad Little.

Even Rep. Madison Cawthorn conceded, the North Carolina Republicans diatribe about Dark MAGA notwithstanding.

None of that is because Trump or voter fraud does not still resonate in the GOP. Trump helped pull his favored candidates to victory in key Senate races in Ohio and North Carolina. And in Pennsylvania last week, Doug Mastriano, the far-right election denier Trump endorsed, won the gubernatorial primary.

Even candidates Trump has not endorsed are wrapping themselves in any connection they can draw to him, and his rhetoric is still being parroted by prominent personalities on the right.

Last week, Cruz told The Washington Post that mail ballots in Pennsylvania create serious opportunity for mischief. And Fox News host Sean Hannity, an Oz ally, also parroted Trump, saying he does not trust the people that have the ballots.

But for Republican candidates this cycle, the difference between 2022 and 2020, said John Thomas, a Republican strategist working on House campaigns across the country, is that were just not seeing it where people hang on his every word.

He advises his candidates to watch Tucker Carlson every night to be in tune with the electorate, not Trump on Truth Social, the platform on which Trump suggested the Pennsylvania election might be rigged.

You want the glow and the halo effect of Donald Trump, but hes not shaping policy at the moment, Thomas said. It matters who can get that nod and that halo effect from Trump, but outside of that, he kind of feels like an ex-president to me.

Trump will likely have a mixed night Tuesday in the next big round of primaries. His preferred Senate candidate in Georgia, Herschel Walker, is favored to win. And Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is at risk of losing reelection after refusing to find votes for Trump in 2020.

But even in Georgia, which became an epicenter of Trumps false election claims after he lost the state to Joe Biden in 2020, the tide may be shifting away from him. A recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll found Republican voters are more confident now in the integrity of their states elections than they were just several months ago.

And in a Fox News poll last week, just a quarter of Republican primary voters said its extremely important that a candidate identifies as a strong Trump supporter in order to earn their vote for governor. By contrast, nearly two-thirds said someone who can win in November is paramount, and 35 percent said its critical that a candidate supports a Georgia abortion ban.

In that race, Kemp is running so far ahead of Trumps endorsed candidate, former Sen. David Perdue, who has made false claims about the 2020 election a centerpiece of his campaign, that he may avoid a runoff.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp speaks during a gubernatorial republican primary debate on May 1, 2022, in Atlanta.|Brynn Anderson, Pool, File/AP Photo

We get it that people are still trying to exude a level of Trumpism as an attractive policy agenda, said John Watson, a former chair of the Georgia Republican Party. But my personal sense is that voters are saying, Dude, chill.

He said, I think theres always going to be a constituency in the party, at least for the foreseeable future, that thinks that every damn election is rigged. But I think fundamentally, your average, serial primary voter is just smarter than that. I think they just believe it to be a Trump shtick at this point.

A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. But for the former president, the imperative of keeping the routine up is obvious. He is deeply invested in his win-loss record in the midterms, and casting doubt on the Pennsylvania election will offer him a crutch in case Oz loses.

Among traditionalist Republicans, Trumps intervention in Pennsylvania was widely viewed as a distraction from a favorable midterm election climate for the GOP, with concerns about the state of the economy and a deeply unpopular Democratic president to run against.

There are pressing issues that need to be addressed, like inflation and the war in Ukraine, and we have a lot of overreach in the regulatory environment, said Melissa Hart, a former congresswoman from Pennsylvania who dropped out of the states gubernatorial primary days before the election. As far as Im concerned, its time to move forward.

Original post:
'No one's paying any attention': The week that Republicans ignored Trump's election lies - POLITICO

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene flexes during a Bikers for Trump campaign event held at the Crazy Acres Bar & Grill on May 20, 2022 in Plainville, GeorgiaPhoto: Joe Raedle (Getty Images)

Congress passed a pair of bills last week to help alleviate the baby formula shortage in the U.S., while President Joe Biden initiated Operation Fly Formula, which tasked the military with flying thousands of pounds of formula from Europe. And while every decent person supports giving families easier access to formula, there are some Republicans who seem to lack that basic form of empathy in a crisis.

When the Access to Baby Formula Act was voted on last week in the House of Representatives, 414 congressmen, both Democrats and Republicans, voted in favor of the legislation. The bill will allow families on the food assistance program WIC to buy whatever formula brand is available in stores, instead of being forced to buy a particular brand. But precisely nine members of the House voted against the bill, all Republicans.

Who are these people that voted against making it easier for families to get the baby formula they need? Many of the same people who consider themselves pro-life and defenders of American families.

Today, we have photos of those nine Republicans, along with some completely unrelated quotes. Please ignore the quotes. Were trying to delete them.

Read more:
9 Republicans Voted Against Giving Families Easier Access to Baby Formula - Gizmodo

In recent months, with their party still seized by former president Trumps election falsehoods, some Republicans have trained their sights on La Follettes toothless office, hoping to take it over and assume election administration duties currently managed by a bipartisan board a move Democrats see as a prelude to a power grab.

It has given rise to an unusual campaign promise from an 81-year-old bureaucrat with few responsibilities: If he is reelected in November, he says, he wants to keep it that way at least when it comes to election administration.

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I think democracy is in real trouble, said La Follette, who seems certain Republicans in the state Legislature would not give the office election-related duties if he wins in the fall. Its one little thing I can do, to try to keep Wisconsin election results independent of politics.

The battle for Americas election machinery is emerging as a major theme in the midterms, with Republicans who echoed Trumps attacks on the integrity of American elections seeking offices in which they would control future elections. There have been high-profile advances, such as when election-denying state Senator Doug Mastriano won Pennsylvanias GOP gubernatorial primary last week. But many of the efforts are happening in lower-profile races, outside of view.

La Follette has never had election oversight power, and lawmakers have cut many of his other duties over the years although the small clerical role he plays at the end of a presidential election drew more notice in 2020. Wisconsin Republicans new interest in empowering an office they long marginalized has alarmed democracy experts who see it as part of the partys wider war on election administrators after President Biden beat Trump here by the narrow margin of about 20,000 votes.

This effort to change the way the system operates in Wisconsin is ... part of a much broader effort to take power over elections and put it in the hands of partisan actors and also ultimately to take power away from American voters, said Joanna Lydgate, founder and chief executive of the States United Democracy Center, a bipartisan group.

Republicans here have relentlessly attacked the Wisconsin Elections Commission, a bipartisan body set up in 2016 by conservative firebrand Governor Scott Walker. They launched an error-ridden review of the 2020 election, while some in the party have come to embrace an effort to decertify the last election which is legally impossible.

Kevin Kennedy, the former head of the previous election overseer, a nonpartisan body that was replaced by Walker, called the GOPs interest in changing the job shockingly scary.

They have so much control on one level, but they want more, he said.

Republicans have depicted their interest in expanding the offices duties as a mundane attempt to make Wisconsin more like the dozens of other states where a single top election official answers to voters.

We have an election confidence problem in Wisconsin, and I am willing to step in and say I can be the person that can hopefully fill that void, said state Representative Amy Loudenbeck, one of multiple Republicans vying to unseat La Follette and expand the duties of the office, even though she previously voted to shrink the office.

While Loudenbeck has distanced herself from calls to decertify the 2020 election, she paused for 15 seconds when asked by the Globe if Biden had won fair and square, and asked for the question to be restated. I acknowledged that Joe Biden is our president, but the fairly part is something that is the main concern, she said.

To expand the duties of the office, Republicans would likely need to control both the governors office currently held by Tony Evers, a Democrat seeking reelection and the Legislature, already majority Republican. Two Republican candidates for governor have called to do so, including one, state Representative Timothy Ramthun, who has pushed to decertify the 2020 election.

Democrats have cast Evers as their most important bulwark against election subversion, since he can veto Republican bills. But if it all came down to La Follette, he would be an unlikely figure to be Democrats last line of defense in the state.

La Follette does not campaign alongside the rest of his partys candidates, or campaign vigorously at all, for that matter. He complains loudly about the trouble he is having gathering enough signatures to get on the ballot, which are due June 1.

Hes a singularly unique character who has his quirks, said Joe Zepecki, a Wisconsin Democratic consultant. There arent a lot of them left like Doug.

He has drawn a primary challenge from Alexia Sabor, chair of the Dane County Democrats, who has promised to use the bully pulpit of the office in a way La Follette has not, by speaking up for voting rights and defending fair elections.

Republicans are saying, Weve got a guy in the basement, he doesnt do anything, said Sabor. If were gonna start proving the value of this position, if we want to keep it out of Republican hands, nows the time to do that.

But La Follette has pointed to his record he has been elected 11 times, including in Republican wave years such as 2010 to make his case.

I have the best chance of winning in November, La Follette said, who added that he contemplated retirement before Republicans took aim at his job. If that wasnt true about me, Id be on the way to Ecuador.

A former environmental activist who is lanky and spry, La Follette has the charismatic charm of Bernie Sanders and a penchant for talking about passions unrelated to his job, such as the Porcupine caribou of Alaska and other natural wonders.

This is me at the Rocky Mountain lab, Im over 12,000 feet, coring a tree, he recently told a reporter, pointing to a photograph on the wall of his office. Did you ever core a tree?

What he does have, however, is a very famous name. La Follette says his great great grandfather was the brother of the father of Fighting Bob La Follette, the progressive stalwart and former Wisconsin governor. So I am a first cousin, twice removed, I think, he said.

Its an association so valuable a political opponent questioned his ancestry during La Follettes own ill-fated 1970 run for Congress, prompting him to produce his birth certificate to settle the matter.

I have to be honest, he said. My name is a very good Wisconsin political name.

La Follette was elected to his current position in 1974, just as the secretary of states office lost its election powers during a rush of a post-Watergate government reform. He left to run for lieutenant governor in 1978 and lost. He ran for his old job in 1982, unseating his replacement, Vel Phillips, the first Black person elected to statewide office in Wisconsin.

Theres a core set of duties that include corporations, trademarks, notary publics ... and those were here. And Governor Thompson took them away, La Follette said, referring to the Republican Governor Tommy Thompson, who left office in 2001. And Governor Walker took more away.

In 2011, he landed himself in the news by delaying the publishing of a controversial anti-union bill. The legislature later stripped him of more power, cut his budget, and moved his office to the basement.

Now, to his dismay, his only responsibilities include certifying documents needed for international business transactions and serving on a public lands board.

But he has one other task that for decades was also unremarkable: authenticating the governors signature on the states certificate of election.

In 2020, La Follette received two sets of election paperwork: The real, Democratic slate, and a fake slate of Republicans.

I looked at it and put it in a drawer and ignored it, La Follette said. Its still in his office in a green folder.

His worries about what might have happened if a Republican had been in the office are a key part of his motivation to run again. The only thing I can do is make sure the secretary of state is not in a position to fiddle with the electors, he said.

If La Follette makes the ballot, he will be in for the fight of his life, first against a qualified Democrat in Sabor. If he wins, he will likely face a determined Republican in an environment that seems to favor the GOP.

Hes not a crusader, hes not in the public eye, said Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin. But, he added, He appears to be steadfast in wanting to defend the office as being separate from the election infrastructure in the state.

Jess Bidgood can be reached at Jess.Bidgood@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessbidgood.

Read more from the original source:
Why Wisconsin Republicans' new interest in empowering the secretary of state has alarmed democracy experts - The Boston Globe

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EXCLUSIVE: The House Freedom Caucus is demanding that President Biden either withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO) or correct the organization's "rampant corruption."

In a letter sent to Biden Monday, the Republican lawmakers urge Biden to halt efforts to "empower" the WHO, and instead "either immediately resume President Trumps withdrawal from the body or, at the very least, push serious reforms to aggressively correct the organizations rampant corruption and ineffectual leadership."

The Biden administration is set to propose amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHRs) during the 75th World Health Assembly in Geneva this week, which the congressmen say would surrender the U.S. government's control during a public health emergency to a foreign body.

President Joe Biden speaks at a joint press conference during his visit to Asia.

The lawmakers also take issue with the organization's failure to remove the WHO director general, who they argue ti responsible for China's cover up of COVID-19 origins.

"Reportedly aimed at targeting Chinas manipulation and obstruction of WHO throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, these amendments in fact empower the same individual most responsible for enabling that nations malfeasance: WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus," they write in the letter obtained first by Fox News Digital.

"We call on you to instead use the 75th World Health Assembly as an opportunity to demand a radical course correction and change in leadership."

DAINES, COTTON CALL ON BIDEN TO WITHDRAW US FROM WHO DUE TO 'ABYSMAL LACK OF COMPETENCE' DURING COVID-19

They conclude: "Under no circumstances should you cede our governments operational control in a public health emergency to an international body. In the event any agreement is reached on a "global pandemic treaty," we expect you to fully comply with Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which clearly states that the President shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur."

UNITED STATES - DECEMBER 11: Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., makes an opening statement during the House Judiciary Committee markup of the articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump in Longworth Building on Wednesday, December 11, 2019. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) (Tom Williams)

The House Republicans' letter comes the week after Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., called on Biden to remove the U.S. from the WHO over the agency's "abysmal lack of competence" throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

The senators also took issue with the Biden administration's plan to support amendments to the IHRs from Jan. 18, which they say would increase the WHO's power at the expense of the U.S. and its allies.

A source within the White House told Fox News Digital that the administration "believes in science."

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., speaks during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the nomination of Xavier Becerra to be Secretary of Health and Human Services on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021. (Michael Reynolds/Pool via AP) (Michael Reynolds/Pool via AP)

"The WHO is an important body to coordinate global health activities and provide evidence-based guidance on the worlds health crisis. Would also note that the United States is in a stronger, more effective position to advance WHO reforms that would create global health equity while also protecting the homeland if we have a seat at the table," the Biden administration source said.

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The WHO has come under fire from members of Congress over the last two years. Lawmakers have called the organization a "puppet" for the Chinese Communist Party and have accused WHO of working to conceal COVID-19 origins.

Last month, House Republicans dug in on their investigation of COVID-19 origins with a new round of letters seeking transparency and accountability from the Biden administration and scientists. Republicans call on Biden to push aggressive reforms to correct the World Health Organization's 'corruption'

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Republicans call on Biden to push aggressive reforms to correct the World Health Organization's 'corruption' - Fox News

Massachusetts Republicans held their state party convention on Saturday as they wrestle with how far to the right they should move in a deeply blue state.

Members of the state GOP gathered in Springfield ahead of this autumn's elections to hear from candidates and party leaders as they hope to rebuild a bloc that's lost nearly all of the levers of political power in the state.

The top job for Republicans is hanging on to the governors office.

Gov. Charlie Baker, who has remained popular with voters throughout his two terms in the corner office, has decided not to seek a third, four-year term. Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito are the only statewide Republican officeholders in Massachusetts.

Neither planned to attend Saturday's convention, reflecting a rift between them and former state Rep. James Lyons, the state's GOP chairman, a stalwart supporter of former President Donald Trump.

Former GOP state representative Geoff Diehl and Wrentham business owner Chris Doughty are both vying for the chance to succeed Baker. The first hurdle both candidates faced at Saturdays convention was gathering the support of at least 15% of delegates a threshold needed to make sure their name appears on the Sept. 6 primary ballot.

Diehl won the support of 71% of the delegates, while Doughty came away with 29%.

Diehl has the backing of Trump, who endorsed his candidacy in October, calling him strong on crime, election integrity, the southern border and taking care of veterans.

Diehl was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in 2018 and lost to Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren. He also served as co-chair for Trumps Massachusetts 2016 presidential campaign.

Doughty has touted his success at creating jobs as the president of a company that manufactures metal machine parts.

Hes said he wants to protect businesses, recruit high-paying jobs to the state, make Massachusetts an educational leader from early education through college and trade schools, and make the state more affordable.

Following a Republican tradition in Massachusetts politics, both candidates have named their preferred running mate although candidates for lieutenant governor and governor run separately in the primary and only as a ticket in the Nov. 8 general election.

Diehl is teaming up with former Republican State Rep. Leah Allen Cole while Doughty is hoping for a ticket with former state Rep. Kate Campanale.

Shiva Ayyadurai, who in 2020 lost a Republican primary bid for the U.S. Senate, has also said hes running for governor.

Whoever wins will face the winner of the Democratic primary for governor, a race that includes Attorney General Maura Healey and state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz.

There is little Republican primary drama in other statewide races.

Rayla Campbell, a Randolph resident and Republican who has worked in insurance and claims management, is running for secretary of state. Republican Jay McMahon, a trial attorney and lifelong Cape Cod resident, is running for attorney general, a job he ran for and lost in 2018 to Healey.

Anthony Amore, the head of security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, is running for state auditor. Amore ran for secretary of state in 2018 and lost.

Originally posted here:
Mass. Republicans gather for convention and decide guv hopefuls Diehl, Doughty will make ballot - WBUR News