Of the 19 GOP candidates polled by the Washington Post, a dozen declined to answer or declined to commit. Democrats overwhelmingly said they would respect the results.
September 18, 2022 at 11:59 am EDT Attendees wait for Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels at a primary election night event on August 9, 2022 in Waukesha. Michels did not respond when asked by the Washington Post if he would accept the results of his contest. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post) A dozen Republican candidates in competitive gubernatorial and Senate races declined to say whether they would accept the results of their contests, raising the prospect of fresh post-election chaos two years after Donald Trump refused to cede the presidency. In a Washington Post survey of 19 of the most closely watched statewide races in the country, the contrast between the Republican and Democratic candidates was stark. While seven GOP candidates pledged to accept the results in their contests, 12 either refused to commit or declined to respond. On the democratic side, 17 said they would accept the result and two did not respond to The Post’s survey. The reluctance of many GOP candidates to embrace a longstanding tenet of American democracy shows how Trump’s assault on the integrity of American elections has spread far beyond the 2020 presidential race. This year, many losing candidates could they refuse to accept their defeats. Trump, who continues to claim without evidence that his 2020 loss to Joe Biden was rigged, has attacked other Republicans who disagree — making electoral denial the price of acceptance in many GOP primaries. More than half of Republican candidates for federal and state offices with election management powers have embraced unproven claims that fraud marked Biden’s victory, according to a Washington Post count. Acceptance of an election result—win or lose—was once a virtual certainty in American politics, though there have been exceptions. In 2018, Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams cited voter suppression as reason for refusing to concede defeat to Republican challenger Brian Kemp. But unlike Trump, Abrams never sought to overturn the certified result or incite an insurgency. In competitive gubernatorial or Senate races in Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas, GOP candidates declined to say they would accept this year’s outcome. All but two — incumbent Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Marco Rubio of Florida — have publicly embraced Trump’s false claims for 2020, according to a Post analysis. The Post asked candidates whether they would “accept the result” of their contest this year and what circumstances might force them not to. Several took the opportunity of The Post’s investigation to raise further doubts about the integrity of US elections. Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon responded to a question about whether she would be willing to accept the outcome in November’s race, renewing her baseless attacks on the Democratic secretary of state for his handling of the last election. “In 2020, Jocelyn Benson knowingly and willfully violated the laws designed to secure our elections, which is directly related to people’s lack of faith in the integrity of our process,” said Sara Broadwater, Dixon’s spokeswoman. who is challenging Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. (D) and has repeatedly said the 2020 election was stolen. No evidence has emerged that Benson, Michigan’s secretary of state, broke any laws in 2020. Dixon’s campaign added that if authorities “follow the letter of the law” this year, then “we can all have reasonable faith in the process.” She did not say whether she would accept the results. Whitmer, for her part, responded to The Post’s investigation by vowing to accept the result and accusing her opponents of “trying to weaken our democracy, undermine trust in American institutions and silence the voice of Michiganders.” The question of whether elections can be trusted has been central to campaigns by both parties this season, although the substance of their messages has been marked by sharp contrast. Many Republicans have enlisted the support of voters — and Trump — by repeating his false claims about a stolen election. Democrats have warned that such claims put democracy at risk. Candidates willing to deny the results of a legitimate election, they argue, cannot be trusted to oversee future votes. Biden, in a speech earlier this month lashing out at “MAGA Republicans” for refusing to accept the 2020 outcome, said: “Democracy cannot survive when one side believes there are only two outcomes in elections: they either win or are cheated. “ Election results under attack: Here are the facts In nonpartisan circles, too, democracy advocates and election law scholars agree that growing mistrust of US elections poses a serious threat to the nation. “Belief in electoral integrity is a huge part of what makes democracy work,” said Paige Alexander, who heads the Atlanta-based Carter Center, a nonpartisan group founded by former President Jimmy Carter that promotes freedom and human rights around the world. The organization has been monitoring elections in foreign countries for many years, often asking candidates to sign pledges that they will accept the certified result of a free and fair contest. With the proliferation of false claims about the 2020 election, Alexander said, the center’s leadership agreed it was time to circulate a similar pledge among candidates in the United States. The center is focusing on five battleground states this year — Arizona, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Michigan — but its pledge welcomes any candidate, former elected official or organization to sign on. “When the integrity of American elections began to be challenged through lawsuits, through the media, through misinformation, we realized that one way to rally all the candidates and people who really respect the electoral process was around these principles,” he said. He said the center has just begun sending out the pledge to candidates, receiving pledges so far from Georgia’s Republican and Democratic candidates for governor and secretary of state. Dixon was the only candidate to respond to the survey with an explanation why she would not necessarily commit to accepting the result. The campaign of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) responded that he would have nothing to say. Ten other Republicans did not respond to the survey despite repeated inquiries. And seven pledged to accept the results, including Colorado Senate challenger Joe O’Dea. O’Dea, who is trailing in the polls as he tries to unseat Colorado incumbent Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D), did not refer to Trump by name, but used his response to be particularly vocal in his criticism of candidates who refuse to concede when they lose. “There’s no kind way to put it. We have become a nation of poor sports and cry babies,” O’Dea said. “We will be watching things closely, but once the process is complete and the votes are counted, I will absolutely accept the result. If the Senator wants, we can certify it with a beer. It’s time for America’s leaders to start acting like adults again. The loser buys.” Bennet also responded to The Post’s inquiry, pledging to accept the results of a certified election. Others who questioned the 2020 result told The Post they would still accept the result at their own races this year. “Ohio is blessed to have a fantastic Secretary of State who has made election security a top priority – we have no doubt that Ohio’s 2022 election will be conducted with integrity,” a spokesman for the Ohio Senate contender wrote in an email. JD Vance. “JD encourages other states across the country to follow Ohio’s lead by implementing common sense measures like voter ID and signature verification.” A spokeswoman for Abrams, who is challenging Kemp again this year, said she “will recognize the winner of the 2022 election” and noted that she has “never done that” — a reference to Abrams’ refusal to concede when Kemp defeated her in 2018. Republicans have accused Abrams of denying the election, like Trump and his supporters, but the candidate rejected that comparison, given Trump’s fanciful claims of fraud and the violence that followed. “I never denied that I lost,” Abrams said in a recent appearance on ABC’s “The View.” “I don’t live in the governor’s mansion. I would have noticed.” When Abrams ended her campaign in 2018, she acknowledged that Kemp had secured enough votes to claim victory, but never conceded that and argued that voter suppression had played a role in denying her the victory. He said in a 2018 appearance on “The View” that he “absolutely” stood by that decision because “the election wasn’t fair.” Exactly what would happen if many candidates refuse to accept defeat after Nov. 8 is unclear — and depends on the state. Certainly a flurry of disputes, like in 2020, would be possible. However, in the absence of hard evidence of wrongdoing, such legal efforts are likely to suffer the same fate as the dozens of lawsuits filed two years ago, which went nowhere. In many of the battleground states, election officials who have not bought into Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud still have the power to certify election results — or the power to ask a judge to order a state or local electoral commission to do so. Elsewhere, the potential for chaos is hard to predict because suffragettes now hold positions such as county clerk or election board member. If Dixon contested the outcome in Michigan, for example, it’s possible the Board of State Canvassers, a group of four…
