This year, numerous races across the U.S. for Secretary of State pitted Democrats against far-right candidates who denied the results of the 2020 election. In the aftermath of this month’s election, it seems that Democrats have overwhelmingly defeated their conspiracist opponents.
The America First Secretary of State Coalition is a national slate of GOP candidates who promoted conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Most but not all of the candidates in the coalition were running for secretary of state, a position that takes charge of record-keeping and state elections. Each candidate’s campaign had fixing America’s broken election system as a key issue, and many of them planned to usher in sweeping restrictions on voting rights, supposedly to prevent election fraud which was never substantiated.
In Colorado, the coalition endorsed Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who has since been indicted on multiple felonies, would later lose her primary election to fellow Republican Pam Anderson.
READ MORE: Fraud Squad: Tina Peters Joins Conspiracist Secretary of State Candidates at Florida Conference
Of the seven coalition candidates who were on the ballot in this month’s general election, six of them were defeated on Election Day or in the following week as ballots were tallied.
The group has received support from many leading election deniers, including MyPillow CEO and Trump ally Mike Lindell, who claims to have spent $35 million of his own money attempting to prove that the 2020 election was stolen.
Asked to comment on extreme Secretary of State candidates’ broad losses, Lindell said via text, “They [the elections] were all stolen and we have all the evidence! So awesome they are caught! We have to get rid of the machines!”
Lindell claimed to have large amounts of evidence to support his claims, which either has already been released via his platform Frankspeech or will be in the near future.
“More coming all week ..! Most of it will go to the courts of course!” Lindell told the Colorado Times Recorder on Monday.
Here are the results of all the races in which the America First Secretary of State Coalition endorsed a candidate:
Jim Marchant (R-NV): Lost the Nevada Secretary of State race to Democrat Francisco Aguilar.
State Rep. Mark Finchem (R-AZ): Lost the Arizona Secretary of State race to Democrat Adrian Fontes.
Kristina Karamo (R-MI): Lost the Michigan Secretary of State race to incumbent Democrat Jocelyn Benson.
Audrey Trujillo (R-NM): Lost the New Mexico Secretary of State race to incumbent Democrat Toulouse Oliver.
State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-PA): Lost the Pennsylvania Gubernatorial race to Democrat Josh Shapiro.
Kari Lake (R-AZ): Lost the Arizona Gubernatorial race to Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Diego Morales (R-IN): Won the Indiana Secretary of State race, defeating Democrat Destiny Wells.
The America First Secretary of State Coalition endorsed several other candidates, all of whom were defeated in their primary elections. That list includes Rachel Hamm (R-CA), U.S. Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA), State Rep. Dorothy Moon (R-ID), Keith Blandford (R-SC), Mike Brown (R-KS), Robert Borer (R-NE), Jim Zeigler (R-AL), Jay Schroeder (R-WI). Dante Sabatucci, who was endorsed by the coalition despite running for Ohio’s 13th Congressional District, also lost his primary.
Some have attributed Democrats’ unexpected victories in this election to widespread youth voter turnout. NPR reports that 27% of voters aged 18-29 cast a ballot this year – the second highest turnout in that age group for a midterm in the past three decades, with the highest being in 2018. Additionally, turnout for young voters was higher in battleground states, such as Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.
Erik Maulbetsch contributed to this story.