Republican David Perdue has made election fraud the centerpiece of his run for Georgia governor. But if he hopes to win in this year’s midterm elections, his supporters will have to use the same democratic system he says they shouldn’t trust.
The only way to win a rigged election, he says, is to turn out in such high numbers that the Democrats can’t get away with cheating.
“If we get out the vote, if everybody votes, we will win,” Perdue told his audience at a campaign speech last month.
Across the nation, Republicans who have embraced discredited conspiracy theories about the 2020 election are attempting a similar high-wire act: campaigning for votes by preaching skepticism about elections.
For GOP contenders, it’s a tricky calculus. If they continue spreading former President Donald Trump’s lies that the election was stolen, they risk undermining faith in democracy and having their supporters stay at home. But those who reject Trump’s false claims face the wrath of the former president and his supporters, who wield sizable influence in many GOP primaries.
