So Trump is already trying to rig the election

Wolfgang Hansson 

 

This is how Trump is trying to rig the next presidential election 

 

Published: Today 18.18 

 

This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's. 

 

COLUMNISTS 

 

Donald Trump is using the congressional elections to try to rig the 2024 presidential election. 

 

By supporting Republicans who deny Biden's election victory, he is trying to get loyalists into key positions where they can refuse to accept an election loss for Trump and thus pave the way for his return to the White House. 

 

Undoubtedly, President Biden's recent address to the nation warning that democracy is at stake in the midterm elections can be seen as a partisan post in which he tries to help the Democratic Party candidates and his own chances of retaining power. 

 

But there is also a reality behind his words that goes far beyond partisan considerations. 

 

In the mid-term elections on Tuesday, not only senators and congressmen are elected, but also a number of important local posts in the states. 

 

Both as governor, the state's highest leader, and secretary of state, a person who oversees the election process and certifies the election results in, among other things, presidential elections. 

 

Many people probably remember Brad Raffensperger, the election manager in Ohio whom Trump, in a now infamous phone call, urged to find enough votes for the president to win the state. Despite being a Republican, Raffensperger refused to cheat. The president was furious. 

 

Trump wants to remove Republicans (and Democrats) who do their jobs and replace them with people who are loyal to him rather than to their social mission. 

 

Donald Trump gives his support only to candidates who accept and push his lie that Biden actually lost the 2020 presidential election and that Trump won. He does it by donating money, making election speeches in these states and voicing support for those he likes. 

 

A number of these candidates have a good chance of being elected to these important posts. 

able to emerge victorious from the battle in 2024 even if he does not win. It may be enough for a number of governors and secretaries of state in swing states to refuse to certify the correct results for Trump to win.

Trump's strategy 

 

All legal bodies in the United States have ruled that there was no fraud in the 2020 election. Even a number of Trump's former ministers and leading Republicans admit that the election was fair. 

 

That Trump still continues to pursue his cheating conspiracy with the tenacity of a fool is part of a larger strategy that should enable a comeback. 

 

By getting Trump loyalists into key posts ahead of the next presidential election, the real estate billionaire hopes to emerge victorious from the battle in 2024 even if he doesn't win.

 

It may be enough for a number of governors and secretaries of state in swing states to refuse to certify the correct results for Trump to win.  

 

In both 2016 and 2020, Trump and Biden respectively won by relatively small margins in a few key states that decided. 

 

Trump-loyal candidates who deny Biden's election victory are running in a number of states across the country. But it is only in a few so-called battleground states that they can have a decisive influence. In most states, the winner is a foregone conclusion and the margin is so large that arguments never arise. It is in the states where it is likely that the Trump candidates can become the tip of the scales. Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Minnesota are such states. 

 

Mark Finchem is running for secretary of state in Arizona Photo: Matt York / AP 

 

In Arizona, Mark Finchem was one of those leading the effort to try to invalidate Biden's victory. Even when Trump loyalists recounted the votes, they concluded that Biden won. Yet Finchem continues to spread the lie. 

 

Now he is the Republican candidate for secretary of state. In interviews, he has declared that he will refuse to admit defeat if he loses.

 

Kari Lake is running for governor in Arizona. Here she is seen together with Trump at a campaign meeting. Photo: Matt York/AP 

 

Election lie 

 

Kari Lake is the party's candidate for governor in the same state and former news anchor on the Fox News television channel. She too is pushing Trump's election lie and has also not promised to recognize the election results if she loses. 

 

Just as Trump did before the 2020 presidential election, Lake and the other Trump-loyal candidates are already questioning in advance whether the election will be conducted properly. 

 

In total, there are over 300 Republican candidates who deny Biden's victory who have the chance to be elected to important positions in the midterm elections. 

 

Of those running for secretary of state, 11 out of 27 Republican candidates embrace Trump's lie, according to a CNN tally. 22 of the 36 running for governor are doing the same, and 19 of 35 Republicans running for senator. 

 

The outcome could be decisive for how things go in the 2024 presidential election, but also for Donald Trump's decision as to whether or not he will run for re-election. If he gets many loyalists in place in important positions, he sees his chances of victory grow, which in turn increases the possibility that he decides to make another attempt to reach the White House.  

 

President Biden is absolutely right when he claims that the future of American democracy is at stake.