Many local Republicans either back Donald Trump’s attacks on democracy or are giving them a wink and a nod in the 2022 midterms

The Big Lie by Don­ald Trump — his claim that the 2020 elec­tion was “stolen” — has become a lit­mus test for much of the Repub­li­can Par­ty, so much so that more than half of vot­ers in the 2022 midterm elec­tion will see a denier on their ballots.

Even more numer­ous, espe­cial­ly in the Pacif­ic North­west, are Repub­li­cans who have done a duck dive on Trump’s attack on democ­ra­cy or voiced “reser­va­tions” in such a way as to appease the MAGA cult and avoid Trump’s wrath.

They do not present pro­files in pub­lic courage.

Alek Skar­latos was one of three brave Amer­i­can tourists who tack­led and dis­armed an armed ter­ror­ist attack­er in 2015 on a Paris bound train. The trio were hon­ored at the Ely­see Palace with France’s Legion of Hon­or. Now, Skar­latos is run­ning for Con­gress in Oregon’s 4th Dis­trict.  When asked whether he believes the 2020 elec­tion was stolen, Skar­latos respond­ed: “No comment.”

In Wash­ing­ton, U.S. Sen­ate can­di­date Tiffany Smi­ley tried to strad­dle the issue. Until recent­ly, con­sul­tant-craft­ed prose on her web site read: “The 2020 elec­tions raised seri­ous ques­tions about the integri­ty of our elec­tions. I believe that courts have an oblig­a­tion to give all evi­dence of vot­er fraud a fair hearing.”

The web site was recent­ly scrubbed of these words, sup­pos­ed­ly to make room for post­ing Smiley’s plat­form in greater detail.

The squirm­ing hasn’t stopped.

“Tiffany’s posi­tion has always been that Joe Biden is our duly elect­ed pres­i­dent,” a cam­paign rep­re­sen­ta­tive told Axios.

Yet, in a week­end CNN appear­ance, Smi­ley did a dodge when asked by host Dana Bash if Biden won “fair­ly” and “legit­i­mate­ly.”

The North­west has deniers on the bal­lot, most notably U.S. House can­di­date Sarah Palin in Alas­ka and Joe Kent in Wash­ing­ton’s 3rd Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, who has charged with­out evi­dence that there was “ram­pant vot­er fraud” in 2020.

Kemp appeared at a Wash­ing­ton, D.C., ral­ly protest­ing “per­se­cu­tion” of those who stormed the U.S. Capi­tol last year.

Elim­i­nat­ed in Washington’s August Top Two elec­tion was Loren Culp, the Trump endorsed chal­lenger to Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dan New­house, R‑WA-04. Culp, pre­vi­ous­ly the Repub­li­cans’ nom­i­nee for Gov­er­nor in 2020, has refused to con­cede a race that he lost to Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee by a half-mil­lion votes.

Two Repub­li­can gov­er­nors, Alas­ka Gov­er­nor Mike Dun­leavy and Ida­ho Gov­er­nor Brad Lit­tle, joined the 2020 Texas law­suit which sought to over­turn Biden’s vic­to­ry in four bat­tle­ground states. The suit was thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court.  Curi­ous­ly, Trump opposed Lit­tle in this year’s Repub­li­can primary.

Dun­leavy kow­towed to the for­mer pres­i­dent. Trump made his endorse­ment of the Alas­ka gov­er­nor con­tin­gent that Dun­leavy not sup­port­ing Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Lisa Murkows­ki, who is seek­ing a new term. Dun­leavy agreed to keep quiet.

Murkows­ki is fac­ing Trump-backed Repub­li­can chal­lenger Kel­ly Tshiba­ka in Novem­ber. (Under ranked choice vot­ing, the top four fin­ish­ers in the August 16th pre­lim­i­nary round made the gen­er­al elec­tion ballot.)

Tshiba­ka has giv­en a wink and a nod to Trump’s attack on democ­ra­cy, say­ing: “We don’t know the out­come of the 2020 election.”

Murkows­ki ful­ly accepts Biden’s vic­to­ry, as does Sen­a­tor Mike Crapo, R‑Idaho. Oregon’s Repub­li­can guber­na­to­r­i­al can­di­date Chris­tine Drazan told FiveThir­tyEight this week that Biden won. So did Kim Schri­er’s remain­ing Repub­li­can chal­lenger, Matt Larkin, in an email to FiveThirtyEight.

As men­tioned, one of the ten Repub­li­can House mem­bers who vot­ed to impeach Trump after the Jan­u­ary 6th insur­rec­tion, Dan New­house, sur­vived elim­i­na­tion and accepts Biden’s win. But New­house has bom­bard­ed his Twit­ter fol­low­ers with Repub­li­can talk­ing points to show that he is a loy­al soldier.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers, R‑Washington, announced on Jan­u­ary 5th, 2021 that she would sup­port objec­tions to the Elec­toral Col­lege vote count “in states where there have been alle­ga­tions of vot­er fraud.” She back­tracked after thou­sands of Trump sup­port­ers stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher, R‑Idaho, fol­low­ing in Trump’s foot­steps, start­ed ques­tion­ing the 2020 elec­tion even before votes were cast and counted.

He went on Fox & Friends the fate­ful morn­ing of Jan­u­ary 6th, 2021, to say that “tens of mil­lions of peo­ple who want to see action” on elec­toral votes, warn­ing of “a real prob­lem on our hands if we don’t act here.”

Trump’s attacks on our democ­ra­cy notwith­stand­ing, the Repub­li­cans’ biggest most mil­i­tant, extreme voice on a North­west gen­er­al elec­tion bal­lot has to be Ore­gon Sen­ate nom­i­nee Jo Rae Perkins. She is a long­time fan of the QAnon con­spir­a­cy cult, even email­ing a mes­sage: “I stand with Q and the team.” It was hasti­ly tak­en down by her con­sul­tant. Jo Rae Perkins is off, but running.