Losing Republican: My opponent is trying to 'steal' my seat by winning

Rather than accept the will of voters, a couple of California Republicans are telling nefarious lies in an anti-democratic effort to undermine the integrity of the election.

Without citing any evidence, Rep. Mimi Walters (R-CA) wrote, “Democrats are already preparing for a recount to try and steal this Republican seat after the fact” in a fundraising email to her supporters, according to Business Insider.

Walters, a staunch Trump supporter, has seen her election night lead of 6,200 votes disappear, and is currently trailing UC Irvine professor Katie Porter by 261 votes.

Her fellow California Republican Young Kim, running for the seat abandoned by Rep. Ed Royce, joined the chorus of baseless allegations. Kim accused the campaign of her Democratic opponent, Navy veteran Gil Cisneros, of “harassing and intimidating vote counters in Orange County” in order to “change the results.” Kim has seen her substantial election night lead dwindle to barely 700 votes over Cisneros.

However, there is no evidence whatsoever to back up Kim’s claims. The L.A. County Registrar (the district straddles both L.A. County and Orange County) rebutted claims of any malfeasance, saying, “We have not addressed anything related to ballot tampering or physical tampering with ballots. Our process is transparent and secured.”

The dangerous language of Walters and Kim — insinuating that counting all the ballots somehow amounts to “theft” — runs counter to the most basic principle in a democracy: that all votes be counted.

Walters and Kim join Republicans in Arizona, Georgia, and Florida in embracing an anti-democratic agenda of suppressing and disenfranchising voters.

While Walters and Kim face the prospect of losing by lashing out with wild false claims, their chances of winning diminish more each passing day. As the L.A. Times explains, it’s completely expected for late votes to trend toward Democrats.

The Times reported the results are “not due to fraud or nefarious activity, as some partisans allege, but the fact that older, more conservative voters tend to vote early and younger, more left-leaning voters cast their ballots closer to election day, meaning they are tabulated later.”

Election expert Dave Wasserman recently said he was “convinced it would take a miracle” for Republicans to win either of these two races.

But rather than pray for a miracle, Walters and Kim would rather spout unfounded allegations to thwart the democratic process of counting all the votes play out.

As votes continue to be counted in California, one fact is abundantly clear: “The California GOP delegation has been absolutely decimated,” Politico wrote.

Democrats have already flipped four seats from red to blue, including victories over Russia-friendly Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and Trump lackey Rep. Steve Knight. If Democrats win the two seats mentioned earlier, California’s Republican delegation would shrink from 14 members to just eight.

On top of their loses at the federal level, Republicans could not even muster a candidate to compete for California’s U.S. Senate seat, which saw incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein defeat fellow Democrat Kevin de Leon.

On the state level, Republicans lost all major statewide races, and Democrats regained a veto-proof supermajority in both the state Assembly and state Senate.

“The California Republican Party isn’t salvageable at this time,” writes former Republican Assembly leader Kristin Olsen. “The Grand Old Party is dead — partly because it has failed to separate itself from today’s toxic, national brand of Republican politics.”

In their political death throes, both Walters and Kim are using their final moments to cling to Trump-inspired lies, unable or unwilling to separate themselves from his toxic politic.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.