Trump endorses GOP primary challenger who wants to 'audit' Michigan's Black voters

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday endorsed Michigan state Rep. Steve Carra, who is challenging Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) in the Republican primary for Michigan’s 6th Congressional District.

“He voted for Impeachment of the President of the United States on rigged up charges. He doesn’t deserve to keep his seat,” Trump wrote, adding, “Steve Carra has my Complete and Total Endorsement!”

In the 2020 election, Upton won his race by just over 15 percentage points even as the seat was rated “Lean GOP” by Politico.

Carra joins a small group of candidates that Trump has endorsed in primary challenges to the few Republican members of Congress who voted to impeach him for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. These include Joe Kent, running against Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler in Washington, and Max Miller, running against Ohio Rep. Anthony Gonzalez.

Echoing Trump, who has falsely claimed that he lost the election to President Joe Biden due to electoral fraud, Carra recently introduced legislation calling for a “forensic audit” of Michigan’s 2020 election results. If enacted, Carra’s legislation would disproportionately scrutinize Black voters in his state.

The bill calls for auditors to examine 20% of voting precincts in cities that have “at least 500,000 residents.” The only city in Michigan with that number of residents is Detroit, where the population is over 670,000. According to the most recent U.S. Census data, 78.3% of the population of Detroit is Black.

Detroit has also historically overwhelmingly voted for Democratic candidates and was a key source of votes for President Biden, who won the most votes in the city in 2020 after Trump did in 2016. In Wayne County, where Detroit is located, Biden won 68.5% of the vote in 2020, while Trump received 30.3% of the ballots cast.

Carra’s proposal also incorporates other 2020 election conspiracy theories, as it calls for an audit to investigate whether electronic polling books are “connected to a network” and analysis of whether votes were cast by machines or human beings.

A statewide audit of the 2020 election has already been conducted by Michigan’s secretary of state, who reported in February that the process found that the state’s vote-counting machines were accurate and that Biden had won.

In addition to his audit proposal, Carra was one of several Michigan lawmakers who sent a letter calling on then-Vice President Mike Pence to delay certification of the election results in January, a power Pence did not have. Carra touted the letter while speaking at a rally held in Michigan’s Capitol in Lansing on Jan. 6 alongside protesters carrying “Stop the Steal” signs.

In April, Carra proposed legislation that would disavow Trump’s January 2021 impeachment. Carra has also refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine, falsely claiming there are “other remedies” for the virus.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.