Dozens of Republican Virginia Legislature nominees spread false election fraud claims

At least 25 Republican nominees running for the Virginia General Assembly this year have spread election fraud conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, according to new research by the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.

Voting is already underway in the elections to select all 100 members of the Virginia House of Delegates and all 40 Virginia senators.

With a narrow majority in the House, Republicans have spent the past two years trying to ban ballot drop boxes, reduce opportunities for early voting, eliminate the option for voters to automatically receive a mail-in ballot, and purge the voter rolls. Democrats have used their slim majority in the Senate to block all of those bills.

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin is leading a multimillion-dollar campaign, bankrolled extensively by out-of-state billionaire Republican megadonors, in hopes of winning full control of the Legislature.

But many of the candidates Youngkin’s party nominated are election deniers, with some even questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential result in Virginia. President Joe Biden defeated then-President Donald Trump in the commonwealth by more than 10 points, 54.4%-44.2%.

Three of the candidates traveled to Washington, D.C., for the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the rioting by supporters of President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Jim Wright, the Republican challenger to House Democratic Leader Don Scott in the solidly Democratic 88th District, wrote on Facebook two days after the Capitol insurrection: “I went to DC Rally and what an event. I’ve never seen a million people or whatever it was, but it was huge. I was very close to the Capitol when Antifa got in the Capitol.” Republican claims that “antifa,” a term used to refer broadly to anti-white supremacy militant groups, was responsible for the Jan. 6 attacks have been widely debunked.

Philip Andrew Hamilton, the Republican challenger to Democratic incumbent Creigh Deeds in the blue 11th Senate District, posted videos of himself at the Jan. 6 rally at the U.S. Capitol. “We’re here to preserve our nation, the integrity of our Electoral College, of the electoral system,” he said in one video. “This is not just about Donald J. Trump. This is about preserving the voting institutions that we have here and to make sure that voting machines cannot be compromised for future generations of voters in America.”

Republican Del. John McGuire acknowledged in July 2021 that he had attended the rally, according to the Washington Post, but claimed he had not entered the Capitol. He suggested that the 2020 election’s integrity was in question because “Republicans were leading everywhere, and then all of sudden, [Democrats] were way ahead.” He is running unopposed for the solidly Republican 10th Senate District seat.

Others encouraged election denial in other ways.

In a Nov. 12, 2020, Facebook post, Geary Higgins, the GOP nominee in the Republican-leaning 30th House of Delegates District, urged people to attend a rally aimed at overturning the election results: “Now is the time to STAND for FREEDOM and against the stealing of the election. Hope to see you on the 15th at this rally. Fun, Food trucks, barrel train (for the kids), all stuff patriotic.” In a January 2023 statement, the Loudoun County Democratic Committee condemned Higgins for headlining an earlier “Stop the Steal” rally on Nov. 8, 2020, alongside Oath Keepers militia founder Stewart Rhodes. Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the Capitol insurrection.

In the competitive 97th House of Delegates District, incumbent Republican Del. Karen Greenhalgh claimed at a Tea Party rally in January 2021: “I fought for election integrity last year and we’re going to have it in 2021, because in Virginia Beach we really don’t know what happened because we didn’t have people on the inside watching.”

In December 2020, Paul Milde, now running in the red-leaning 64th House of Delegates District, tweeted at U.S. Senate Republicans, “Senators, Stand Your Ground and object to the fraudulent ‘results’ of the 2020 election!”

Republican Danny Diggs, challenging Democratic incumbent Sen. Monty Mason in the competitive 24th Senate District, released a campaign video featuring Newport News mom Heather Clements accusing Mason of being “soft on crime.” Facebook videos posted by Clements’ husband and her own comments on Jan. 6, 2021, show they too attended the “Stop the Steal” rally. Clements wrote that the event was “to protest because dems cheated” and said, “I want to go down with a fight.”

According to the DLCC’s research, every incumbent Republican legislator on the ballot in the election ending Nov. 7 and a large portion of new Republican candidates have backed legislation that would make it harder for Virginia citizens to vote.

Heather Williams, president of DLCC, told the American Independent Foundation in an email:

The research is clear: Of the 51 Virginia Republican candidates who are current members of the legislature, every single one has supported measures that would make it harder for Virginians to vote. Of the Republican candidates who are not current members of the legislature, over 50% are already on the record with anti-democracy positions. Moreover, three Virginia Republicans tried to overthrow our democracy by attending the January 6th ‘stop the steal’ rally in DC, and several more, including Del. Karen Greenhalgh, still refuse to accept the results of the 2020 Presidential election. Our democracy is on the line in these legislative elections. The stakes could not be higher. To defend our fundamental freedoms and ensure that Virginians always have their ballots count, we must vote for Democrats at higher rates than ever before. Defending our democracy starts in Virginia.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.