In swing state after swing state, fervent deniers of the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election have lost their 2022 races.
The midterms have certainly not been a total failure for 2020 deniers. CNN projects that four Republican candidates who rejected, questioned or tried to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory will be elected as state elections chief, all of them in Republican-dominated states. At least 18 such candidates will be elected as governor or senator, CNN projects, most of them incumbents.
But many of the candidates who were most aggressively dishonest about the 2020 election will lose, CNN projects — notably several candidates who ran for posts with critical powers over elections in states expected to be competitive in the 2024 presidential campaign. The defeated candidates, CNN projects, will include gubernatorial nominees Doug Mastriano of Pennsylvania and Tudor Dixon of Michigan, secretary of state nominees Mark Finchem of Arizona, Jim Marchant of Nevada and Kristina Karamo of Michigan, and US Senate nominee Adam Laxalt of Nevada.
Secretary of state: CNN counted 12 Republican nominees for state elections chief who rejected, questioned or tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election. CNN has projected four of those candidates as winners (all in Republican-dominated states) and eight as losers (including in Michigan, Arizona and Nevada). This means that no state expected to be a presidential battleground state in 2024 will have a 2020 denier as its elections chief.
Governor: CNN counted 22 Republican nominees for governor who rejected, questioned, tried to overturn or refused to affirm the 2020 election results. CNN has projected eight of those candidates as winners and 12 as losers (among them far-right election conspiracy theorist Doug Mastriano of Pennsylvania, who would have gained the power to appoint the state’s election chief). Two are in races too early to call, including forceful election denier Kari Lake in Arizona.
Senate: CNN counted 19 Republican nominees for the US Senate who rejected, questioned, tried to overturn or refused to affirm the 2020 results. (Senators have less power over elections than secretaries of state or governors do, but they do get a vote on certifying the Electoral College results in presidential elections and on federal elections legislation.) CNN has projected 10 of those candidates as winners and eight as losers. One is in a race too early to call.
You can read about the projected winners and losers in the interactive below. CNN will update this article as more information becomes available.
Click or tap on one of the candidates below for more details.
