Election Deniers Sweep Local Races Across Battleground States

Although votes are still being tallied in some states, a clear picture has emerged in the wake of the 2024 election: Republicans won big in the presidential and federal elections. 

But what of the downballot state and local races? Prior to the election, a Democracy Docket investigation exposed hundreds of election deniers on the ballot in seven key states — Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. All of the candidates identified in the investigation were incumbents serving local office in positions like elections commissioners, municipal clerks, board of commissioners members and state lawmakers. Democracy Docket is still tracking the results of all the races where election deniers were on the ballot, but it appears that a majority of them will be holding on to their positions. 

Of the 230 races with election deniers on the ballot, Contest Every Race — a project by the progressive, anti-fascist incubator and consulting firm Movement Labs — recruited 42 candidates in six battleground states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) to run for office. The effort was to “ensure every MAGA extremist faces a challenger in November, and to boost Democratic vote share in rural communities,” according to an emailed statement. 

In a follow-up email after the election, a spokesperson with Contest Every Race confirmed to Democracy Docket that nearly all of their 42 endorsed candidates lost, or were projected to lose their election. The one election that’s still too close to call is in Arizona, where John McLean, the Democratic candidate for the state Senate in District 17, is trailing by just a few hundred votes. Arizona’s 17th legislative district includes parts of Pinal County and Pima County. As of Sunday, there are still tens of thousands of votes left to count in the race, according to the Tuscon Sentinel.  

For many of the candidates recruited and endorsed by Contest Every Race, their election was always going to be an extremely uphill battle. But that was the point of the effort: even in deep red districts, voters deserve to have a choice on the ballot. When Cameron Schroy — a career civics teacher in Pennsylvania who ran for state Senate against notorious election denier Doug Mastriano — spoke with Democracy Docket in September, he knew his race was a long shot. But he nonetheless decided to run to show voters in his community that true democracy means that they have a choice on the ballot.

“Locally, at least, we see a lot of apathy, which is quite unfortunate,” he said at the time. “It seems like a lot of people don’t want to be part of the process. And so what comes along with that? What I’ve seen is the loudest voices in the room are the ones that get heard more often because they tend to be more engaged. So part of what I am doing is trying to encourage people, even if, when people with progressive views are the minority in our district and our county, we still at least deserve to be heard.”