Election deniers fall short in governor races across five battlegrounds

Five Republican election deniers went down in Tuesday's midterm elections, losing their bids for governor in the battleground states that decided 2020. Congressman Andy Biggs fell short in Arizona, Congressman John James in Michigan, State Treasurer Stacy Garrity in Pennsylvania and Congressman Tom Tiffany in Wisconsin, according to Al Jazeera. Billionaire Rick Jackson lost in Georgia, the state at the center of President Donald Trump's push to overturn his 2020 defeat.

Every one of the five had either questioned Joe Biden's victory or voted to block it. Biggs and Tiffany voted against certifying the 2020 results in the House in January 2021, and both signed onto a lawsuit aimed at invalidating the counts in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Garrity campaigned with Trump to reverse his loss and, on January 5, 2021, urged Pennsylvania lawmakers to decertify the results — the day before Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol. Jackson called Biden's win 'totally ridiculous' and knocked Georgia officials for not complying with Trump's demand to 'find' votes.

James took a winding path. He wasn't in Congress during the certification, having lost a Senate run that cycle before winning a House seat in 2022, when he acknowledged Biden's victory. In June he flipped, telling podcaster Benny Johnson the 2020 race was 'rigged and manipulated'. Tiffany, Garrity and Jackson have since walked back their positions or clarified them and conceded Biden won. Biggs and James have not — Al Jazeera says it reached out to both offices and hasn't heard back.

The wipeout lands as Trump enters the final two years of a lame-duck second term, constitutionally barred from running again, with no clear Republican standard-bearer for 2028. That's why these five states matter so much: they've swung between both parties in recent presidential cycles and will be back in the spotlight next time around.

Governors in many states hold serious sway over voting access, election administration and the redrawing of congressional maps. Trump spent the past year and a half pushing state leaders to redesign those maps for Republican advantage, and Democratic-run states like California under Governor Gavin Newsom answered with gerrymandering of their own. Whether that fight keeps its momentum is now an open question. Georgia's Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican blocked by term limits from running this cycle, said Wednesday he won't call a special session to redraw the state's maps before Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms is sworn in as his successor.

Trump, who spent years casting doubt on US elections, told The New York Times on Tuesday night he was 'absolutely willing' to accept the midterm results. He also pledged to engage with Democrats after they handily retook both chambers of Congress. 'We'll, you know, look forward to working with them,' he said. 'We'll probably work something out.'