{"id":43355,"date":"2026-08-13T15:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T10:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43355"},"modified":"2026-08-13T15:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T10:42:08","slug":"tom-tiffany-is-one-of-the-election-deniers-coming-to-a-swing-state-near-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43355","title":{"rendered":"Tom Tiffany is one of the election deniers coming to a swing state near you"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"zephr-anchor\">\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Tom Tiffany, the new Republican nominee for governor in Wisconsin, is not just a passive supporter of President Donald Trump\u2019s lies about the 2020 presidential election. He is an active promoter of them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">In December 2020, when he was a member of Congress, he <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/7515588\/us-election-lawsuit-texas\/\">signed on to a Texas lawsuit<\/a> seeking to invalidate Joe Biden\u2019s victory. On January 6, 2021, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2021\/jan\/06\/congress-certify-election-biden-republicans-object\">voted against certifying<\/a> the results in Pennsylvania and Texas just hours after rioters threatened to kill his colleagues. He has stated he would have overturned Wisconsin\u2019s results too, and just this year <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jsonline.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2026\/05\/19\/tiffany-backs-fbi-probe-into-2020-vote-wont-say-whether-biden-won\/90141082007\/?gca-cat=p&amp;gnt-cfr=1\">endorsed an FBI investigation into the state\u2019s elections<\/a>. And though the national climate in 2026 favors Democrats, Wisconsin is a closely divided state: Tiffany could beat the odds and win the general.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">There is, in short, a very real chance that someone who doesn\u2019t believe American elections are legitimate may soon be supervising them in one of the 2028 presidential cycle\u2019s most important swing states.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">It\u2019s not just Wisconsin. In each of the other most critical 2028 states \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/clip\/campaign-2026\/gop-gov-candidate-john-james-falsely-claims-pres-trump-won-michigan-three-times\/5203620\">Michigan<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/news-alerts\/election-denier-rick-jackson-wins-georgia-gop-governor-primary-runoff\/\">Georgia<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/news-alerts\/pennsylvania-gop-governor-nominee-has-long-history-of-2020-election-denial\/\">Pennsylvania<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/22\/arizona-republicans-elect-2020-deniers-trump-01007511\">Arizona<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/nevada-secretary-of-state-election-conspiracies-marchant-988849972274838c21ca3fbbd73bdd90\">Nevada<\/a> \u2014 Republicans have chosen an election denier as their nominee for governor, secretary of state, or both. If any of these candidates win, they will have at least some degree of authority over the administration of elections in a state that could determine the outcome of the next presidential election.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">So could the outcome of the 2026 midterms ultimately lead to a stolen election in 2028, as some are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2026\/05\/11\/election-governor-deniers-trump\/\">already<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/thebulwark.com\/p\/what-happens-when-an-election-denier-runs-crucial-swing-state-wisconsin-governor-primary?utm_campaign=email-post&amp;r=7ttw&amp;token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjozNjUyNTIsInBvc3RfaWQiOjIxMDUyOTQwOSwiaWF0IjoxNzg2MzIwMzk3LCJleHAiOjE3ODg5MTIzOTcsImlzcyI6InB1Yi04NzI4MSIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.CwTXoxRzfCzRHzsoG8xNUh1lOeD8sjp3p43gsH-uNDg&amp;utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email\">warning<\/a>? Election experts say it\u2019s very unlikely.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">State election laws contain numerous overlapping checks on interference from top officials. The judiciary has a pretty strong track record in stopping election malfeasance. A reform to the Electoral Count Act, passed quietly during the Biden presidency, significantly improved federal protections against election interference. And in 2028, the man uniquely responsible for previous pushes to invalidate the 2020 election won\u2019t be on the ballot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">\u201c[There are many] reasons why one should not be concerned,\u201d says Rebecca Green, the co-director of the Election Law Program at The College of William and Mary. \u201cEven in circumstances where there is a single partisan in control of a state\u2019s election process, there are numerous checks on that power.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">That said, the risk isn\u2019t zero. There is a remote chance, if the election is extremely close, that a well-placed election denier could swing the outcome. And even if they don\u2019t outright steal an election, someone like Tiffany could still use their office to damage the electoral system in some pretty important ways.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">\u201cWe have to be walking between complacency and alarmism,\u201d says Rick Hasen, an expert on election law at UCLA. \u201cBoth of those are bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p><h2 class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\">Why the 2028 election is more secure than you think<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Election law varies from state to state. Most of the time, the state\u2019s secretary of state (SOS) is in charge of elections, but sometimes it\u2019s the state board of elections. Sometimes the SOS is directly elected, and sometimes they\u2019re appointed by the governor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">But in broad strokes, there are three ways for governors or an allied SOS to attack an election. They can try to suppress opposition voters before the voting starts, by (for example) purging them from the rolls or putting insufficient polling stations in their neighborhoods. They can try to interfere during the vote count, by trying to disqualify outparty ballots or even falsifying the vote count. Or they can try to interfere afterward, by refusing to certify election results.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Each of those is exceptionally, perhaps even prohibitively, difficult to pull off \u2014 even for a committed election denier.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Voter suppression is hard because the tactics are legally limited. Current federal law bans voter roll purges within <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/07\/01\/nx-s1-5859333\/voter-roll-purge-supreme-court\">90 days of the election<\/a>, which allowed Democrats to simply re-register voters disqualified in previous Republican purges (though the Supreme Court may overturn this provision in an upcoming case). Impediments like polling station placement are, per Hasen, hard to target; they are most likely to affect low-income and low-propensity voters, who have trended Republican in recent elections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Interfering with the counting of votes is made difficult by what Green terms \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/scholarship.law.wm.edu\/facpubs\/2130\/\">adversarial election administration<\/a>\u201d: basically, the fact that partisans from both parties are involved in multiple different stages of the counting process. Every state has strict rules governing the counting process, and observers from both parties can see if they\u2019re being breached in the other party\u2019s favor. If there is an irregularity, courts are empowered to step in and correct it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">And it is simply illegal for governors or secretaries of state to refuse to certify legitimate elections. State laws in <a href=\"https:\/\/law.stanford.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/MILLER-WILDER-FINAL-1.pdf\">all relevant battleground states<\/a> allow courts to issue a writ of mandamus requiring officials to certify duly counted results, which they have done repeatedly since 2020 when Republican-controlled county election boards withheld certification.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">\u201cCourts have shown themselves to be pretty good against election denialism,\u201d Hasen says. \u201cThat\u2019s true of both Democratic and Republican appointed and elected judges.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">The 2022 reform to the Electoral Count Act added <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawfaremedia.org\/article\/there-are-guardrails-in-place-to-avert-partisan-manipulation-of-the-election-outcome?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">several additional safeguards for presidential elections specifically<\/a>, including a requirement that Congress defer to court determinations on electoral legitimacy if a governor attempts to defy them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">And all of that assumes that a Republican who denied the result of the 2020 election would necessarily attempt to steal future elections. That may not be the case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">\u201cJust because you have partisan control of an election, and just because that person has cast doubt on previous elections, doesn\u2019t mean that person is not going to be committed to running a fair election,\u201d Green says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Such a sentiment may sound naive, but it also may reflect the reality of post-Trump politics. The president was the driving force behind the attempt to overturn the 2020 election; his insistence that he did not lose, and his iron grip on the hearts and minds of the GOP base, pushed the party onto grounds that its other leaders <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2021\/02\/13\/mcconnell-condemns-trump-acquitted-469002\">clearly feared to tread<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">While Republicans certainly attempted to stack the electoral deck in their favor prior to Trump, these brazen attempts to overturn or steal legitimate elections are a product of his time in office. Whether he has permanently changed the Republican Party into an entity that will regularly reject elections they lose is very much an open question.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p><h2 class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\">Why electing election deniers could still matter<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">All of this should give us some comfort about the upcoming state-level races: it is simply very hard for a governor or SOS to steal a presidential election even if they want to. While American democracy is weak in many different ways, the security of its election architecture specifically is actually one of its strong points.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">But even the most impregnable-seeming fortresses can be breached. And there are reasons to worry that, in an extreme case, an election denier in key positions could well damage the integrity of the 2028 presidential election.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">In a 2022 paper, the law professor Lisa Marshall Manheim argued that conventional legal analysis <a href=\"https:\/\/yalelawjournal.org\/pdf\/F8.ManheimFinalDraftWEB_9smtkcxy.pdf\">has proven inadequate<\/a> for addressing the threat of election subversion. While legal experts are correct to say that the law makes stealing an election hard, the most dangerous threat to US elections \u2014 Trump\u2019s 2020 campaign \u2014 was essentially extra-legal in character.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">While \u201csuperficially\u201d operating through the legal system, Trump was actually asking officials from Congress on down to engage in obviously unlawful behavior. When Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to \u201cfind\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brennancenter.org\/our-work\/research-reports\/fact-check-trumps-georgia-call-raffensperger\">just enough votes to overturn the state\u2019s results<\/a>, or for Mike Pence to find the \u201ccourage\u201d to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.factcheck.org\/2023\/08\/what-trump-asked-of-pence\/\">nullify the results on January 6<\/a>, he wasn\u2019t asking these two men to act according to their legal duties. He was asking them to step <em>beyond<\/em> law, to embrace a reading of their office\u2019s powers so obviously absurd that it amounts to declaring the text of the law to be no limit at all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">This is the nightmare scenario: one in which officials in key positions simply decide that they no longer have to follow a good-faith reading of the law. If enough officials in the right places decide to cast off legal shackles, no carefully crafted statute can stop them. We will, as Hasen put it, exit the domain of law into \u201csomething else\u201d: the politics of raw power.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Anyone who endorsed Trump\u2019s lies about the 2020 election \u2014 let alone actively attempted to act on them \u2014 has already shown a degree of contempt for election law. That means that one can\u2019t <em>rule out <\/em>a similar display of contempt in the future, only this time with the power to turn that into impactful defiance of law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">It\u2019s vastly too early to say the conditions under which such a radical breach might occur, in 2028 or in the future. A lot depends on the makeup of the Republican Party; whether leaders after Trump embrace or downplay his hostility to the electoral system itself. But we now know that the risk is there. And the more election deniers we have in key positions, the greater the odds are that the risk becomes real \u2014 even if the baseline probability remains low in absolute terms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">This connects to another, more insidious risk: that electing election deniers could exacerbate the ongoing crisis of electoral confidence since 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Even if Tiffany or someone like him doesn\u2019t try to outright prevent or nullify Democratic victories in their state, they could still declare that they lack confidence in the result\u2019s integrity. That they tried to run a fair election, but that Democrats or the courts prevented them from doing so \u2014 and thus, despite their lack of legal powers to stop it, that they believe the election to have been compromised or even stolen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">This may not lead to a series of January 6s across the country. But even if it didn\u2019t, it would deepen the lack of trust Republican voters have in the electoral system. If Republicans post-Trump continue to believe that Democrats are engaged in widespread cheating, that could contribute to an environment where the kind of extra-legal shenanigans Manheim warned of could look more tempting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">So while it is quite unlikely that the 2026 elections will lead to a crisis in 2028, it could play a role in dashing the possibility that American democracy moves on from the dangerous Trump-era fighting over elections. And as long as that fighting persists, another 2020-style crisis will remain a live possibility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tom Tiffany, the new Republican nominee for governor in Wisconsin, is not just a passive supporter of President Donald Trump\u2019s lies about the 2020 presidential election. He is an active promoter of them. In December 2020, when he was a member of Congress, he signed on to a Texas lawsuit seeking to invalidate Joe Biden\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/platform.vox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/gettyimages-1213959790.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C10.732984293194%2C100%2C78.534031413613&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}