Democrats Go On Offense Against GOP Election Deniers Looking To Run Elections
Two groups affiliated with the Democratic Party announced a multimillion-dollar ad campaign Tuesday targeting Republican candidates for secretary of state running on election fraud lies promoted by former President Donald Trump.
Safe Accessible Fair Elections and End Citizens United announced $11 million in advertising spending to defeat GOP candidates Kim Crockett in Minnesota, Kristina Karamo in Michigan and Jim Marchant in Nevada.
Safe Accessible Fair Elections — the independent expenditure arm of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, or DASS — is spending in all three races. End Citizens United, a political action committee focused on campaign finance reform, is spending against Karamo and Marchant.
DASS also announced that it would contribute between $10 million and $14 million to state party committees in Arizona and Georgia backing two candidates for secretary of state, Adrian Fontes and Bee Nguyen.
This is the first big advertising campaign by DASS and End Citizens United in 2022. Both groups aim to defend incumbent Democratic secretaries of state in November’s midterms and keep GOP election deniers from taking control in key presidential battleground states.
Crockett, Karamo and Marchant were all endorsed by Trump and support his myth that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Since the secretary of state acts as the top election official in Minnesota, Michigan and Nevada, putting an election denier in this position could lead to the undermining of future races.
“Secretaries of State are supposed to ensure safe and accessible elections and instead we have extreme MAGA candidates on the ballot focused on culture wars, rigging elections for their political allies, and radical attacks on our freedoms like ending women’s right to make their own health care decisions,” said Tiffany Muller, the president of End Citizens United, in a statement.
“They pose a dangerous threat to our democracy and