As the 2022 and 2024 Elections approach, a congressional race in Florida provided a preview of how Republicans will react to losing regardless of the margin of their defeat.
In April 2021, former Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) died, setting the stage for an election to replace him in Congress. As it is Florida, GOP Governor Ron DeSantis left the seat open for the entire rest of the year, leaving Hastings’ district unrepresented because it meant one less Democrat in the House.
An election finally took place this week and Democratic candidate Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick beat Pro-Trump Republican candidate Jason Mariner by a landslide in the heavily Democratic district as expected.
Cherfilus-McCormick won 78.7 percent of the votes compared to Mariner’s meager 19.6 percent.
Despite the overwhelming results, Mariner is still crying election fraud as the cause of his defeat all without providing any evidence whatsoever.
“Now they called the race, I did not win, so they say, but that does not mean that they lost either, it does not mean that we lost,” Mariner said. “And we’ll also have some stuff coming out that we’ve recently discovered.”
Mariner is particularly targeting Palm Beach and Broward counties. But he has not presented any definitive proof whatsoever of any improprieties, just as Donald Trump and his 2020 campaign could not provide any evidence of election fraud when he challenged several state results in over 60 court cases that were dismissed.
Clearly, this is a preview of what other Republicans will do if they lose their races across the country in 2022 and 2024, even if they lose by indisputable landslides.
MSNBC’s Steve Benin offered a disturbing analysis of this sore loser strategy.
“What matters here is not just conspiracy theories, pointless litigation, and partisan whining about voters’ verdicts,” Benen wrote. “Rather, the far more unsettling concern is the establishment of a new normal in Republican politics — one in which the only election results many in the GOP consider legitimate are the ones in which Democratic candidates lose.”
Republicans are now just outright refusing to believe that a Democrat can legitimately win an election over a Republican. It is simply inconceivable to them that they can lose. This means the American people can expect Republican candidates across the country to cry election fraud every time they lose, and they have no problem at all trying to rig the election so that they don’t lose. Apparently, outright rigging an election is just fine if you’re a Republican, but a Democrat winning on the merits is cheating. Just ask Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.). This is why Americans should overwhelmingly vote against Republicans in every election from now on.
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