Trump electors in key states want to serve again, despite criminal charges

Trump electors in key states want to serve again, despite criminal charges

Republican activists in at least three states where Donald Trump tried to reverse his defeat in 2020 — nearly all of them under criminal indictment for casting electoral votes for him despite his loss — are poised to reprise their roles as presidential electors this year.

Six activists in Michigan, Nevada and New Mexico have made clear to GOP leaders in their states that the investigations into their 2020 activities have not deterred them from seeking the position again. If anything, their view that the prosecutions are bogus has motivated them to step up, according to party leaders.

Their eagerness to serve — and encouragement to do so from their parties — reflects a widespread belief among Republicans that the electors did nothing wrong in 2020, raising the question of what they might do or say if Trump once again loses any of those states. Would they be willing to convene again and cast electoral votes for Trump? Would the Trump campaign try to organize such an effort? What might Trump ask of them? How far would they go to help him return to power?

“There is no hesitancy at all to be put in that same position again,” said Pete Hoekstra, chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. “They would be excited by the opportunity to do it.”

The nation’s presidential electors, apportioned to the states according to their number of congressional seats, make up the electoral college, which is empowered by the Constitution to determine the outcome of presidential elections every four years. Typically only the electors of the winning candidate meet and cast votes in the weeks after the election, but in 2020, 84 Trump electors met in seven states that Democrat Joe Biden had won. In four of those states, 35 of the electors face criminal charges related to those votes. In Georgia, Nevada and Michigan, they have all pleaded not guilty. In Arizona, 9 of the 11 electors have pleaded not guilty, while two have not yet entered pleas.

Hoekstra said three of Michigan’s 16 Trump electors from 2020 have approached him to say they’d like to do it again, although he did not provide their names. All 16 were indicted last year on charges that they submitted false documents claiming that Trump had won the state. The decision about this year’s slate of electors rests with delegates to the party’s state convention, which convenes in August, but Hoekstra said he has no problem with 2020 electors serving again.

The story is playing out similarly in other states where Trump electors convened on Dec. 14, 2020, to cast electoral votes for him after results had been certified for Biden. In Nevada, two of the six Trump electors — Michael McDonald, the state party chairman, and Jesse Law, who leads the largest county committee in the Las Vegas area — were chosen again to serve at the state GOP convention earlier this month. All six also face state charges related to their 2020 actions.

In New Mexico, the state party chairman chose one 2020 elector to serve again this year, Deborah Weh-Maestas, the former chair of the state party. It’s not clear why New Mexico electors convened in 2020 to vote for Trump, since Biden had won the blue state handily. Those electors, as well as 2020 electors in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, have not faced criminal charges so far. Weh-Maestas did not respond to a request for comment.

And in Arizona, at least two Republicans who served as Trump electors four years ago and were indicted last month have expressed interest in serving as electors again — although state party officials have made clear they are not interested in appointing people who are mired in the ongoing state criminal prosecution, said five Republicans familiar with the conversations who requested anonymity to discuss them. Those two individuals are state senators Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern, neither of whom responded to requests for comment.

Even if Trump loses this year, their likelihood of success is narrower than it was four years ago.

In 2020, Trump electors met and voted in seven states he had lost, part of a broad scheme organized by the Trump campaign to upend the Jan. 6, 2021, joint session of Congress for the final certification of the electoral college vote. The scheme to challenge Biden’s victory failed in part because then-Vice President Mike Pence (R), who presided over the joint session, refused to go along with it.

Many electors have said they had no idea about the larger scheme, and that they cast votes for Trump under the guidance of campaign officials or GOP officials who told them they were simply preserving the campaign’s legal right to contest the result. Under federal law, if a campaign’s electors do not meet on the appointed date, cast votes and send signed certificates to Washington, their votes cannot be counted.

An electoral college ballot box is carried through Statuary Hall en route to the Senate on Jan. 6, 2021.

A revamp of the federal law that governs the proceeding, the Electoral Count Reform Act, would make it even harder to do what the Trump campaign tried in 2020. Then, one member each from the House and Senate were enough to lodge an objection to a state’s electoral college tally. Now, such an objection requires 20 percent of each chamber’s members. In addition, Vice President Harris (D) will preside over the proceeding, rather than a Trump ally, making it even less likely that a challenge would be allowed.

Still, the elector gatherings in 2020 bolstered Trump’s baseless allegations of fraud, helping to spread the false claim that Trump was the rightful winner — and adding to the inflamed rhetoric that motivated thousands to descend on Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

Derek Muller, a University of Notre Dame law professor, said the power of the electors’ platform alone should not be discounted. Should Trump lose, they can join the chorus of Trump allies pressing lawmakers or courts to assess election theories through formal proceedings.

“It can obviously seem more significant when it’s coming from people who have some authority or purport to have some authority, like people with the title of ‘elector,’” Muller said.

Trump continues to claim he won in 2020, and he has stated repeatedly that the only way he could lose to President Biden a second time in November is if Democrats cheat. Not only does that sort of rhetoric erode faith in U.S. elections, democracy experts said, but it increases the possibility of violence if Trump again loses.

“At that point it’s not about electoral law,” said Edward B. Foley, a constitutional law professor at Ohio State University. “My expertise becomes irrelevant. It becomes a question of political violence. I hope we don’t have to go there but I do worry that if Trump is saying that it was stolen, you might see insurrectionist-type activity well before Jan. 6.”

The Washington Post attempted to contact the Republicans who served as Trump electors in the seven states in 2020, including those on track to be electors again this year. The vast majority either did not respond or declined to comment.

Some 2020 electors do not want the job back.

Rosie Tripp, a 2020 GOP elector in New Mexico, said serving as an elector was an honor — but she never again wants to endure the stress from the legal fallout. Her actions drew interest from state and federal prosecutors, who asked her to travel to Washington to testify before a grand jury in the spring of 2023.

Her advice for the upcoming crop of electors: “Be a little more cautious and make sure that you know what you’re doing. I wouldn’t wish my experience on anybody. It was definitely frightening.”

Not all 2020 electors even have the option to serve again this year. In Wisconsin, the 10 electors who signed certificates falsely stating that Trump had won agreed not to do so as part of a settlement in a civil suit in which they also admitted that their actions were part of an effort to overturn Biden’s victory in the state.

In Georgia, GOP chairman Josh McKoon said he struggled to recruit Republicans to consider the role, particularly business leaders and party donors who are less loyal to Trump and aren’t interested in the headache — or potential legal bills — that 2020 electors have endured.

As a result, the pool of Republicans willing to take on the duty is more pro-Trump than it was four years ago, McKoon said. He blamed that on the prosecutions, not on the actions of the electors in 2020.

“It’s a strategy designed to take something that used to be very prestigious, something that some of your top donors wanted, and was very coveted, and turn it into something that people are kind of terrified of,” he said.

Members of Georgia’s electoral college are sworn in before casting their votes at the state Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, in Atlanta.

Three of Georgia’s 16 Trump electors from 2020 face criminal charges in the Atlanta area, but all were the subject of the investigation and incurred legal expenses, some in the six figures. Although the state party — and a conservative legal defense fund — have helped fund the legal costs of the three indicted electors, that has not been true in all states.

“I’m snakebit,” said Ken Carroll, a 2020 Trump elector in Georgia who was not indicted and has no interest in serving again. “Let’s face it. The election didn’t go exactly the way we’d hoped it would last time.”

In Arizona, a now-expired state party insurance policy has been paying some expenses for some electors, according to three people familiar with the arrangement who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

But if the legal expenses reach the policy’s limit, they said, the cash-strapped party will not continue paying those legal bills. In obtaining a new insurance policy last year, they said, the party made clear to the insurer that its leadership and business practices had changed, a message intended to convey that it would take steps to try to avoid the type of claims that arose out of the 2020 presidential election cycle. Gina Swoboda, the new state party chair, declined to comment.

How electors are appointed varies by state. In many, those interested in serving must stand for election at the state convention. In others — including Arizona — the selection of electors is at the sole discretion of the GOP chair.

Some Arizona party officials and their allies hope to recruit business leaders, longtime GOP donors and current and former elected officials to serve as electors, according to Republicans familiar with their thinking. Not only would this perhaps avoid a repeat of what happened in 2020, they say, it could build good will with wealthy or influential Republicans who have been alienated in recent years. It is unclear how the devoted Trump supporters who dominate the party would react to accepting electors who are not always viewed as loyal to the MAGA cause.

One of the Republicans whose name has been mentioned as the type of figure that could be approached to serve as an elector is former governor Jan Brewer, an early supporter of Trump’s first presidential bid who has spoken out against the election denialism that has gripped the battleground state and faced ridicule for backing GOP candidates who were critical of Trump.

Elector positions “should go to responsible people that understand what they’re doing, and do it correctly, and work with the secretary of state and cast their vote,” said Brewer.

The Trump campaign, meanwhile, is not yet closely following the process or planning elector scenarios, said a senior campaign official, who requested anonymity to speak about internal deliberations.

The official said the campaign’s bigger focus is ensuring that electors are loyal to Trump and won’t decide to vote for someone else in states where Trump wins the popular vote. Another priority, the official said, will be to build an elector whip operation to make sure all electors in states Trump wins show up on Dec. 17 to cast their votes.

Wingett Sanchez reported from Phoenix.