They Insisted the 2020 Election Was Tainted. Their 2022 Primary Wins? Not So Much.

This spring, when Consultant Mo Brooks of Alabama was combating to win over conservatives in his marketing campaign for Senate, he ran a tv advert that boasted, “On Jan. 6, I proudly stood with President Trump within the combat in opposition to voter fraud.”

However when Mr. Brooks positioned second in Alabama’s Republican main final week, leaving him in a runoff, he mentioned he was not involved about fraud in his election.

“If it’s an in depth race and also you’re speaking a couple of five- or 10-vote distinction, effectively, then, it turns into a better concern,” he mentioned of his main outcomes. “However I’ve received extra necessary fish to fry. And so, in some unspecified time in the future, it’s a must to hope that the election system goes to be sincere.”

Mr. Brooks was certainly one of 147 Republican members of Congress who voted on Jan. 6, 2021, to object to the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election. Lots of extra Republican state legislators throughout the nation took comparable motion in their very own capitals. President Biden’s victory, they mentioned, was corrupted by both outright fraud or pandemic-related adjustments to voting.

Now, lots of these Republicans are accepting the outcomes of their primaries with out criticism. Already this 12 months, 55 of the lawmakers who objected in 2020 have run in aggressive primaries, contests performed largely underneath the identical guidelines and rules as these in 2020. None have raised doubts about vote counts. No conspiracy theories about mail ballots have surfaced. And nobody has referred to as for a “forensic audit” or additional investigations of the 2022 main outcomes.

Republicans’ straightforward acceptance of a voting system they as soon as slammed as damaged exposes a basic contradiction of their complaints concerning the 2020 election. Claims about fraud and stolen elections are sometimes situational — utilized in some races (in opposition to Democrats) however not others (in opposition to different Republicans), and to problem some outcomes (dropping) however not others (profitable).

This phenomenon was on clear show in 2020, when scores of Republicans who repeated allegations a couple of “rigged” presidential race accepted their very own victories primarily based on the identical ballots.

However the lack of debate about fraud on this 12 months’s primaries highlights a selected pressure of partisanship driving most of the myths about stolen elections.

Mr. Brooks provided a easy reply to why he’s not frightened about his race: There’s no fraud in Republican primaries, he mentioned.

“I’m in a Republican main, and noncitizens don’t usually vote in Republican primaries,” Mr. Brooks mentioned. “In a Republican main or a Democrat main, the motivation to steal elections is much less as a result of the candidates’ philosophy-of-government variations are minor.”

Noncitizens don’t vote in any federal elections in vital numbers, in Alabama or elsewhere, based on a 2020 report from the Cato Institute, a libertarian assume tank. Investigators from each events have unearthed solely minuscule numbers of any kind of voter fraud. In recent times, the uncommon cases of broad fraud schemes which have grow to be public have been engineered by Republicans, together with an absentee poll scheme in North Carolina that led the state’s Board of Elections to order a redo of a Home race in 2018.

Not all Republicans who unfold false claims concerning the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election thought-about their very own races to be exempt. Some mentioned that “fraud existed” in their very own elections and that investigations had been wanted. Nonetheless, they accepted their victories.

“We don’t know the way a lot fraud exists or existed as a result of we weren’t in a position to see,” Consultant Scott Perry of Pennsylvania informed an area CBS affiliate every week after the 2020 election. Mr. Perry centered on Philadelphia as a supply for fraud within the presidential race and referred to as for extra assessment. He additionally mentioned he was “humbled” to take his seat within the Home.

Within the Pennsylvania primaries final week, Mr. Perry ran for re-election unopposed. He didn’t reply to messages left on his cellphone, and his marketing campaign didn’t return requests for remark.

The Republican effort to sow skepticism about elections in racially various Democratic cities is a generations-long venture, with roots way back to Richard Nixon’s 1960 defeat in opposition to John F. Kennedy. By the point Mr. Trump misplaced the 2020 election, he and hundreds of thousands of his supporters had been primed to consider false allegations about “poll harvesting” and machines miscounting in America’s populous cities. Mr. Brooks mentioned in an interview that, in Alabama, fraud occurred “in predominantly Democrat components of the state.”

A part of the explanation Republican candidates are accepting main outcomes with out speaking about fraud is that they don’t have Democrats guilty, mentioned Trey Grayson, the previous Republican secretary of state in Kentucky.

“They’re considering it’s a main, it’s our facet. We didn’t lose to anyone on the opposite facet who’s evil, who’s going to alter coverage extra dramatically,” Mr. Grayson mentioned in an interview. “There’s a tribal, ‘my facet’s all the time proper, your facet is all the time incorrect. We’re not stealing elections, your facet is stealing elections.’”

Even candidates who misplaced this 12 months, both in shut elections or decisive defeats, have accepted the outcomes. Consultant Madison Cawthorn, who had nonetheless been selling falsehoods concerning the 2020 election on social media every week earlier than his main election, conceded and referred to as his rival, Chuck Edwards, the evening of his loss.

When requested if Mr. Cawthorn had any considerations about fraud within the election, a spokesman for his congressional workplace declined to remark.

In Georgia, the statewide Republican primaries had been high-profile contests between Trump-aligned election deniers and officers who blocked Mr. Trump’s try and overturn the outcomes. Consultant Jody Hice spent a lot of his marketing campaign railing about Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state, and his mismanaging elections.

Nonetheless, Mr. Hice accepted his defeat — noting the outcomes “weren’t what we hoped for” — whereas nonetheless elevating doubts concerning the trustworthiness of elections within the state.

“I nonetheless consider that renewing integrity in our elections is completely crucial,” Mr. Hice tweeted.

The criticism is especially noteworthy as a result of Georgia is likely one of the states that overhauled its election programs final 12 months in response to fears about fraud. Mr. Raffensperger and Brian Kemp ceaselessly pointed to the regulation throughout their campaigns, arguing that they’d tightened up the system and glued issues that many of their occasion blamed for Mr. Trump’s defeat.

Pennsylvania, a hotbed of conspiracy theories about 2020, has made no main adjustments to its election legal guidelines. But, Republican politicians have accepted the outcomes of their primaries with out grievance — even within the still-undecided Senate main. As officers proceed to recount the ballots, the celeb doctor Mehmet Oz leads David McCormick, a former hedge fund government, by fewer than 1,000 votes out of 1.34 million solid. Neither candidate has solid doubt on the legitimacy of the voting — though they each expressed considerations concerning the 2020 outcomes.

Even probably the most outspoken election skeptic within the Senate main has stayed quiet about fraud. Kathy Barnette, the writer who rallied in Washington on Jan. 6 to protest Mr. Biden’s victory, conceded her loss — one thing she didn’t do after dropping a Home race to a Democrat by 19 proportion factors.

One other distinguished election denier is Doug Mastriano, a state senator who used doubts concerning the 2020 election to propel his political rise. Mr. Mastriano had no qualms about his personal victory within the Republican main for governor final week. When he dispatched his closest challenger by 23 proportion factors, he boasting about his margins in his victory speech.

“We received a mandate,” Mr. Mastriano mentioned.

By Friday, Mr. Mastriano was fund-raising off his false claims about 2020, asking supporters to reveal their dedication to “FREE and FAIR elections” by making donations.

Mr. Mastriano’s marketing campaign didn’t reply to requests for remark.

And for all his bluster concerning the 2020 election being stolen from Mr. Trump, Mr. Brooks mentioned he had excessive confidence in Alabama’s elections. He mentioned fraud was uncommon due to the state’s voting legal guidelines, which have tighter early and mail voting guidelines than most different states.

However Mr. Brooks has taken concern with Alabama elections earlier than. When he received a state Home seat in 1982, he accused Democrats of rigging the voting machines.

Henry Frohsin, the chief assistant U.S. legal professional for northern Alabama on the time, mentioned that Mr. Brooks’s claims had been investigated and dismissed.

“Congressman Brooks’s allegations had been insubstantial,” Mr. Frohsin mentioned in an interview. “We declined to prosecute the case as a result of there was no benefit to it.”