2020 election denial is on the ballot in Nevada this year. These are the candidates.
Two years ago, the presidential battleground of Nevada was caught in the crossfire of a national fight over debunked claims by President Donald Trump and his followers that the 2020 election was marred by fraud and illegal votes.
Now, some of the most extreme supporters of Trump's "Big Lie" campaign are running for top offices in this swing state, which could play a key role in the 2024 presidential election.
If these candidates succeed in November, their victories could reshape Silver State politics and, perhaps most noteworthy for Nevada, promote a prominent election denier to chief election officer.
Here are those candidates and what they have said and done about Trump's 2020 defeat.
Read more: Elections deniers running for office pose 'major threat' to U.S. democracy
Adam Laxalt, candidate for U.S. Senate
Bio: Laxalt, 44, is a former one-term Nevada attorney general running as a Trump-backed candidate to unseat incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.
Actions: After a failed 2018 bid for the governor's mansion, Laxalt burst back on to the Silver State political scene in 2020 to defend the "Big Lie" as co-chair of Trump's re-election campaign in Nevada.
In that role, he helped spearhead legal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and played a key role in efforts to stall the count of " improper votes" in Clark County, which is home to Las Vegas and the state's most populous county.
Those efforts included lawsuits filed in state and federal courts that ultimately were dismissed. And yet, the narrative of a stolen election persists in Laxalt's inaugural Senate bid.
He has called election integrity the "hottest topic" of his campaign.
He insists ineligible and dead voters cast ballots in 2020 — fraud he claims was fueled by "unclean voter rolls" and mail-in ballots sent to all active voters amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
More:Election deniers won big in Nevada's primary. Does it foreshadow a red wave in November?
He's hinted at preemptively filing legal challenges contesting the 2022 midterm election, long before a single vote is even cast.
On the campaign trail, he's said "the Democrats changed our election" in 2020 and that only Nevada's rural, reliably red counties run fair elections. But Clark County?
"We got major problems down there," he said.
Jim Marchant, candidate for secretary of state
Bio: Marchant, 66, is a former Nevada lawmaker and QAnon-linked candidate for secretary of state who has embraced some of the most far-fetched election conspiracy theories.
Actions: He ran unsuccessfully in 2020 for a seat in Congress, then filed a failed lawsuit to overturn his loss, citing widespread voter fraud. Since then, he has sought to become the face of Nevada's "Stop the Steal" movement.
In December 2020, he was present in Carson City, Nevada's capitol, when the state Republican Party sent a phony slate of electoral votes to Congress — a scheme now under investigation by the FBI.
He's said on the campaign trail that Nevada hasn't held a legitimate election in more than a decade, claiming that all elected officials in the state since 2006 have been "installed by the deep-state cabal."
He helped form a nationwide coalition this election cycle called "America First secretary of state candidates" — a group of election deniers aiming to take control of the voting systems in crucial swing states, including Georgia, Michigan and Arizona.
He has called the electronic voting machines used in Nevada vulnerable and "uncertifiable."
He continues to demand a "full forensic audit" of the 2020 election.
He has said he would not have certified Biden's 2020 victory in Nevada had he been chief election officer at the time.
And, if elected in November, he has a promised big, constitutionally questionable reconstruction of Nevada's voting systems, including a return to paper ballots and hand counts. (Some rural Nevada counties, like Nye County, have already accepted a pitch from Marchant ahead of the midterm general election to stop using voting machines.)
Sam Peters, candidate for House
Bio: Peters is a retired U.S. Air Force veteran running for Congress in Nevada's 4th Congressional District against incumbent U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford. Peters ran for this same seat in 2020 but failed to clinch the GOP nomination in Nevada's primary race.
Actions: Following Trump's defeat in 2020, Peters proclaimed in a series of tweets that the presidential race was swayed by "sophisticated election crime," often citing The Epoch Times, a powerhouse in right-wing media, in his social media posts.
He called on Republicans in Congress like Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky to "contest the election."
He said "Trump won Georgia. And likely NV. And definitively PA" and raised doubts about the election results in Wisconsin, Arizona and Michigan. (Biden carried all six of those states.)
He said he "couldn't agree more" with Newt Gingrich, who declared the 2020 contest "the most corrupt election in American history." In that tweet, Peters also included the hashtag #StopTheSteal.
Had he been a member of Congress during that election, Peters has said, he would not have voted to certify Biden's win — "not without more questions."
Rio Lacanlale is the Las Vegas correspondent for the Reno Gazette Journal and the USA Today Network. Contact her at rlacanlale@gannett.com or on Twitter @riolacanlale. Support local journalism by subscribing to the RGJ today.