2020 election denial is on the ballot in Michigan this year. These are the candidates.
Key architects of attempts to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election in Michigan could take control of the state’s most important elections and prosecutorial posts if Republican candidates win their races this fall.
The nominee for attorney general led the legal effort in Antrim County, a small conservative community in northern Michigan, turning human error into a vessel for conspiracies touted by former President Donald Trump. He’s now under criminal investigation for allegedly improperly gaining access to voting machines in an effort to further his inaccurate allegations of election fraud.
The candidate for secretary of state observed absentee ballot counting at Detroit’s TCF Center, suggesting incorrectly that she witnessed fraud in statements that also garnered Trump's support. The gubernatorial pick agreed with the false idea that Trump actually won Michigan, a state he lost by more than 154,000 votes.
In Michigan, local clerks actually run each election. But the Secretary of State has broad powers to create best practices for clerks and may intervene in the administration of local elections, either ahead of Election Day or as ballots are counted. The Michigan Attorney General would almost assuredly represent the Michigan Secretary of State in any election-related lawsuit, can issue important opinions on the constitutionality of current election practices and in theory has the power to initiate investigations that delve into the operations of elections across the state.
Three of Michigan’s GOP representatives in Congress voted to overturn the 2020 election results — all three are expected to coast to easy victories this fall. Two GOP members who voted to impeach Trump either retired or lost primary challenges, giving way to at least one candidate running on the idea that Trump was robbed of the last presidential election.
Several other congressional GOP incumbents and candidates supported the electoral college results, but a state senator vying to represent a politically purple district joined legislative colleagues in visiting the White House at Trump’s request after the 2020 election and signed a letter suggesting Congress delay acting on the electoral college results.
While polling shows Democratic incumbents for statewide office currently leading their election-denying foes, there’s a scenario where every Republican running in a close race for congress could win this year. The November election is another test for Michiganders: do they support candidates relying on misinformation to look back at 2020, or do they want to stay the course and move on?
Here’s a look at the candidates who have denied the results of the 2020 election and how they have characterized it:
Matthew DePerno, candidate for attorney general
Bio: 53 years old, self-described “constitutional lawyer” in private practice for nearly three decades, lives in the Kalamazoo area.
Actions: Immediately after the 2020 general election, DePerno filed a lawsuit in Antrim County that alleged electoral misconduct. That lawsuit rocketed him from relative obscurity to a leading voice in Michigan Republican politics. Despite a local judge dismissing the case and the Court of Appeals affirming the decision, the fact DePerno and his team of “experts” were able to briefly examine some voting machines prompted a report cited frequently by Trump and his allies. At one point, the Trump White House cited this report as it considered issuing an order to seize voting machines across the country, as reported by Politico and others.
Although he’s never held elected office, DePerno relied on his lawsuit and the related election misinformation to defeat the former Michigan House speaker and another sitting lawmaker to earn the endorsement of party insiders in April.
“We proved how corruptible our system is and we proved how fraud occurred in this state,” DePerno said, inaccurately, during a rally in Michigan with Trump earlier this year.
“Is that enough, or should we do more? I assure you this: I will hold Whitmer, Benson and Nessel accountable.”
DePerno and his campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
His Democratic opponent, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, recently announced that her office is requesting a special prosecutor to determine whether it’s appropriate to charge DePerno and eight other compatriots with election-related crimes. DePerno has argued this is part of a broader political witch hunt against him, denying all wrongdoing.
DePerno has vowed to criminally charge Nessel, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson essentially immediately upon taking office.
Kristina Karamo, candidate for secretary of state
Bio: 37 years old, community college educator who lives in metro Detroit.
Actions: Karamo defeated a local clerk and sitting state lawmaker to earn the endorsement of GOP insiders for secretary of state in April. She made election denialism a hallmark of the campaign for an office that broadly oversees — but does not run — local election operations in the state.
A political newcomer, she received national attention in 2020 as a Republican challenger who alleged to have witnessed fraud at the TCF Center in Detroit, the location where city election officials counted absentee ballots. She suggested poll workers inappropriately counted ineligible ballots for President Joe Biden, that illegal ballots showed up in the middle of the night, poll workers used information that appeared to suggest dead people voted and records incorrectly showed that she didn’t vote in the 2020 election.
None of this is accurate. Nonpartisan election experts refuted all of her allegations, noting that her observations show a fundamental misunderstanding of routine election processes.
In a statement, Karamo stood by her allegations.
"The allegations in my affidavit ARE accurate. I submitted an affidavit regarding what I personally witnessed. You have never investigated the specific allegations in my affidavit, nor has anyone else. THEREFORE, you CAN NOT claim my allegations were 'inaccurate,'" Karamo said.
She asserted many of these claims in an affidavit that was used as part of a legal effort by Trump supporters to overturn the election. All of these lawsuits were either withdrawn or dismissed; in one federal lawsuit, a Detroit judge issued sanctions against Sidney Powell and other Trump-aligned lawyers for willfully submitting inaccurate information.
This hasn’t derailed Karamo’s campaign in the slightest. She’s endorsed by Trump and suggested she’s running to root out corruption from elections and the secretary of state’s office.
"I am so excited to be your next secretary of state to make sure that no matter who you vote for, what you believe, your vote counts and your vote isn't nullified by an illegal ballot," she said during a Trump rally in Michigan earlier this year.
In Michigan, more than 1,500 clerks in cities and smaller municipalities run elections. The secretary of state offers guidance, helps with voter registration efforts and in extreme cases can step in to oversee local operations. But Karamo and other conservatives have suggested Democratic incumbent Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson violated the law when her office mailed absentee ballot applications to every registered voter in the spring before the 2020 election; courts have disagreed.
Tudor Dixon, candidate for governor
Bio: 45 years old, former steel industry worker and conservative media commentator, lives in the west Michigan community of Norton Shores. Dixon bested a wide field of Republican candidates to win the party’s primary in August. A first-time political candidate, she relied heavily on Trump’s endorsement — and at times denying election results — to get her over the finish line.
Actions: Days after the 2020 election, and before she announced her gubernatorial bid, Dixon tweeted, “Steal an election then hide behind calls for unity and leftists lap it up.” At the start of her campaign she shifted stances, repeatedly suggesting that changes to rules around absentee ballots and signature verification opened the door to fraud and called for a “forensic audit” without expressly saying the election was stolen.
But during debates, she both answered “yes” when asked if Trump won the 2020 election and raised her hand when a moderator asked which candidates believe Trump won Michigan — he lost by more than 154,000 votes.
She moved on the issue again during a national television interview less than 48 hours after receiving Trump’s endorsement.
"There were definitely things in the 2020 election that had left us concerned about how it was operated,” Dixon said during the interview with Fox News, while repeatedly declining to say whether she thought the election was stolen.
In a statement, campaign senior advisor Kyle Olson suggested Dixon is focused on improving education, reducing crime and keeping jobs in Michigan while only "Democrats and their media allies" want to talk about those who denied the results of the 2020 election.
"What Tudor has 'denied' is the false premise that the elections were conducted fairly and without improper influence from external parties or illegal actions by partisan actors," Olson said.
Dixon faces incumbent Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the fall.
U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman
Bio: 75 years old, retired marine, three-term congressman who lives in Watersmeet, a small town in the western Upper Peninsula.
Actions: Jack Bergman represents Michigan’s 1st Congressional District. He voted against certifying election results from Pennsylvania and Arizona during proceedings on Jan. 6, 2021.
He represents Antrim County, the area where human error led to preliminary results that temporarily showed Biden won the heavily conservative county. As reported by the Washington Post, in a Facebook post from November 2020 he suggested that because other counties use the same election software as Antrim County, “this is clear proof that the issue requires further scrutiny.
“Michigan needs to be an example for the rest of the country that we will not stand for election fraud. Our state leaders need to step forward immediately to ensure transparency throughout the state, not just in Michigan’s First District,” Bergman also wrote at the time.
He also signed on to a legal brief filed in support of a lawsuit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to overturn election results in Michigan and other swing states. The lawsuit was quickly rejected.
A Bergman spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Bergman faces Democrat Bob Lorinser in the general election.
U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain
Bio: 56 years old, businesswoman, the first-term lawmaker lives in Macomb County but represents the 9th Congressional District in the heavily conservative Thumb region of the state.
Actions: Before taking office, McClain joined other congress members in sending a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling on her to “investigate the 2020 election irregularities.”
McClain voted against certifying election results from Pennsylvania and Arizona during proceedings on Jan. 6, 2021.
“The concerns voiced by my constituents from across the political spectrum, towards the voting process during the 2020 Presidential election are clear,” McClain said in a statement issued after the votes.
“Now, I call on state and local officials to realize the deep flaws that led us here and fix them. This cannot and should not happen again.”
McClain, who has become one of the more outspoken Trump defenders in Congress, easily won her primary race in August and is expected to coast to victory in the fall.
A McClain spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
She faces Democrat Brian Jaye in the general election.
U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg
Bio: 71 years old, former state lawmaker and pastor, the seven-term congressman lives in Tipton, a small rural community in southern Michigan. Walberg is the Republican nominee to represent Michigan’s 5th Congressional District.
Actions: He voted against certifying election results from Pennsylvania and Arizona during proceedings on Jan. 6, 2021.
"While the easy answer is ignoring election irregularities — we will not stand idly by without taking every lawfully available option to ensure the outcomes of our elections can be trusted. This includes objecting to the electoral votes from disputed states where there is evidence warranting an investigation,” Walberg said in a joint statement with Bergman issued Jan. 4, 2021.
Like his colleagues, Walberg denounced the riot at the U.S. Capitol after it happened. But he still voted against accepting election results, a stance he defended.
“This vote was never about overturning election results. Safeguarding the ballot box is bigger than one candidate and one election. It was about ensuring free, fair, and legal elections are an unquestionable certainty in the future. Moving forward, we must settle these unanswered constitutional questions in order to prevent future irregularities and restore Americans' confidence in the process,” Bergman said in a press release issued Jan. 7, 2021.
A Walberg spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Walberg won his primary race in early August and is expected to sail to victory against Democrat Bart Goldberg in the heavily conservative district this fall.
Tom Barrett, candidate for U.S. House
Bio: The 41-year-old spent more than two decades in the U.S. Army as a helicopter pilot before serving two terms in the Michigan House of Representatives. He’s currently a state senator representing Charlotte, a small town southwest of Lansing.
Barrett is the Republican nominee in the 7th Congressional District, a newly formed district that spans parts of mid- and southeast Michigan. He’ll face U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Democratic incumbent who moved to Lansing to run for re-election in the new district.
Actions: Barrett joined 10 other Michigan legislative colleagues who wrote a letter to Congress after the 2020 election. One version of the letter, released publicly but later described as a draft, urged federal lawmakers to not certify the election results, as reported by the Detroit News.
Jason Cabel Roe, a Republican strategist working for the Barrett campaign, said Barrett "expressed concerns" about the actions of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson leading up to the election. Roe specifically cited a determination from the office of Benson, a Democrat, telling local election clerks they should presume signatures on absentee ballot forms were accurate while scrutinizing them for their veracity. The letter Barrett signed did not raise this issue of signature verification.
"Senator Barrett merely wanted a reasonable examination, early in the process, before proceeding to certification," Roe said.
Barrett also visited the White House at the behest of then-President Donald Trump immediately after the election, at a time when other Michigan legislative leaders attended a meeting widely seen as an attempt by Trump to pressure the lawmakers to potentially overturn the legitimate election results.
John Gibbs, candidate for U.S. House
Bio: The 43-year-old lives in Byron Center and previously worked in software and as a missionary before joining the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Trump administration.
Gibbs is the Republican nominee for the 3rd Congressional District, ousting incumbent U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Grand Rapids, in the August primary. His success in that race is due at least in part to criticizing Meijer’s vote to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 riot in the U.S. Capitol.
Actions: Earlier this year he told the Washington Post the 2020 election was stolen.
“When you look at the results of the 2020 election, there are anomalies in there to put it very lightly, that are simply mathematically impossible,” Gibbs said during a June roundtable event on WOOD-TV, as noted by CNN and others.
During the same roundtable, Gibbs incorrectly suggested that vote counts in key Michigan counties and the total number of votes for Trump in 2020 being lower than in 2016 were “extremely anomalous” and prompted people to question the election results. He also said the state could use paper ballots to avoid fraud; Michigan already uses paper ballots.
In a statement, Gibbs reiterated his belief that there were "widespread irregularities and statistical anomalies" in the 2020 election while referencing issues like "ballot harvesting" and "mass mailing ballots to every voter."
"We must take urgent, concrete steps to address these issues, starting with a full forensic audit of what happened in 2020," he said in the statement.
Michigan law already greatly limits who may legally take an absentee ballot to a drop box or collection site. And while Trump and other conservatives had repeatedly suggested the Michigan Secretary of State sent out absentee ballots to every registered voter, that's inaccurate — Secretary Jocelyn Benson sent absentee ballot applications to every voter, documents also sent frequently by both political parties that are readily accessible online.
Democrats spent millions thought to have helped Gibbs defeat Meijer in the primary. Nationally and locally, many expect ex-Obama administration official and Democrat Hillary Scholten could defeat Gibbs in the November election.
Contact Dave Boucher: dboucher@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1.