GOP leaders may amplify election denial again

By Sadie Dempsey, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Benny Witkovsky, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jianing Li, Rutgers University, and Michael W. Wagner, University of Wisconsin-Madison Will local Republican Parties again serve as megaphones for election disinformation, as they did in 2020? AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File With the 2024 election just weeks away, former President Donald Trump continues to spread false claims of fraud in the 2020 election. He also insists without evidence that the same may happen this year. In a Sept. 7, 2024, post on Truth Social, Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, repeated the claims he has made over the past four years. “I know, better than most, the rampant Cheating and Skullduggery that has taken place by the Democrats in the 2020 Presidential Election. It was a Disgrace to our Nation! Therefore, the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.” Trump’s rhetoric bears the hallmarks of the 2020 #StopTheSteal movement: preemptively challenge votes before they are cast,...