There’s Plenty Of Election Denying Drama In Oklahoma (And Florida And New York, Too)
Oklahoma may be getting overshadowed by tonight’s big races in Florida and New York, but if you’re interested in candidates who deny the legitimacy of the 2020 election, don’t sleep on the Sooner State. Election denialism has led to some ~ drama ~ in recent weeks leading up to the runoffs.
A debate earlier this month between the two GOP runoff candidates for Senate — Rep. Markwayne Mullin and former state House Speaker T.W. Shannon — opened with both men claiming the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump. This prompted Anthony Ferate, the chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party, to tweet out defiantly: “The election wasn’t stolen,” adding in a follow-up tweet that the Trump campaign failed to provide “a scintilla of provable evidence.”
But Ferate’s tweet hardly caused candidates to backpedal. In fact, it inspired state Rep. Avery Frix, a candidate in the GOP runoff for Oklahoma’s 2nd District, to tweet that Ferate was wrong, saying “the irregularities of the 2020 election were outrageous; I will never be convinced that Biden received more votes than any other president in history.”
I told you. Drama.
Notably, Frix is facing off against former state Sen. Josh Brecheen, who has so far avoided commenting publicly on the 2020 election, and it looks to be a tight race. When it comes to the Senate runoff, however, both Mullin and Shannon have said the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, so the Republican nominee is guaranteed to be an election denier regardless of the state party chair’s dismay.
This is not to say that Florida and New York don’t have their fair share of election deniers running in races tonight, too. Out of the 95 Republican candidates running the Florida primaries tonight, 45 have denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election, and an additional 12 have at least questioned the results. These include Navy veteran Erick Aguilar, who’s running in the GOP primary for an open seat in Florida’s 4th District, and has continually claimed Trump won the election in 2020. Laura Loomer, the far-right activist challenging Rep. Daniel Webster in the 11th District (who himself voted not to certify some of the 2020 election results), is so convinced of election fraud, here’s what she sported at a recent campaign event:
Meanwhile, in New York, eight of 40 Republican candidates have denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election, and six have questioned the results. But that’s not to say the rest have accepted the results — we were unable to find a stated position on the 2020 election from 19 candidates. Among the full-blown election deniers running in New York tonight is Robert Cornicelli, a far-right Navy and Army vet challenging Rep. Andrew Garbarino in the state’s 2nd District. Cornicelli has been endorsed by Michael Flynn — Trump’s erstwhile national security advisor turned conspiracy theorist — and has called the election “stolen” and “rigged.”
When it comes to candidates willing to parrot Trump’s lies about the 2020 election being stolen, there’s plenty to watch tonight, for better or worse. Here’s everyone in New York and Florida that I’ll be keeping an eye on tonight:
How election deniers are doing tonight
Senate, House, gubernatorial, attorney general and secretary of state candidates who have either denied or questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election, and their results in Republican primaries in Florida and New York, as of 7:50 p.m. Eastern
| CANDIDATE | OFFICE | Position on 2020 election | % REPORTING | VOTE SHARE | STATUS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kat Cammack* | FL-03 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 58% | 85.9% | Leading |
| Manuel P. Asensio | FL-03 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 58 | 0.0 | Trailing |
| Erick Aguilar | FL-04 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 99 | 25.3 | Trailing |
| Jon Chuba | FL-04 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 99 | 6.2 | Trailing |
| John H. Rutherford* | FL-05 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 99 | 65.7 | Leading |
| Cory Mills | FL-07 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 99 | 38.6 | Leading |
| Erika Benfield | FL-07 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 99 | 5.4 | Trailing |
| Scott Sturgill | FL-07 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 99 | 4.3 | Trailing |
| Armando Al Santos | FL-07 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 99 | 2.0 | Trailing |
| Scotty Moore | FL-09 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 52 | 54.4 | Leading |
| Jose Castillo | FL-09 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 52 | 25.8 | Trailing |
| Adianis Morales | FL-09 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 52 | 13.0 | Trailing |
| Sergio E. Ortiz | FL-09 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 52 | 6.8 | Trailing |
| Calvin B. Wimbish | FL-10 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 79 | 44.4 | Leading |
| Peter Weed | FL-10 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 79 | 13.4 | Trailing |
| Tuan Le | FL-10 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 79 | 13.3 | Trailing |
| Willie Montague | FL-10 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 79 | 11.8 | Trailing |
| Thuy “Twee” Lowe | FL-10 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 79 | 10.9 | Trailing |
| Lateresa “L.A.” Jones | FL-10 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 79 | 6.1 | Trailing |
| Daniel Webster* | FL-11 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 99 | 50.8 | Leading |
| Laura Loomer | FL-11 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 99 | 44.5 | Trailing |
| Gavriel E. Soriano | FL-11 | ❓Raised doubts | 99 | 4.7 | Trailing |
| Gus Michael Bilirakis* | FL-12 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 92 | 80.5 | Leading |
| Jack Martin | FL-12 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 92 | 8.7 | Trailing |
| Chris Leiser | FL-12 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 92 | 4.7 | Trailing |
| Brian Perras | FL-12 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 92 | 3.7 | Trailing |
| Anna Paulina Luna | FL-13 | ❓Raised doubts | 99 | 44.2 | Leading |
| Christine Y. Quinn | FL-13 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 99 | 3.0 | Trailing |
| James Judge | FL-14 | ❓Raised doubts | 76 | 53.5 | Leading |
| Martin Hyde | FL-16 | ❓Raised doubts | 99 | 13.7 | Trailing |
| Scott Franklin* | FL-18 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 82 | 74.3 | Leading |
| Wendy June Schmeling | FL-18 | ❓Raised doubts | 82 | 6.8 | Trailing |
| Kenneth “Kenny” James Hartpence | FL-18 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 82 | 6.1 | Trailing |
| Brian Mast* | FL-21 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 64 | 80.5 | Leading |
| Jeff Buongiorno | FL-21 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 64 | 10.2 | Trailing |
| Joe Budd | FL-23 | ❓Raised doubts | 37 | 34.6 | Leading |
| James “Jim” Pruden | FL-23 | ❓Raised doubts | 37 | 22.8 | Trailing |
| Christy McLaughlin | FL-23 | ❓Raised doubts | 37 | 12.3 | Trailing |
| Darlene Cerezo Swaffar | FL-23 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 37 | 11.4 | Trailing |
| Steven Chess | FL-23 | ❓Raised doubts | 37 | 10.6 | Trailing |
| Myles Perrone | FL-23 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 37 | 2.1 | Trailing |
| Jesus G. Navarro | FL-24 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 33 | 65.2 | Leading |
| Lavern Spicer | FL-24 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 33 | 34.8 | Trailing |
| Carla Spalding | FL-25 | ❓Raised doubts | 41 | 71.3 | Leading |
| Rubin Young | FL-25 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 41 | 28.7 | Trailing |
| Mario Diaz-Balart* | FL-26 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 71 | 84.3 | Leading |
| Darren Aquino | FL-26 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 71 | 15.7 | Trailing |
| María Elvira Salazar* | FL-27 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 57 | 82.1 | Leading |
| Carlos A. Gimenez* | FL-28 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 54 | 74.7 | Leading |
| Carlos Garin | FL-28 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 54 | 14.2 | Trailing |
| Matt Gaetz* | FL-01 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 0 | 0.0 | — |
| Greg Merk | FL-01 | ❓Raised doubts | 0 | 0.0 | — |
| Carrie Lawlor | FL-22 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 0 | 0.0 | — |
| Nicholas J. LaLota | NY-01 | ❓Raised doubts | 0 | 0.0 | — |
| Michelle Bond | NY-01 | ❓Raised doubts | 0 | 0.0 | — |
| Robert Cornicelli | NY-02 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 0 | 0.0 | — |
| Mike Rakebrandt | NY-02 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 0 | 0.0 | — |
| Nicole Malliotakis* | NY-11 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 0 | 0.0 | — |
| John Matland | NY-11 | ❓Raised doubts | 0 | 0.0 | — |
| Tina Forte | NY-14 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 0 | 0.0 | — |
| Claudia Tenney* | NY-24 | ❓Raised doubts | 0 | 0.0 | — |
| Mario Fratto | NY-24 | 🚫 Denied legitimacy | 0 | 0.0 | — |