WASHINGTON — The RNC officially endorsed a violent attempt to overturn a fair and free election, stating in a resolution passed Friday that the individuals who stormed that Capitol on January 6th were “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.” The move by the national party formalized the GOP’s embrace of insurrectionists within their ranks. As the DLCC documented at the time, at least 21 sitting state Republican lawmakers attended the insurrection and over 600 legislators either spread “stop the steal” conspiracy theories or worked to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the days leading up to January 6th. To date, none of them have been held accountable by leaders of their party. Instead, Republican legislators continue to pursue costly sham election reviews and double down on the election lies that fanned the flames of the insurrection.
“Republican state lawmakers across the country were instrumental in laying the groundwork for the January 6th attack, including the 21 lawmakers who joined the Stop the Steal rally in person that day, and the hundreds more who touted baseless election lies and sought to overturn the 2020 election,” DLCC President Jessica Post said. “The RNC has just formalized what we already know: the Republican Party has embraced insurrectionists and their enablers for over a year now. This just underscores the dire need to elect Democrats to statehouses all across the country before Republicans attempt to conduct more ‘legitimate political discourse’ and further attack our country.”
The national party committee overseeing state legislators endorsed insurrection-attendees and an insurrectionist-legislator is running to lead the Republican caucus in Michigan’s House of Representatives. The DLCC is committed to documenting the Republican state lawmakers who are complicit in the ongoing attempts to overthrow our democracy and ensuring that they are held accountable. Through our GOP Hall of Shame: Sedition Edition, the DLCC has created a database to highlight the actions of state Republicans leading up to, during, and following the insurrection. The database stands as a chilling reminder that the Republican Party is willing to reject democracy to deliver electoral victories.
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