Joseph Zambon
Election Deniers Among the New York Congressional Delegation
Data from https://electiondeniers.org/ lists three Republicans among the 26-member New York congressional delegation as “Election Deniers.”
The three are (1) Nicole Malliotakis, R-NY11, representing Staten Island; (2) Elise Stefanik, R-NY21, representing northern rural counties; and (3) Nicholas Langworthy, R-NY23, representing Western New York and the Southern Tier. These congressional districts are all Republican strongholds.
Malliotakis and Langworthy are completing their first terms. Tenney is completing her third term, which includes two non-consecutive terms representing NY22 (Syracuse-Utica), now held by Brandon Williams, and one term representing NY24 (counties bordering Lake Ontario). All of them are seeking re-election.
Election Denier Tina Forte is the Republican sacrificial candidate running against Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for NY14, which covers the Bronx and north-central Queens. According to the Cook Political Report, she doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of beating AOC. NY14 is non-competitive and solid D.
Only three Republican incumbents in New York are election deniers, making up just 12% of the state’s delegation—much lower than in some other states where election denial is almost expected.
Nationally, 172 (32%) sitting members of Congress are election deniers. This includes 20 out of 49 Republican senators (41%) and 152 out of 220 Republican representatives (69%). This fall, 180 Republican election deniers are on the ballot, nearly all of them incumbents.
Importantly, all election deniers are Republicans. No Democrats have promoted the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen.
To emphasize—41% of Republican senators and 69% of Republican representatives support these baseless claims, even though more than 60 court cases have confirmed the legitimacy of the election results.
The Promise Institute for Human Rights provides slightly different figures. That website includes both the classifications “election skeptic” and “election denier.”
From electiondeniers.org, “[Election Deniers]… represent 36 states and a significant portion of each chamber. Many tried to overturn the 2020 election, either in court or by disrupting the certification of the results. Others have pushed election lies and conspiracy theories in front of their constituents. All have abused the public’s trust and undermined our democracy.”
(remember Jimmy Carter’s grandson finding an embarrassing recording of Mitt Romney).
The map below shows the number—not the percentage—of election-denying officials running for Congress nationwide. Darker color means more election-denying candidates running for Congress in that state.
“Election Denier” Criteria
Paraphrasing ElectionDenier.org, an “Election Denier” is someone who has:
- Claimed former President Trump won the 2020 presidential election.
- Spread lies or conspiracies about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election.
- Refused to certify or pressured election officials to refuse to certify the 2020 presidential election results.
- Undermined the integrity of the 2020 presidential election by filing or supporting litigation to overturn the results, participating in Stop the Steal, calling for a “forensic audit” of the 2020 presidential election after the results were already certified, and/or refusing to concede a race, or publicly supported candidates who refused to concede.
Election Denier Elise Stefanik (R-NY21)
Elise Stefanik represents NY21. And she replaced Liz Cheney as chair of the House Republican Conference, making her the fourth-ranking House Republican.
According to Electiondenier.org, Rep. Stefanik (1) refused to certify…the 2020 presidential election results; (2) took action to undermine the integrity of the 2020 presidential election…by Filing or supporting litigation seeking to overturn the results; filing or supporting litigation that was sanctioned for being malicious or without merit in the aftermath of an election; promoting or participating in Stop the Steal; and, calling for a “forensic audit” of the 2020 presidential election.
Countless online sources document Elise Stefanik’s history of promoting election denial.
From CNN: “In December [2020], Stefanik was one of 126 House Republicans to sign on to an amicus brief [organized by Rep. Mike Johnson, now Speaker of the House] in support of a Republican lawsuit that asked the Supreme Court to toss out Biden’s win. … On January 6 [2021, the day of the insurrection], Stefanik was one of 147 Republicans to vote against certifying Biden’s electoral votes… Earlier that day, prior to the storming of the Capitol, Stefanik had told constituents in an open letter that she planned to object to certifying Biden’s wins in all four of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin…. [and] that, in Georgia, ‘more than 140,000 votes came from underage, deceased and otherwise unauthorized voters – in Fulton County alone.’
Election Denier Nicholas Langworthy (R-NY23)
According to electiondeniers.org, Rep. Nicholas Langworthy “Spread lies or promoted conspiracies about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election …in public, including in social media, press statements, or comments to the press.“
That assessment was based, at least partly, on Langworthy’s December 2, 2020, tweet. As New York State Republican Chair, he wrote, “First it was dead voters casting ballots, now a month after Election Day, 55 new ballots just “appear.” The NY State Republican Party has its entire legal team and every resource available to make sure we stop Pelosi from trying to steal this seat from Claudia Tenney.“
Election Skeptic Claudia Tenney (R-NY24)
As I wrote above, another website from the The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law addresses the political category of election deniers and, also, the category of election skeptics. Election skeptics are “candidates who criticized the election casting doubt on the outcome but did not wholly express claims of a stolen or rigged 2020 election.” Sort of election denier light.
Claudia Tenney is an election skeptic. In an interview with WRVO on February 24, 2021 (the month after the insurrection), Tenney expressed doubts about the 2020 election. According to the interviewer, “…she doesn’t have an objection to Joe Biden being president, but she doesn’t know how she would’ve voted on certifying the results“. She said, “…there were so many cases where we didn’t really get to the bottom of it and the cases seemed questionable. But at that point, I really would’ve been torn.”
They Said It, They Own It
In their own words, Stefanik, Langworthy and Tenney have, to varying degrees, questioned the 2020 election. Stefanik filed lawsuit to throw out millions of votes. Langworthy said there was fraud in New York congressional elections for Republican incumbents. He wasn’t concerned about the polls that shifted New York congressional seats from Democrat to Republican. Those were OK and beyond reproach, according to Langworthy.
Tenney is more nuanced. She’s not sure she would have certified the election. There were “questions.” That gives her cover with her MAGA base but not so far as to cause protests in her district, as happened before.
The overhaul of the Electoral Count Act raised the threshold required for members of Congress to object to certifying the electors from one member of the House and Senate to one-fifth of each chamber. That still seems like a low bar, but we’ll see how that goes in a few weeks.