As candidates at the state level hold town halls looking to improve their chances on the primaries, they are hearing from attendees that they think Trump had the 2020 election stolen from him and are asking why they should bother to come out on election day.
“One year out of office, and with the midterm elections fast approaching, Trump has accelerated efforts to encourage resistance to the reality of his loss. He told his supporters to “never give up” in a statement on the first anniversary of his supporters’ rioting at the U.S. Capitol in a deadly attempt to block the formalization of Biden’s win,” Smith wrote. “In return, there are signs that his voters’ anger over the 2020 election and their belief in the falsehood that his victory was stolen from him has only grown, even as some in the GOP have said they’d prefer to move on and focus on issues that may resonate with a wider swath of the electorate, like inflation.”
That, in turn, the report notes, has some voters claiming they will be staying home.
At a rally in Michigan, Gary Taylor, 65, bluntly stated, “Unless we fix what went down — and I voted ever since I was able to vote — I’m pretty well done. I mean, what’s the point? I think the whole damn thing is corrupt.”