October 3, 2022/Media, Press

IYCMI: Budd “Legitimized the Myth of a Stolen Election — and Reaped the Rewards”

Reporting from the New York Times is highlighting how Congressman Ted Budd’s efforts to undermine democracy by spreading the Big Lie and voting to overturn the 2020 election has been rewarded by ultra-conservative special interests and allies, including millions from Club for Growth and support from former President Trump.

It’s clear Ted Budd will always put his own political ambitions first – even if it means spreading dangerous lies about the election and failing to protect our democracy.

New York Times: They Legitimized the Myth of a Stolen Election — and Reaped the Rewards

  • The votes to reject the election results have become a badge of honor within the party, in some cases even a requirement for advancement, as doubts about the election have come to define what it means to be a Trump Republican.
  • The most far-reaching of Mr. Trump’s ploys to overturn his defeat, the objections to the Electoral College results by so many House Republicans did more than any lawsuit, speech or rally to engrave in party orthodoxy the myth of a stolen election. Their actions that day legitimized Mr. Trump’s refusal to concede, gave new life to his claims of conspiracy and fraud and lent institutional weight to doubts about the central ritual of American democracy.
  • In a sign of how central they have become to the right, objectors make up virtually all the incumbents backed this year by the advocacy group Club for Growth, a titan of conservative campaign money. The group has reported spending more than $17 million directly backing objectors and a similar sum attacking their opponents.
  • Along with smaller sums spent on other objectors, the group’s political action committee spent more than $7 million to back Representative Ted Budd in his North Carolina Senate race.
  • Mr. Budd of North Carolina signaled support for Mr. Trump’s fraud claims in the weeks after the election by introducing the Combat Voter Fraud Act. As a Republican candidate for the Senate, he warmed up a Trump rally this spring by accusing Democrats of opposing “election integrity” because “they know they can’t win elections on a woke left agenda.” (A spokesman for Mr. Budd said he had started pushing for tighter voter registration requirements long before the 2020 election, noting the experience of a major election fraud scandal in his state in 2018.)