Republicans Who Denied 2020 Are Running for Office

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelfanone.substack.comElection denial isn’t just some embarrassing opinion Republicans keep around to make the base happy.It’s a job application.Because the people still pushing the lie about 2020 aren’t only running for Congress or showing up on podcasts anymore. They’re running for governor — and a lot of voters don’t fully understand what that office actually controls.If you win a governorship, you don’t just get a microphone and a podium.You get the keys to the state’s enforcement power.State police. Investigators. State bureaus of investigation. Intelligence units. Election “integrity” task forces. In some states, influence over the attorney general or direct appointment power. The budgets. The leadership hires. The priorities. The tone.In other words: you get the cops.And if the person holding those keys believes elections are fake unless they win, you’re not dealing with normal politics anymore. You’re dealing with an authority problem.I did two decades in law enforcement. I worked violent crime, narcotics, and task forces with federal agencies. I’ve watched what happens when an agency starts treating the institution as the thing that needs protection, instead of the truth. I’ve watched what happens when leadership decides the outcome first and then sends investigators out to “find” evidence that supports it.Now imagine that mindset scaled up to an entire state.A governor who ran on “the election was stolen” isn’t coming into office looking to protect democracy. They’re coming into office looking to validate their story. They need enemies. They need scapegoats. They need “proof.” And when you have a badge-and-gun apparatus under your command, you can manufacture a lot of misery without ever technically saying the quiet part out loud.It starts with “investigations.” Big announcements. Task forces. Raids. Subpoenas. Press conferences about “election integrity.” Meanwhile, the target is never the real sources of election threats — foreign interference, actual fraud, real vulnerabilities in systems.The target is people doing their jobs.County election officials. Poll workers. Clerks. Volunteers. The boring Americans who keep the system running. The kind of people who do this work because they believe in process.You point state investigators at them, and you don’t even need convictions to do damage. The process becomes the punishment. You drain them financially. You smear them publicly. You scare the next person from volunteering.And once you normalize that, the next step is intimidation.Not always a guy with a rifle standing outside a polling place — although we’ve seen that too. Sometimes it’s simpler: state police “presence” at voting locations that doesn’t feel like protection. It feels like surveillance. Like a warning. Like a message about who’s in charge.Then comes the chilling effect. People don’t sign up to work elections. People stop wanting to be the clerk. People stop wanting to certify results. People stop wanting to be the adult in the room — because being an adult in the room now comes with a target on your back.And this is the part most people miss: state law enforcement isn’t some separate island. It interfaces with federal agencies all the time. Joint task forces. Shared intel. Cooperative investigations. If you get an election-denying governor with loyalists running those state agencies, you can gum up real investigations while chasing fantasy ones. You can protect allies and punish enemies under the cover of “public safety.”This is why the governor races matter so much more than people realize. It’s not just “red vs blue.” It’s whether your state’s enforcement tools are going to be used to protect democracy… or pressure it.Because once you hand an election denier control of a state’s cops and prosecutors, they don’t suddenly become neutral administrators. They become the enforcement wing of a political narrative.And here’s the truth: a democracy can survive ugly rhetoric. It can survive bad policy. It cannot survive a system where the people with guns and badges are being told the election is illegitimate unless their side wins.So don’t treat these races like background noise. Learn who’s running. Learn what powers your governor has in your state. Ask directly: do they accept the results of elections they lose?Because if they can’t say yes to that, they shouldn’t be anywhere near the levers of law enforcement authority.Not in any state. Not in any party. Not in any era of American life.🟧 Paid subscribers get 15% off your next merch order🟧 Founding Members get 20% off for lifeYou’ll get the link in your welcome email.GET DISCOUNTS BELOW! ENJOY!