GOP Plans To Challenge Electoral College Vote Will Fail

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is planning to object to Congress certifying the Electoral College vote for President-Elect Joe Biden when on Jan. 5, after the 117th Congress is sworn in. He is expected to be joined by over 140 House Republicans in objecting to the vote, citing voter fraud, which has already been debunked thoroughly, including Trump-loyalist former Attorney General William Barr and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The move, though has attracted criticism not just from across the aisle but also from fellow Republicans.

The first matter of business to make clear is that none of these objections will result in Joe Biden not becoming the President on Jan. 20. In order to stop the certification of electoral votes, both houses of Congress must vote not to certify. Since the House of Representatives is controlled by Democrats, it is a certainty that the votes will be certified. Also, even though the Senate is Republican-controlled, numerous senators, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), do not support the move by Hawley to not certify.

Hawley, an ambitious first-term senator, has answered numerous calls from President Trump for the Congress to not certify electoral votes for Joe Biden, claiming that the election was rigged and rife with fraud (all of these claims have been debunked by both Republicans and governmental departments). On Wednesday, he announced that he would not vote to certify the electoral votes, claiming the vote as “an effort to highlight the failure” of states “to follow their own election laws as well as the unprecedented interference of Big Tech monopolies in the election,” likely pointing to large social media companies fact-checking false Republican claims of voter fraud and election-rigging.

Although multiple Trump loyalists in the House have already stated that they would object to the election results, and a CNN article reported that there could be upward of 140 Republicans voting no in the House, no senator until now had agreed to object. Both a senator and a representative are required to object when Congress tallies and certifies the electoral votes.

The “no” vote will force the Senate to debate, for up to two hours, whether or not to certify the votes. The votes are sure to be certified, though, and the move will only serve to delay certification since only a simple majority is required to certify.

While Hawley’s announcement delighted President Trump, it is not a welcome move by much of the Republican leadership. Leaders, like McConnell, had hoped to avoid a situation where congresspeople would have to choose whether or not to side with the president and endorse or object to the election results.

McConnell has already privately asked for members not to object, in an effort to try and avoid splitting the Republican Party down the middle and handing the Democrats an unexpected win. (There is nothing McConnell, and GOP leaders, fear more than a split Republican Party.) Other Trump loyalists in the Senate, like Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), have announced they would not object to certification.

Another high-profile Republican to reject Hawley’s decision was Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), who published a lengthy Facebook post explaining why voting to not certify would be a “dangerous ploy” and called on other Republicans to object. Among some of the more interesting parts in the post was where he said that most Republicans privately did not support the effort, but still choose to publicly announce that they do in order to appeal to the president’s populist base.

“Let’s be clear what is happening here: We have a bunch of ambitious politicians who think there’s a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base without doing any real, long-term damage. But they’re wrong – and this issue is bigger than anyone’s personal ambitions. Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government,” Sasse wrote. He called the president’s ploy to overturn the results of a legitimate election “playing with fire” and that “when we talk in private, I haven’t heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent – not one. Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will “look” to President Trump’s most ardent supporters.”

It isn’t hard to see why Hawley might be bucking GOP leadership and choosing to side with the President, though. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), called the move “how you run for president on the Republican side in 2024.” Klobuchar is the ranking member and top Democrat on the committee that oversees the electoral vote certification.

Unfortunately, that is a very selfish move for his own party. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler (both R-Ga.), are facing tough reelection bids in a runoff election in Georgia, which will be held just a day after the vote certification. By forcing Perdue and Loeffler to take sides, they could be angering a large portion of the Republican base, who seem to be split in half with the Trump loyalists and the more moderate, traditional Republicans, who oppose Trump. In such a close election, even if a small percentage of the GOP base who gets angry and the senators’ decision chooses not the vote, it could prove fatal for the GOP Senate majority.

In addition, the move is clearly forming a rift within Republicans. With the Trump wing denouncing McConnell and GOP leadership for not siding with him, it isn’t hard to see that is where the GOP will be torn down the middle.

I saved at least 8 Republican Senators, including Mitch, from losing in the last Rigged (for President) Election. Now they (almost all) sit back and watch me fight against a crooked and vicious foe, the Radical Left Democrats. I will NEVER FORGET!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 24, 2020

The GOP had better hope that Trump doesn’t form his own party and runs in 2024, because by doing so, it will split the Republican vote, hand Democrats a victory, and would completely and fundamentally break apart the Republican Party and change American politics forever (and probably for the better).

More on the 2020 elections can be found on our 2020 election coverage page.

Happy new year.