As a voter in Alaska for over 50 years, the 2024 general election will be my first in which I will not be supporting a single Republican. My decision is foundational for I am convinced Donald Trump has not, and will not, adhere to the basic tenets of our American democracy — free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power.
There was no fraud in the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election sufficient to overturn any state’s certified election results. The reality is “[t]he November 3rd election was the most secure in American history” according to a joint statement issued by the United States Department of Homeland Security-Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council (GCC), and the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council (SCC).
Trump responded by firing the CISA director and continuing to claim without evidence that the 2020 election was stolen. Trump had the opportunity to provide evidence of election fraud to more than 60 state and federal courts, but he failed to do so.
By continuing to trumpet false election claims, Trump casts doubt on the integrity of our elections process and on election officials and volunteers who make the process work. As a consequence of Trump’s lies, a large number of Trump supporters are more likely to believe what Trump tells them to believe about the 2024 election outcome than they are to trust the official certified election results (Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts).
Having worked in the trenches supporting Republicans and having served on the Alaska Elections Certification Board, I am disappointed an overwhelming majority of Republican elected officials, candidates, and party leaders remain silent or distort the truth to enable Trump’s lies to fester and potentially reach the boiling point in 2024 as they did in 2020.
Trump contested the 2020 election through election procedures and the courts as he had every right to do. He failed because he did not have the votes or the evidence sufficient to change the election. Trump, however, still refused to concede or abide by the lawful election results. He refused to attend his successor’s inauguration, a powerful symbol of American democracy to the world. Instead, Trump attempted to hold power by:
• Making false election claims.
• Disregarding court rulings.
• Rejecting “findings and conclusions and advice from his Justice Department, his campaign experts, and his White House and Cabinet advisors.”
• Pressuring state and local officials not to certify election results.
• Pressuring state officials to change the election outcome.
• Pressuring DOJ officials to issue a false letter that the department would be investigating various irregularities in the 2020 election.
• Creating or attempting to create false sets of electors.
• Pressuring states to create and transmit fake election certificates.
• Pressuring Vice President Pence to declare that certain electoral votes could not be counted at the joint session.
• Summoning a mob to Washington, instructing them to march to the Capitol.
• Failing to act for hours when the Capitol was under attack.
These bullet points are proven by facts, documents, and sworn testimony. See “Final Report of the Select Committee To Investigate The January 6th Attack On The United States Capitol.”
Mark my words: Trump will do anything to win. Expect chaos, confusion, delay and doubt in the 2024 election. He’s done it before.
I remember Watergate when Republicans held Nixon accountable. Today, notwithstanding the greater gravity of the matter, most Republicans will give Trump a free pass for his election lies and for Jan. 6. I urge you, don’t be that Republican in 2024. Don’t let the party of Lincoln stagnate as the party of Trump. Don’t let Trump’s contagion of the Republican Party continue to adversely infect the GOP.
It grieves me that I don’t know if the Republican Party will ever fully recover from Trump. I hope it does but until such time I will be standing with Liz Cheney and her organization Our Great Task which “is dedicated to the most important cause of our time: defending our Constitution and defeating Donald Trump and his enablers.”
I will be voting for Kamala Harris and Mary Peltola in this election.
• Chip Wagoner is a Juneau resident and former Republican National Committeeman for Alaska who changed his registration to nonpartisan more than two decades ago when his church asked him to represent them on public policy matters.
