For weeks, Joy Banks felt as if she — or at least her rights as a voter and a citizen in good standing — were being held hostage.
Republican Kari Lake lost Arizona’s 2022 gubernatorial election fair and square. But the Board of Supervisors in rural Cochise County refused to certify the result, adopting an unfair and undemocratic strategy (if you don’t like the outcome of an election, just ignore it) that has become a central tenet of the MAGAfied GOP.
“They had my vote. They had 40,000 votes and they were holding on to them,” said Banks, co-owner of a family-owned electrical contracting business in the small town of Huachuca. “I’ve never felt so hopeless about my government.”
The board eventually reversed itself, on a judge's order. The two GOP members who voted against certification were charged with state felonies.
But Banks was so restless that she decided to run for a vacant seat on the three-member board. She is one of many candidates across the country campaigning for an office that seeks to counter election denialism and political chicanery at the local level — an effort that has become even more critical after President Biden’s disastrous debate performance.
As a Democrat, Banks, 70, is a favorite in Cochise County, a deeply conservative area of southeastern Arizona. But she said it's important to take a stand against the bad faith that is eroding trust in our elections and threatening the very foundation of the country.
“The battle,” he said, “is right here.”
Donald Trump is, of course, the chief promoter of the false idea that the 2020 election (considered “the most secure in American history” by independent experts) was wrongly and fraudulently decided. In last week’s debate, the former president again refused to promise, without reservation, that he would accept the result if he lost in November.
It is alarming that Trump's Big Lie has spread over the past three and a half years like a poison coursing through the country's bloodstream.
Public Wise, a center-left research and voting rights organization, counts nearly 350 elected officials in seven battleground states who have undermined or called into question the integrity of elections. (The organization focused its research on Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which are seen as crucial in the fight for the White House, control of Congress or both.)
Among those dubious positions are nearly 200 state representatives, 78 state senators, 76 county and local officials, and four statewide officials. Many of them are seeking reelection in November.
“We really believe that democracy is at stake this year, and in general,” said Lauren Gepford, director of Contest Every Race, a Democratic organization that seeks to do exactly that: field a candidate for every competitive office, regardless of their odds of winning.
As a Democrat, Joy Banks is clearly an underdog in her bid for Cochise County Board of Supervisors. But she said it's important to try.
(Hector Acuña / Herald/Review)
“We want to get more people at the polls who look like their communities and get back to talking about how we all get along in our communities and do what’s best for America and our cities and towns, rather than the misinformation and poison that the country has really been headed toward,” Gepford said.
His organization has recruited more than 7,000 candidates since its founding in 2018. Nearly 100 are running this year to challenge election deniers or defend election integrity in several of the aforementioned battleground states.
One of them is Lucas Reinke, a 39-year-old warehouse worker who was elected in April to the Winnebago County Board of Supervisors in Wisconsin, perhaps the most competitive state in the country.
“I just want to make sure that everyone in the county has the ability to vote for the candidate that they think can do the best job and that they do so without fear of intimidation or retaliation,” Reinke said. “And make sure that it’s easy for them to do so.”
Gepford’s group pursues a vital mission. No candidate — in the most Democratic stronghold of California or the most Republican redoubt of Alabama — should run uncontested, even if it is ultimately futile. Accountability is important, as is giving voters a voice, even if they are outnumbered.
“The philosophy here is that extremism thrives, develops and grows when we don’t resist it and when we allow ourselves to have a truly unrepresentative democracy,” Gepford said.
It is especially important to confront those bad actors who, through cynicism, willful ignorance, or a combination of both, have laid siege to our electoral system.
Especially at a time when President Biden's re-election chances look increasingly shaky and a pliant U.S. Supreme Court has signaled a willingness to grant Trump a get-out-of-jail-free card for his attempt to steal the 2020 election.
Two years ago, several high-profile deniers lost races across the country. Arizona sent a whole slate to defeat, including Lake and candidates for U.S. Senate, attorney general and state elections chief.
It was rightly celebrated as a significant victory for democracy and the sanctity of free and fair elections.
But it was just one skirmish in an ongoing struggle. If Trump and his allies triumph in November and seize not only the White House but also full control of Congress, we will need principled local leaders to stand against the forces of MAGA malevolence.
They could be the last thin line of defense.
