Maddow Blog | State-level Republican officials continue to reward fake electors

Steve Benen
Updated ·2 min read
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At first blush, it might seem wholly unremarkable that Republican officials in Wisconsin met over the weekend and chose new members to represent the Badger State on the Republican National Committee. But as it turns out, there was a larger significance to one of the selections. WisPolitics reported:

Soon after, the Wisconsin Republican Party congratulated Travis on the new gig.And who, exactly, is Pam Travis? I’m glad you asked.

After Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020, Republicans in several states created forged election materials, pretending to be “duly elected and qualified electors,” and sent the documents to, among others, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Archivist, as if the fake materials were legitimate. They were not.

One of the states, of course, was Wisconsin, where some actual electors filed a civil suit against the fake electors. The case was ultimately settled, and under the agreement, the 10 illegitimate electors agreed that President Joe Biden rightfully won the state, vowed not to serve as electors in 2024, and sent a written statement to relevant government offices that said their actions were “part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results.”

Among the 10 fake electors was Pam Travis — who was just elevated to the Republican National Committee.

If these circumstances sound at all familiar, it’s not your imagination. Last month, for example, Arizona’s fake electors, including GOP state Sen. Jake Hoffman, were indicted by state prosecutors. Two days after Hoffman was charged, the Arizona Republican Party thought it’d be a good idea to elevate the state senator to the Republican National Committee — leaving little doubt that the party simply didn’t much care about the criminal indictment issued 48 hours earlier.

The Arizona Republic’s Laurie Roberts soon after summarized in a column: “The Arizona Republican Party on Saturday sent a flat out, full-throated, flabbergasting message to the voters of this great state. We be crazy, they proclaimed.”

Two weeks later, several indicted fake electors in Nevada were elected to serve as delegates to the Republican National Convention — and two of them were nominated to be among the party’s presidential electors for Nevada.

To be sure, Wisconsin’s Travis hasn't been indicted, but the larger pattern is nevertheless striking: At the state level, GOP officials appear quite comfortable extending rewards to those who were caught serving as fake electors.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com