{"id":108819,"date":"2021-01-19T16:06:52","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T16:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=108819"},"modified":"2021-01-19T16:06:52","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T16:06:52","slug":"trump-fraud-claims-open-republican-rift-in-texas-and-other-red-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/trump-fraud-claims-open-republican-rift-in-texas-and-other-red-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump fraud claims open Republican rift in Texas and other red states"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEVELLAND, Texas (Reuters) – Pat Cowan, a Republican official in west Texas, would rather blow up her party than see it controlled by \u201cweak\u201d Republicans who increasingly are distancing themselves from President Donald Trump since the U.S. Capitol riots he is accused of inciting.<\/p>

FILE PHOTO: Tear gas is released into a crowd of protesters, with one wielding a Confederate battle flag that reads “Come and Take It,” during clashes with Capitol police at a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by the U.S. Congress, at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, U.S, January 6, 2021. REUTERS\/Shannon Stapleton <\/figcaption>

\u201cYou can\u2019t tell those Republicans from the Democrats!\u201d she scoffed in an interview at her home in Levelland, Texas.<\/p>\n

Like many others here in Hockley County, where Cowan is the party chairwoman, she believes Trump\u2019s baseless claims that he was robbed of a Nov. 3 election victory by voter fraud. She\u2019s incensed at the handful of Texas Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives who certified Democrat Joe Biden\u2019s election win in the hours after the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6. She\u2019s even angrier at the 10 Republican House members from other states who voted to impeach Trump for allegedly inciting the insurrection.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat has led a lot of us to think that we\u2019re just going to have to come up with a new party,\u201d she said, \u201cand I think that Trump is going to lead it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Cowan\u2019s stark view of the party\u2019s future – echoed by many of the two dozen Texas voters and party officials interviewed by Reuters – underscores how Trump, after four years of dividing the nation, now has done the same to his own party. Many Republican candidates in solidly conservative states like Texas face intense pressure to perpetuate Trump\u2019s false election-fraud narrative as voters make loyalty to Trump a litmus test for their support in future elections. That loyalty was on display last week in the Texas state legislature as several Republicans introduced bills to restrict voting access, including limits on mail-in voting and early voting, citing a need to prevent fraud.<\/p>\n

In Georgia, turmoil wracked the party during two ultimately failed campaigns by Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate as Trump attacked Republican Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger over their refusal to help him overturn his Georgia election loss. A billboard in Forsyth County, a rural Trump stronghold, last week called Kemp and Raffensperger \u201ctreasonist RINOs\u201d – Republicans in name only – who should be jailed. In Arizona, the state party will soon vote on whether to censure prominent Republicans including Cindy McCain – wife of the late Senator John McCain – for being insufficiently loyal to Trump.<\/p>\n

Other Republicans, however, warn that caving to Trump loyalists could irreparably damage a party that has already lost the White House and both houses of Congress under Trump\u2019s watch. Several Republican strategists said politicians backing Trump\u2019s false election-fraud claims may see short-term rewards – but at the cost of undermining their own voters\u2019 faith in U.S. elections, along with the party\u2019s credibility and unity in the long term.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe predicate of the nation\u2019s problems – and the party\u2019s problems – going forward is that too many Republicans have promoted the falsehood that the election was stolen,\u201d said Rob Stutzman, a Republican strategist in California who advised the 2008 presidential campaign of Senator Mitt Romney, who is now among the sharpest Republican critics of Trump.<\/p>\n

Alice Stewart, a longtime strategist who served as head of communications for Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz\u2019s 2016 presidential campaign, said the most important thing Republicans can do now is to \u201cstop lying.\u201d<\/p>\n

POLITICAL CALCULATIONS<\/h2>\n

Immediately after the riots, 139 Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives – two-thirds of the party\u2019s caucus – voted against the Electoral College results of key battleground states that affirmed Biden the winner. Eight Republican Senators also cast opposing votes. In Texas, 17 of 24 Republican House members opposed the certification of Electoral College results in some states on Jan. 6.<\/p>

Slideshow ( 2 images )<\/span><\/figcaption>

Of the seven Texas representatives who affirmed Biden\u2019s win, only two – Kevin Brady and Kay Granger – are from districts that are Trump strongholds, where their stand could endanger their future election prospects, according to a Reuters review of voting patterns in Texas house districts in the November election. Trump has often threatened to \u201cprimary\u201d disloyal Republican lawmakers – meaning, to back a Republican challenger in their primary elections. Neither Brady nor Granger responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

The other five members came from more moderate Texas districts with relatively high percentages of Democratic voters, the Reuters review showed. Those members face far less political risk by voting to approve Biden\u2019s win, and may even be rewarded by moderate, anti-Trump voters for doing so.<\/p>\n

Texas Representative Van Taylor, who represents a largely suburban district north of Dallas, is among those who voted to affirm the results. His district is less conservative than many others in Texas: 43% of votes cast there in the November House election came from Democrats.<\/p>\n

Still, Taylor treaded carefully in a brief interview with Reuters in explaining his vote, avoiding any direct criticism of Trump. Taylor acknowledged that Biden won the election legitimately, but said he voted to affirm the Electoral College results on the basis of a constitutional argument that Congress should defer to states\u2019 certified vote counts. He said he supports investigations into fraud allegations and into state election rule changes that enraged many Trump supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cRestoring people\u2019s confidence in the electoral process is really important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Texas Republicans who opposed the certification of Biden\u2019s win backed colleagues calling for a forensic audit of votes in Arizona\u2019s Maricopa County and raised general objections that states such as Pennsylvania had unfairly changed voting rules amid the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

Democrats say such arguments presage a protracted assault on voting rights by Republicans, who generally do poorly in high-turnout elections. Democrat Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in Harris County, which includes Houston, said Trump\u2019s baseless claims are fueling the Texas Republicans\u2019 attacks on voting rights. Hidalgo is credited with spearheading an effort in Houston to expand access in the Nov. 3 election with measures such as drive-through voting stations to protect voters during the pandemic. She called Texas lawmakers\u2019 claims of election fraud akin to arguing \u201cthe world is flat\u201d or \u201cman didn\u2019t really land on the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the bills Texas Republicans proposed last week is a measure giving the secretary of state more power to order counties to purge voters the secretary deems non-citizens from the voter rolls. The Texas secretary of state is appointed by the governor; Texas hasn\u2019t had a Democratic governor since 1995.<\/p>\n

In 2019, a federal judge ruled that the Texas secretary of state\u2019s review of registered voters to find non-citizens had unfairly targeted naturalized citizens. That forced the secretary to rescind an advisory questioning the citizenship of nearly 100,000 voters.<\/p>\n

Briscoe Cain is among the Republican state lawmakers in Texas who have introduced bills that Democrats say undermine voting rights. He argues they are meant to protect a compromised election system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe integrity of our election system is linked to whether or not people have faith in our system of government,\u201d Cain said.<\/p>\n

Cain volunteered as an attorney for the Trump campaign\u2019s failed effort to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania. Across all the election battleground states, Trump and his allies filed more than 60 lawsuits. None succeeded in proving election fraud and many provoked harsh condemnations from judges citing their lack of evidence.<\/p>\n

BACKLASH AGAINST TRUMP ALLIES<\/h2>\n

While many establishment Republicans hope Trump\u2019s influence will fade, they recognize his power within the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Trump opens his own media channel and goes on the road with Trump rallies and claims that he really won the election \u2026 that would probably tear the party apart,\u201d said Stutzman, the Republican strategist.<\/p>\n

Some Republican strategists, however, argue the president\u2019s closest allies – and most fervent promoters of his fraud claims – will face even more political fallout over time.<\/p>\n

In west Texas, while many Trump supporters are turning against Republicans who repudiate the president\u2019s fraud claims, some have more nuanced views on how the party should move forward.<\/p>\n

Some, like Josh Stevens, the mayor of Lamesa, Texas, allow that they do not necessarily believe that election fraud caused Trump\u2019s loss, while maintaining that voter fraud is a bigger problem than Democrats admit.<\/p>\n

Stevens says it\u2019s time for hardcore Trump supporters to learn how to compromise. He warned that outlandish behavior like the pandemonium at the Capitol or continuing to insist there was a massive election fraud could kill Trump\u2019s movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you don\u2019t do is throw on your f—king flak jacket, get your AR-15 and walk around out there, waving your gun like you\u2019re Rambo just to prove a point,\u201d he said. \u201cThat kind of extremism is completely unproductive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LEVELLAND, Texas (Reuters) – Pat Cowan, a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":108818,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23054],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nTrump fraud claims open Republican rift in Texas and other red states - Pre Coin News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/trump-fraud-claims-open-republican-rift-in-texas-and-other-red-states\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump fraud claims open Republican rift in Texas and other red states - Pre Coin News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LEVELLAND, Texas (Reuters) – Pat Cowan, a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/trump-fraud-claims-open-republican-rift-in-texas-and-other-red-states\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pre Coin News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-19T16:06:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/cnewsfotor30-7.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/trump-fraud-claims-open-republican-rift-in-texas-and-other-red-states\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/trump-fraud-claims-open-republican-rift-in-texas-and-other-red-states\/\",\"name\":\"Trump fraud claims open Republican rift in Texas and other red states - 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