Two months have passed since the 2020 presidential election and Trump has still not conceded. Biden secured 306 Electoral College votes, surpassing the 270 needed to win, but the president, with 232 Electoral College votes, has repeatedly claimed that widespread voter fraud caused his defeat. Judges have slapped down virtually all of the dozens of lawsuits filed by Trump’s campaign in disputed states seeking to reverse his election loss.
But Trump’s not the only Republican who is declining to accept defeat. Illinois State Senator Jim Oberweis, who lost his bid to unseat Democratic Congresswoman Lauren Underwood, informed the House on Monday of his intentions to contest the outcome of his election, one day after his opponent was sworn into her second term.
Underwood defeated Oberweis by a small margin of 5,374 votes—1.34 percent—but the Republican is now claiming he won. In his ‘Notice of Contest,’ Oberweis alleged that the nearly 40,000 mail-in ballots from Kane County were improperly initiated by election officials and demanded they be voided.
“I do not believe we found any rampant fraud, but what we found is Election Jurisdictions around the 14th District not following the law, which led to an inability to verify that only those who were legally entitled to vote actually voted,” the Republican state senator said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Underwood’s campaign called the effort a “legal bluster” and insisted that it will not change the election outcome.
Meanwhile, Nicole Ziccarelli, Pennsylvania Democratic state Senator Jim Brewster’s challenger, contested her election results after losing by 69 votes in the November 3 election. In court filings, Ziccarelli had sought to disqualify 311 mail-in ballots that did not have a handwritten date on the ballot envelope. The state Supreme Court dismissed her lawsuit last year.
But Pennsylvania Republicans have refused to seat Brewster for a fourth term. The GOP-controlled state Senate quickly devolved into a shouting match, with Democrats protesting, after lawmakers returned to the Capitol on Tuesday.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, a Democrat, strongly rebuked the Republican senators for refusing to swear in Brewster. “Sen. Jim Brewster rightfully won the 45th Senate District, but Senate Republicans are ignoring the voters in the district and refusing to swear him in as Senator,” he said in a statement. “This is a shameful power grab that disgraces the institution.”
“It is simply unethical and undemocratic to leave the district without a voice simply because the Republicans don’t like the outcome of the election. Voters, not Harrisburg politicians, decided this election, and Sen. Brewster is the rightful winner.”
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment.
