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The 2020 election deniers running in swing states

Gubernatorial candidates in multiple swing states have questioned the 2020 election results. How worried should you be?

President Donald Trump has spent years making false claims about election fraud, including his refusal to accept that he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. Since that election, Republicans who denied or questioned the results have taken positions on local election boards, worked inside election offices, trained poll observers, and sought to influence state election laws.

Now, as we head into the 2026 midterm elections, candidates who have denied or questioned the results of the 2020 election are running for governor and other powerful positions in key swing states. If elected, some could play important roles in overseeing future elections.

Today, Explained co-host Sean Rameswaram spoke with Andrew Kaczynski, senior reporter at CNN who has been reporting on election-denying candidates and what their victories could mean for future elections.

Below is an excerpt of the conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.

Which swing states are having elections featuring candidates who have denied the 2020 election results?

The interesting thing is that we talked about in this article that we did on the five most key swing states is governor’s races. We’re talking Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin and Georgia. These are all states that Trump won in 2016, Biden in 2020, then........

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