Election denial movement in the United States

Conspiracy theory

Supporters of Donald Trump at the Minnesota State Capitol in Saint Paul, Minnesota at a Stop the Steal rally on November 14, 2020

The election denial movement in the United States is a widespread false belief that elections in the United States are rigged and stolen through election fraud by the opposing political party. Adherents of the movement are referred to as election deniers. Election fraud conspiracy theories have spread online and through conservative conferences, community events, and door-to-door canvassing. Since the 2020 United States presidential election, many Republican politicians have sought elective office or taken legislative steps to address what they assert is weak election integrity leading to widespread fraudulent elections, though no evidence of systemic election fraud has come to light and many studies have found that it is extremely rare.

The movement came to prominence after Donald Trump was defeated in the 2020 United States presidential election. Trump had a history of questioning elections before he ran for office, notably the 2012 reelection of Barack Obama. He grew the movement among his supporters by making consistently false allegations of fraud during the 2016, and in particular the 2020 presidential election. With these false and unsubstantiated claims, Trump and his associates sought to overturn the 2020 election of Joe Biden; he and others have been indicted on federal and state charges involving election subversion. Trump's false allegations came to be known as his "big lie". Trump has since endorsed only Republican candidates who agree the 2020 election had been stolen from him, and did not commit to accepting the results of the 2024 presidential election, should he lose. By April 2024, Trump had embraced mail-in balloting and early voting, which he had for years vilified as corrupt and contributors to his 2020 election loss.

Democrats have also engaged in this movement, although to a much smaller extent, with some contesting the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election and the 2024 United States presidential election, alleging they were stolen by Republicans.

## Context

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Going back decades, some influential Republicans who have expressed concerns around election security have been accused of using the fear of voter fraud as a pretext for voter suppression.[1][2]

A notable quote that has been used as evidence of bad faith efforts to address voter fraud comes from Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the conservative Heritage Foundation, who said in a 1980 speech, "I don't want everybody to vote ... our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."[2] Aspects of election denialism have been noted to relate to the great replacement theory,[3] which has been embraced by some Republican politicians to demonstrate their loyalty to Donald Trump.[4] Trump has falsely claimed that Democrats are encouraging illegal immigration to allow noncitizens to vote and create a permanent Democratic majority.[5]

### Prevalence of voter fraud

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See also: Electoral fraud in the United States

Election experts have found that election fraud is vanishingly rare, not systemic, and not at levels that could have impacted a presidential election.[6][7][8] In response to Donald Trump's 2016 claims of millions of fraudulent votes, the Brennan Center in 2017 evaluated voter fraud data and arrived at a fraud rate of 0.0003–0.0025%.[9] That year, the center also analyzed the Heritage Foundation's database of voter fraud as tiny, reaching back to 1948, and one in which the vast majority of cases would still occur under the Foundation's proposed election reforms.[10]

### Origins of the movement

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Professor Andrew Smolar and Dr. Geoffrey Kabaservice believe this election denial movement began with the Tea Party after Obama's election, citing the Birtherism conspiracy theory as helping to dissolve trust in institutions and objective truth.[11][12] Other dates that have been suggested for the start of this movement include 2012,[13] 2016,[14] and 2020.[15]

Analyst Chris Sautter argues the movement is the latest stage of wrangling about election rules that began in the 1960s regarding severe restrictions to stop Blacks from voting in most of the South. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed discrimination and enabled the federal government to block new restrictions. During the Reagan presidency in the 1980s, the Republican National Committee (RNC) launched "ballot security" and "voter integrity" campaigns to reduce what it alleged to be voter fraud. They focused on minority communities with large Democratic majorities. They stationed off-duty police officers in conspicuous locations near polling places, distributed leaflets suggesting voters could be subjected to prosecution, and made unsupported challenges of registered voters. Federal courts concluded the techniques were designed to frighten minority voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Republican Party officials were forced to sign a consent decree agreeing to stop. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in its ruling on Shelby County v. Holder, which enabled Republican legislatures in at least 20 states to impose new obstacles for the 2018 elections.[16][17]

## Disputed elections

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### President

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#### 2012

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After Obama was declared the winner of the Electoral College while still trailing in the popular vote count early on election night 2012, Trump tweeted the election was a "total sham" because Obama "lost the popular vote by a lot and won the election" and "the electoral college is a disaster for a democracy", adding: "We can't let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty."[18] Final election results showed Obama won the popular vote by nearly five million ballots.[19] In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Trump won the electoral college but lost the popular vote by nearly three million ballots.[20] ABC News writer Terrence Smith described Trump's statements as the first example showing a broader playbook of election denial.[13]

#### 2016

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Main article: Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign § Uncertainty over accepting the election results

During the 2016 Republican primaries, Trump alleged, without evidence, that his opponent Senator Ted Cruz stole the Iowa presidential caucuses after he had won them.[13] During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump asserted that the only way he could lose was if there was election fraud.[21] Trump political advisor Roger Stone created a "Stop the Steal" organization in 2016 in the event Trump lost; it was revived after Trump's loss in 2020.[22]

Trump claimed, without evidence, that millions of undocumented migrants voted illegally for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, costing him the popular vote victory.[23] As a result, Trump established an election integrity commission in May 2017, but the commission was disbanded several months later, with member Matthew Dunlap, the Maine secretary of state, writing to commission chair Mike Pence and vice chair Kris Kobach that, contrary to public statements by Trump and Kobach, the commission did not find "substantial" voter fraud.[24] Dunlap alleged the true purpose of the commission was to create a pretext to pave the way for policy changes designed to undermine the right to vote. Critics said the commission's intent was to disenfranchise or deter legal voters.[25] Kobach, then the Kansas secretary of state, had a history of making false or unsubstantiated allegations of voting fraud to advocate for voting restrictions.[26][27] The commission did not find a single instance of a non-citizen voting.[28]

In spite of accepting the 2016 election result at the time, Hillary Clinton expressed doubts about that election in a 2020 interview:[29]

> 'There was a widespread understanding that this election [in 2016] was not on the level,' Clinton said during an interview for the latest episode of The Atlantic's politics podcast, The Ticket. 'We still don't know what really happened. There's just a lot that I think will be revealed. History will discover,' the Democratic Party's 2016 presidential nominee continued. 'But you don't win by 3 million votes and have all this other shenanigans and stuff going on and not come away with an idea like, 'Whoa, something's not right here.' That was a deep sense of unease.'

Clinton repeatedly voiced her skepticism about Trump winning the 2016 election. She specifically said, "Trump knows he's an illegitimate president."[30] She told The Atlantic "the election 'was not on the level,' and again ... she called Trump’s win illegitimate. She piled on to this by saying, 'You can run the best campaign, you can even become the nominee, and you can have the election stolen from you,' clearly referring to how she saw her 2016 campaign."[31]

#### 2020

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Main article: Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election

See also: Republican efforts to restrict voting following the 2020 presidential election

Donald Trump complained of widespread voter fraud leading up to and following the 2020 U.S. presidential election, which was widely debunked. Having never conceded, Trump used this allegation of fraud as justification to try multiple times to subvert the election results and remain in office. Trump has demanded those seeking his endorsement to support his unfounded allegations of fraud. Many of those involved in the plots, including the riot on January 6, 2021, have been convicted, charged or are under investigation for crimes such as insurrection. Three witnesses close to Trump testified to the January 6 committee that they were aware Trump acknowledged he had lost within days after the election.[32]

#### 2024

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##### Republicans

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Main article: Republican Party efforts to disrupt the 2024 United States presidential election

To sow election doubt, Trump escalated use of "rigged election" and "election interference" statements in advance of the 2024 election compared to the previous two elections - the statements described as part of a "heads I win; tails you cheated" rhetorical strategy.[33]

Trump did not commit to accepting the results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election if he were to lose.[34][35] Trump's niece Mary L. Trump and former Republican Representative Anthony Gonzalez, among others, predicted that he would once again deny the results of a loss and try to steal the election.[36][37] According to NPR, the continuation of election denial tactics by Trump for the 2024 election was likely.[38] In the lead up to the 2024 election, the Republican Party made false claims of massive "noncitizen voting" by immigrants in an attempt to delegitimize the election if Trump had lost.[3] States found very few noncitizens on their voting rolls, and in the extremely rare instances of votes cast by noncitizens they are legal immigrants who are often mistaken that they have a right to vote. An election fraud database maintained by the conservative Heritage Foundation in 2024 indicated 85 instances of irregularities among noncitizens since 2002.[28][39][40][41]

Many Republicans, notably Trump, long criticized "ballot harvesting" and the early voting it enables as rife with fraud and cheating, encouraging their voters to vote only at polling places on election day. The 2022 Dinesh D'Souza film 2000 Mules was centered on false allegations of illegal ballot harvesting by unnamed nonprofit organizations supposedly associated with the Democratic Party to commit election fraud. After disappointing Republican results in the 2020 and 2022 elections, some Trump-aligned organizations such as Turning Point USA recognized they needed to adopt similar ballot collection methods for the 2024 elections, which they named "ballot chasing". Turning Point said it would raise money to create "the largest and most impactful ballot chasing operation the movement has ever seen". Kari Lake, who refused to concede her loss in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race, said she would launch "the largest ballot chasing operation in our nation's history". Media Matters reported in March 2024 that Lara Trump, the new co-chair of the Republican National Committee, had said on a recent podcast that the RNC would launch a "legal ballot harvesting" effort.[42][43][44] Lara Trump said on the same podcast that "I'm gonna say 75 million-plus Americans who still are like, what the hell happened in 2020? They didn't get any answers." She baselessly claimed that the odds of mail-in ballots giving Biden swing state victories was "one in one quadrillion to the fourth power."[44] After insisting for several years that mail-in balloting is "totally corrupt" and contributed to his 2020 election loss, by April 2024 Donald Trump and the RNC were encouraging his supporters to adopt mail-in and early voting.[45][46][47][48]

During the campaign, Trump often referred to "election integrity" to allude to his continuing lie that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen, as well as baseless predictions of future mass election fraud. As he did during the 2020 election cycle, without evidence Trump told supporters that Democrats might try to rig the 2024 election. Many Republicans believe a conspiracy theory claiming Democrats engage in systematic election fraud to steal elections, insisting election integrity is a major concern, though voting fraud is extremely rare. By 2022, Republican politicians, conservative cable news outlets and talk radio echoed a narrative of former Trump advisor Steve Bannon that "if Democrats don't cheat, they don't win". Appearing with Trump in April 2024, House Speaker Mike Johnson baselessly suggested "potentially hundreds of thousands of votes" might be cast by undocumented migrants; as president, Trump falsely asserted that millions of votes cast by undocumented migrants had deprived him of a popular vote victory in the 2016 election. Politico reported in June 2022 that the RNC sought to deploy an "army" of poll workers and attorneys in swing states who could refer what they deemed questionable ballots in Democratic voting precincts to a network of friendly district attorneys to challenge. In April 2024, RNC co-chair Lara Trump said the party had the ability to install poll workers who could handle ballots, rather than merely observe polling places. She also said that the 2018 expiration of the 1982 consent decree prohibiting the RNC from intimidation of minority voters "gives us a great ability" in the election. Trump's political operation said in April 2024 that it planned to deploy more than 100,000 attorneys and volunteers to polling places across battleground states, with an "election integrity hotline" for poll watchers and voters to report alleged voting irregularities. Trump told a rally audience in December 2023 that they needed to "guard the vote" in Democratic-run cities. He had complained that his 2020 campaign was not adequately prepared to challenge his loss in courts; some critics said his 2024 election integrity effort is actually intended to gather allegations to overwhelm the election resolution process should he challenge the 2024 election results. Marc Elias, a Democratic election lawyer who defeated every Trump court challenge after the 2020 election, remarked, "I think they are going to have a massive voter suppression operation and it is going to involve very, very large numbers of people and very, very large numbers of lawyers."[49]

Days after the RNC voted Lara Trump and Michael Whatley to lead the organization, former OANN anchor Christina Bobb was named to head the RNC election integrity program which Lara Trump said occupied "an entire wing of the building". A staunch Trump advocate, Bobb was involved in attempts to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and promoted the false allegation that the election had been stolen from Trump by fraud. Bobb and seventeen other Republicans were each indicted on nine counts of fraud, forgery, and conspiracy in April 2024 for their alleged involvement in the Trump fake electors plot in Arizona.[50][51][44][52] In April 2024, the RNC released a robocall script falsely alleging Democrats committed "massive fraud" in the 2020 election. The script added, "If Democrats have their way, your vote could be canceled out by someone who isn't even an American citizen."[53]

By May 2024, election deniers in support of Trump had moved closer to the GOP mainstream. A report released on May 21, 2024, by States United Action found that "170 representatives and senators out of 535 lawmakers overall can be categorized as election deniers" and that two Senate candidates and 17 House candidates were on the ballot to join them. By 2024, the prevalence of election deniers was noted to have increased among top Republican officials in the RNC.[54] In May, the Associated Press reported that under Lara Trump the RNC has "sought alliances with election deniers, conspiracy theorists and alt-right advocates the party had previously kept at arm's length." It also reported that Lara Trump supported a nationwide policy of not counting any ballots after Election Day, which was noted to be illegal.[55] Trump and several Republicans have stated they will not accept the results of the 2024 election if they believe they are "unfair".[35]

Following Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election, an AP-NORC poll found that Republican confidence in the accuracy of elections jumped and that a majority were confident in the election results after Trump's win.[56] Despite Trump's win, Reuters reported that the election denial movement had not gone away and had strengthened in certain areas of the country. It reported that several advocates continued to push for more restrictive voting laws ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, which critics alleged would cement Republican electoral advantages and lay the groundwork for discrediting future elections if preferred candidates lose. Several 2020 election deniers were also nominated for Trump administration roles, including Pam Bondi for U.S. Attorney General and Kash Patel for FBI Director.[57]

##### Democrats

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Following Trump's victory, some Harris supporters on X shared election denial conspiracy theories, claiming that millions of ballots were "left uncounted" and there being something "not right" with the election. Such posts falsely claiming Trump "stole" the election peaked at noon the day after at 94,000 posts per hour, with many receiving amplification and gaining over a million views each. According to Gordon Crovitz, the CEO of the media rating system NewsGuard, the phrase "Trump cheated" received 92,100 mentions on the platform from midnight until the Wednesday morning after.[58] Besides the claims from Harris' supporters, some Trump supporters baselessly claimed the disparity between other years, the 2020 election, and a then-incomplete 2024 voting total indicated voter fraud in the 2020 election.[59][60]

One major basis these false claims were founded upon was a claim that Biden won 20 million more votes in his prior election bid than Harris had in hers, at the time.[59][60] American journalist and conspiracy theorist Wayne Madsen commented on Threads: "I'm beginning to believe our election was massively hacked just like happened a few weeks ago in the Republic of Georgia."[61] At the time these fallacies were disseminated, votes were still being counted in many states.[58][62] An estimate around the time using the Associated Press vote percentage total found that 16.2 million votes across twenty states and D.C. had yet to be counted. Statistical analysis of voting asserted that despite continued counting, the projections were already set and new ballots would not sway the outcomes of any of the states and D.C.[62] The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Jen Easterly refuted the false claims, and wrote in a statement that there was "no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure".[58][61] Another false claim alleges Musk used the satellite internet constellation Starlink to change the results of the election. Chief technology officer Chip Trowbridge of voting system manufacturer Clear Ballot dismissed the claim and added no machine used to scan voting ballots have any network connection whatsoever.[63]

### Statewide

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#### 2018

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After the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election, Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams lost to Republican candidate Brian Kemp – who, as Georgia Secretary of State, administered the election – and claimed that the election was "stolen" from her as well as claiming the election was "rigged" and "not a free or fair election," [64] on the grounds that voter registrations had been improperly canceled and polling places in poor and minority neighborhoods had been improperly closed. The Washington Post reported that "more than 200 polling places" across Georgia were closed in the 2018 election, "primarily in poor and minority neighborhoods. Voters reported long lines, malfunctioning voting machines and other problems that delayed or thwarted voting in those areas."[65] The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that "precinct closures and longer distances likely prevented an estimated 54,000 to 85,000 voters from casting ballots" on the 2018 Election Day[66] – less than Kemp's margin of victory. According to Richard L. Hasen, professor of law and political science at the University of California at Irvine, "there is no question that Georgia in general and Brian Kemp in particular took steps to make it harder for people to register and vote, and that those people tended to skew Democratic."[67] In 2022, Kemp again defeated Abrams, by a larger margin; Abrams conceded on election night.

#### 2022

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In addition to making false claims about the previous election a centerpiece of her 2022 Arizona gubernatorial campaign, Kari Lake refused to concede her loss, traveling the country into 2023 to promote her election fraud allegations amid speculation she was considering a run for Senate or being named as Trump's running mate in 2024. Her several lawsuits challenging her loss were thrown out, as has a lawsuit to stop using electronic machines.[68][69] A July 2023 suit filed by Republican Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, alleging Lake defamed him by claiming he had rigged the election against her, was in December 2023 cleared to proceed to trial.[70] Lake was the Republican nominee in the 2024 United States Senate election in Arizona.

## Prevalence of election denialism

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### Role of conservative media

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Conservative news outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax and OANN promoted false election fraud allegations during the weeks following the 2020 election, including conspiracy theories that voting machines had been rigged to favor Biden. Voting machine companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic filed defamation suits against those three cable networks, some of their employees and others. Fox News agreed to pay a $787.5 million settlement to Dominion in April 2023 after it was revealed that top on-air personalities and executives knew the allegations were false but continued to promote them anyway.[71][72][73]

### Elected officials

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An October 2022 Washington Post analysis found that 51% of Republican nominees for House, Senate and key statewide offices in nearly every state that year denied or questioned the 2020 presidential election outcome.[74] Secretaries of state oversee elections in states. In 2022, nearly one in three Republican candidates for those offices supported overturning the 2020 presidential election results.[75][76] The America First Secretary of State Coalition, co-founded and led by Nevada Republican Jim Marchant, was created in 2021 to promote election deniers for secretary of state in the 2022 United States secretary of state elections.[77] All but one of nearly twenty candidates the group endorsed in 2022 lost in the general election.[78][79] According to analysis by the nonpartisan States United Action, election denialism cost Republican candidates from 2.3 to 3.7 percentage points of votes in the 2022 midterm elections.[80] Trump made his election fraud claims a litmus test for Republican candidates and the heart of his platform.[81] After Mike Johnson won the October 2023 Speaker of the United States House election, David A. Graham posited that only members of the election denial movement had a chance to win the speakership with only Republican votes.[82]

### Right-leaning voters

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As of August 2023, a poll found that almost 70% of Republican voters and Republican-leaning independents continued to believe Joe Biden was not legitimately elected in 2020.[83]

## Analysis

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Sarah Longwell, a Republican political strategist who strongly opposes Trumpism, wrote in April 2022 that she asked Trump voters in focus groups why they continue to believe the election was stolen from him. She perceived that for many it was a hard-to-explain tribal response to a message that is echoed throughout the participants' social and media environment.[84] Analysis of polls by Charles Stewart, a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at MIT, shows that there are deep ideological roots involving belief in conspiracies, racial tensions and religion as well as partisanship. He argues:

> Among Republicans, conspiracism has a potent effect on embracing election denialism, followed by racial resentment. Among independents, the strongest influences on denialism are Christian nationalism and racial resentment. And, although election denialism is rare among Democrats, what variation does exist is mostly explained by levels of racial resentment.[85]

Some election experts and historians contend that, left unabated, election denial could further reduce concessions by losing candidates, disrupt the peaceful transfers of power and weaken or even dismantle American democracy.[86][87] Lisa Bryant, a political science professor at California State University, Fresno, warned of the erosion of trust in the democratic process and the institutions it produces, which might lead to a breakdown in the rule of law if the government (and by extension the laws they create) are not viewed as legitimate.[88][89] Michigan State University law professor Frank Ravitch writes that "Election fraud is a context where lies intersect with anti-democratic tendencies."[90] The Brennan Center for Justice states that "election denial poses an ongoing and evolving threat."[91]

## Priorities and supporters of the movement

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Following Trump's 2020 loss amid his false allegations of fraud, Republican lawmakers initiated a sweeping effort to make voting laws more restrictive in several states across the country and to take control of the administrative management of elections at the state and local level.[92][93][94][95] Some planned to deploy an "army" of poll workers and lawyers to challenge votes in Democratic districts.[96][97][98]

The Washington Post reported in June 2024 on indications that county-level Republicans in swing states might be preparing to challenge and delay their certifications of voting results in 2024. Such delays might cause a state to miss deadlines that ensure its electoral college votes are counted in Washington on January 6, 2025. In four state elections since 2020, county election officials withheld certifications, citing mistrust in voting machines or ballot errors, though they could not produce evidence of actual voting fraud; the certifications proceeded after state interventions, which included warnings of potential (and in Arizona, actual) criminal charges. Voting rights activists were concerned that the continuing false allegations of election fraud since 2020 might lead to social unrest if efforts to delay certifications at the local level were overruled by state officials or courts. The failure of a state to have its electoral college votes counted on January 6 could result in neither presidential candidate reaching the minimum 270 electoral votes, causing the election to be thrown to the House. In that scenario, the election outcome would be determined by a simple majority count of state legislature representations; Republicans controlled 28 of 50 legislatures in 2024.[99]

### Notable supporters of the election denial movement

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Dennis Montgomery promoted widely debunked 'evidence' for both the birther conspiracy theory movement and the 2020 election denial movement (among other far-right conspiracies), was frequently widely cited by supporters of President Trump's efforts to overturn the election.[100]

Lindell (pictured here in 2022) asserts the 2020 election was stolen through a complex global scheme to hack into voting machines.

By 2022, My Pillow founder Mike Lindell had become a prominent figure in the movement, spending millions of his money for conferences, activist networks, a media platform, legal actions and research. Through his My Pillow advertising placements, he became a major financial backer of an expanding network of right-wing podcasters and influencers.[101] Lindell's legal firm said in an October 2023 court filing that Lindell was in arrears by millions of dollars in fees and that the firm could no longer afford to represent him, which Lindell confirmed.[102] Organizations funded by dark money have met quietly with officials in Republican-controlled states to create an incubator of policies that would restrict ballot access and amplify false claims that fraud is rampant in elections. Led by the Heritage Foundation, the groups include the Honest Elections Project, which is among a network of conservative organizations associated with Leonard Leo, a longtime prominent figure in the Federalist Society.[103]

The Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) was founded in 2017 by former Republican senator and Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint. CPI employs Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark and has been described as the "nerve center" for the MAGA movement. CPI's funding increased from $1.7 million 2017 to $45 million in 2021. CPI includes the Election Integrity Network, led by Cleta Mitchell.[104][105][106][107] Mitchell was a Trump advisor after the 2020 election who participated in the Trump–Raffensperger phone call during which Trump pressured the Georgia secretary of state to "find" ballots that would secure him a victory in the state. Trump and 18 others, including Meadows and Clark, were indicted in the Georgia election racketeering prosecution for allegedly running a "criminal racketeering enterprise." Mitchell was one of 39 individuals a special grand jury recommended for indictment on multiple charges, though prosecutor Fani Willis declined to charge her.[108] By 2022, Mitchell said she was "taking the lessons we learned in 2020" as she held seminars around the country to recruit election deniers to monitor elections because "the only way [Democrats] win is to cheat."[109]

In 2022, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School identified several individuals or groups that together were spending tens of millions to support election deniers in that year's midterm elections. These included the billionaire couple Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein; Trump's Save America PAC; and Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus. Former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne said he spent $20 million to convince people that the 2020 election was stolen; he was also a major funder of the 2021 Maricopa County presidential ballot audit that sought but failed to find election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Byrne has been the largest funder of The America Project, which pushes election denial narratives. That group was founded by former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn in 2021, with an agenda that includes undermining trust in elections.[110][111] Byrne, Flynn and others attended a December 2020 Oval Office meeting with Trump to discuss ways to overturn the president's election loss.[112]

Oracle Corporation founder Larry Ellison joined a November 2020 conference call with Sean Hannity and Senator Lindsey Graham to discuss ways to challenge the legitimacy of the 2020 election.[113] By October 2022, Ellison was donating millions of dollars to a SuperPAC to support four Senate candidates who had cast doubt on the 2020 election results.[114] The 2022 Dinesh D'Souza film 2000 Mules film falsely alleges unnamed nonprofit organizations associated with the Democratic Party paid "mules" to illegally collect and deposit ballots into drop boxes in five swing states during the 2020 presidential election.[115][116][117][118]

Some analysts and both Republican and Democratic politicians have suggested that election denial may include an element of grifting to solicit donations from unwitting supporters.[119][120][121][122] With an email campaign, Trump raised about $250 million for what he told donors was an "official election defense fund" that did not actually exist.[123][124] By September 2022, a federal grand jury was investigating whether Trump and his allies were soliciting donations on the basis of claims they knew were false, which might violate federal wire fraud laws.[125][126] The Smith special counsel investigation was also examining the fundraising of former Trump attorney Sidney Powell by September 2023.[127]

Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, was asked in June 2024 if Heritage would accept the results of the 2024 presidential election regardless of its outcome. He replied, "Yes, if there isn't massive fraud like there was in 2020." When presented with data from the Heritage Foundation election fraud database indicating there were only 1,513 proven instances of voter fraud in the United States since 1982, Roberts responded that fraud is "very hard to document, and the Democrat party is very good at fraud".[128][129] In October 2024, some people who had volunteered as fake electors in 2020 were reported to have been chosen as legitimate electors for Trump should he win the November 2024 elections in certain states. Seven states – Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada, New Mexico and Michigan – have 82 electoral votes. Among them are 14 people who volunteered as fake electors in 2020 and 16 additional deniers of the 2020 election.[130]

## References

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1. ^ Wines, Michael (February 27, 2021). "In Statehouses, Stolen-Election Myth Fuels a G.O.P. Drive to Rewrite Rules". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 4, 2021. Retrieved September 21, 2023. "Republicans have long thought – sometimes quietly, occasionally out loud – that large turnouts, particularly in urban areas, favor Democrats, and that Republicans benefit when fewer people vote. But politicians and scholars alike say that this moment feels like a dangerous plunge into uncharted waters."
2. ^ a b Malone, Clare (June 24, 2020). "The Republican Choice". 538. Archived from the original on September 30, 2023. Retrieved September 21, 2023. "Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the conservative The Heritage Foundation, said in a speech in 1980: "I don't want everybody to vote ... our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.""
3. ^ a b Broadwater, Luke (May 21, 2024). "House G.O.P. Moves to Crack Down on Noncitizen Voting, Sowing False Narrative". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 23, 2024. Retrieved May 23, 2024. "The legislation has virtually no chance of becoming law, but it serves to amplify one of Mr. Trump's favorite pre-emptive claims of election fraud. It also underscores Republicans' embrace of a groundless narrative – one that echoes the racist "great replacement" conspiracy theory – that Democrats are intentionally allowing migrants to stream into the United States illegally in order to dilute the voting power of American citizens and lock in electoral victories for themselves ... Republicans are pushing legislation to crack down on voting by noncitizens, which happens rarely and is already illegal in federal elections, in a move that reinforces former President Donald J. Trump's efforts to delegitimize the 2024 results if he loses."
4. ^ Duignan, Brian. "Replacement theory". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on May 18, 2024. Retrieved May 18, 2024.
5. ^ Swenson, Ali (January 9, 2024). "Trump suggests unauthorized migrants will vote. The idea stirs his base, but ignores reality". The Associated Press. Archived from the original on May 14, 2024. Retrieved May 18, 2024. "The unsupported claim, which Trump and other Republicans have carted out in past election years, is resonating with voters who agree that security is lacking at both the border and the polls. Experts say it also can be damaging, giving undue traction to false stereotypes and extremist ideologies such as the racist "great replacement theory.""
6. ^ Sullivan, Andy; Ax, Joseph (September 9, 2020). "Despite Trump claims, voter fraud is extremely rare. Here is how U.S. states keep it that way". Reuters. Archived from the original on September 30, 2023. Retrieved September 21, 2023.
7. ^ Epstein, Reid J.; Corasaniti, Nick (March 17, 2022). "Republicans Push Crackdown on Crime Wave That Doesn't Exist: Voter Fraud". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 21, 2024. Retrieved September 20, 2023.
8. ^ Yoon, Robert (August 27, 2023). "Trump's drumbeat of lies about the 2020 election keeps getting louder. Here are the facts". Associated Press. Archived from the original on March 12, 2024. Retrieved September 20, 2023.
9. ^ "Debunking the Voter Fraud Myth | Brennan Center for Justice". www.brennancenter.org. January 31, 2017. Archived from the original on October 27, 2023. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
10. ^ "Analysis: Heritage Foundation's Database Undermines Claims of Recent Voter Fraud | Brennan Center for Justice". Brennan Center. September 8, 2017. Archived from the original on October 27, 2023. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
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## Further reading

[edit]

* Albertson, Bethany, and Kimberly Guiler. "Conspiracy theories, election rigging, and support for democratic norms." Research & Politics 7.3 (2020): online
* Craig, Maureen A., and Jennifer A. Richeson. "On the Precipice of a ‘Majority-Minority’ America: Perceived Status Threat From the Racial Demographic Shift Affects White Americans’Political Ideology." Psychological Science (2014) 25(6): 1189–97.
* Graham, Matthew H., and Milan W. Svolik. "Democracy in America? Partisanship, Polarization, and the Robustness of Support for Democracy in the United States." American Political Science Review 2020\. 114(2): 392–409. online
* Sautter, Chris. "US Democracy Survives a Challenge." in Campaigns and Elections American Style: The changing landscape of political campaigns'ed by Candice J. Nelson, James A. Thurber, and David A. Dulio, (6th ed. Routledge, 2023) pp. 33–51. doi:10.4324/9781003166375-3
* Wu, Jennifer, et al. "Are Dead People Voting By Mail? Evidence From Washington State Administrative Records" (Stanford Institute for Economic and Policy Research, 2020) summary; Examination of 4.5 million distinct votes in Washington state (2011 to 2018) found 14 cases of individuals whose ballots were cast suspiciously after their death, representing one vote per 300,000.

## External links

[edit]

* "Campaign of fear" investigative series by Reuters on election worker intimidation after 2020

* v
* t
* e

Conspiracy theories

List of conspiracy theories

Overview

| Core topics|

* Antiscience
* Cabals
* deep state
* éminence grise
* power behind the throne
* Civil / Criminal / Political conspiracies
* Conspiracy
* Crisis actors
* Deception
* Dystopia
* Espionage
* Global catastrophe scenarios
* Hidden message
* Pseudohistory
* Pseudoscience
* Secrecy
* Secret societies
* Urban legends and myths

|

Psychology|

* Attitude polarization
* Cognitive dissonance
* Communal reinforcement
* Confirmation bias
* Denialism
* Locus of control
* Manipulation
* Mass psychogenic illness
* moral panics
* Paranoia
* Psychological projection

Astronomy and outer space

* 2012 phenomenon
* Nibiru cataclysm
* Ancient astronauts
* Apollo Moon landings
* Flat Earth
* Hollow Earth
* Hollow Moon
* Reptilians

| UFOs|

* Alien abduction
* Area 51
* Black Knight satellite
* Cryptoterrestrial / Extraterrestrial / Interdimensional hypothesis
* Dulce Base
* Estimate of the Situation (1948)
* Lake Michigan Triangle
* MJ-12
* Men in black
* Nazi UFOs
* Die Glocke
* Project Serpo

| Hoaxes|

* Dundy County (1884)
* Maury Island (1947)
* Roswell (1947)
* Twin Falls (1947)
* Aztec, New Mexico (1949)
* Southern England (1967)
* Ilkley Moor (1987)
* Gulf Breeze (1987–88)
* Alien autopsy (1995)
* Morristown (2009)

|

Deaths and disappearances

| Assassination /
suicide theories|

* Zachary Taylor (1850)
* Louis Le Prince (1890)
* Lord Kitchener (1916)
* Tom Thomson (1917)
* Władysław Sikorski (1943)
* Benito Mussolini (1945)
* Adolf Hitler (1945)
* Subhas Chandra Bose (1945)
* Johnny Stompanato (1958)
* Marilyn Monroe (1962)
* John F. Kennedy (1963)
* Lee Harvey Oswald (1963)
* Lal Bahadur Shastri (1966)
* Harold Holt (1967)
* Martin Luther King Jr. (1968)
* Robert F. Kennedy (1968)
* Salvador Allende (1973)
* Aldo Moro (1978)
* Renny Ottolina (1978)
* Pope John Paul I (1978)
* Airey Neave (1979)
* Olof Palme (1986)
* Zia-ul-Haq (1988)
* GEC-Marconi scientists (1980s–90s)
* Turgut Özal (1993)
* Vince Foster (1993)
* Kurt Cobain (1994)
* Yitzhak Rabin (1995)
* Diana, Princess of Wales (1997)
* Vatican murders (1998)
* Nepalese royal family (2001)
* Yasser Arafat (2004)
* Benazir Bhutto (2007)
* Osama bin Laden (2011)
* Hugo Chávez (2013)
* Seth Rich (2016)
* Alejandro Castro (2018)
* Jeffrey Epstein (2019)
* Chan Yin-lam (2019)
* Sushant Singh Rajput (2020)
* John McAfee (2021)

|

Accidents / disasters|

* Mary Celeste (1872)
* RMS Titanic (1912)
* Great Kantō earthquake (1923)
* Lynmouth Flood (1952)
* Dyatlov Pass (1959)
* Lost Cosmonauts (1950s–60s)
* JAT Flight 367 (1972)
* United Air Lines Flight 553 (1972)
* Itavia Flight 870 (1980)
* South African Airways Flight 295 (1987)
* Khamar-Daban (1993)
* MS Estonia (1994)
* TWA Flight 800 (1996)
* EgyptAir Flight 990 (1999)
* Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (2014)

Other cases|

* Joan of Arc (1431)
* Yemenite children (1948–54)
* Elvis Presley (1977)
* Jonestown (1978)

Body double hoax|

* Paul McCartney
* Avril Lavigne
* Vladimir Putin
* Melania Trump

Energy, environment

* Agenda 21

California drought manipulation

* Climate change denial
* false theories
* Free energy suppression
* HAARP
* Red mercury

False flag allegations

* USS Maine (1898)
* RMS Lusitania (1915)
* Reichstag fire (1933)
* Pearl Harbor (1941)
* USS Liberty (1967)
* Lufthansa Flight 615 (1972)
* Widerøe Flight 933 (1982)
* KAL Flight 007 (1983)
* Mozambican presidential jet (1986)
* Pan Am Flight 103 (1988)
* Oklahoma City bombing (1995)
* 9/11 attacks (2001)
* advance knowledge
* WTC collapse
* Madrid train bombing (2004)
* London bombings (2005)
* Smolensk air disaster (2010)
* Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (2014)
* Denial of the 7 October attacks (2023)

Gender and sexuality

* Alpha/beta males
* Anti-LGBTQ
* Anti-gender movement
* Chemicals
* Drag panic
* Gay agenda
* Gay Nazis myth
* HIV/AIDS stigma
* United States
* Homintern
* Lavender Scare
* Recruitment
* Grooming
* Litter box hoax
* Transvestigation
* Finger pinching
* Gamergate
* Ideology in incel communities
* Larries / Gaylors
* Satanic panic
* Soy and masculinity

Health

* 5G misinformation
* Anti-vaccination
* Autism
* MMR
* Thiomersal
* In chiropractic
* Misinformation
* Aspartame
* Big Pharma
* Chemtrails
* COVID-19
* Ivermectin
* Lab leak
* Vaccines
* Turbo cancer
* In Canada / Philippines / United States
* Ebola
* Electronic harassment
* Germ theory denialism
* GMOs
* HIV/AIDS denialism
* Origins theories
* Oral polio AIDS hypothesis
* Lepers' plot
* Medbeds
* SARS (2003)
* Water fluoridation
* Pont-Saint-Esprit mass poisoning

Race, religion and/or ethnicity

* Bhagwa Love Trap
* CERN ritual hoax
* COVID-19 and xenophobia
* Freemasons
* French Revolution
* Gas chambers for Poles in Warsaw (1940s)
* German POWs post-WWII
* Priory of Sion
* Product labeling
* Halal
* Kosher
* Tartarian Empire
* War against Islam
* White genocide

| Antisemitic|

* Andinia Plan
* Blood libel
* Cohen Plan
* Doctors' plot
* During the Black Death
* Epsilon Team
* George Soros
* Holocaust denial
* Trivialization
* International Jewish conspiracy
* Committee of 300
* Cultural Bolshevism / Jewish Bolshevism
* Żydokomuna
* Judeo-Masonic plot
* The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
* World War II
* Z.O.G.
* Judeopolonia
* Killing of Jesus
* Kalergi Plan
* New World Order
* Rothschilds
* Stab-in-the-back myth

|

Christian / Anti-Christian|

* Anti-Catholic
* Jesuits
* Popish Plot
* Vatican
* Bible
* Giuseppe Siri

Islamophobic|

* Counter-jihad
* Bihar human sacrifice
* Eurabia
* Great Replacement
* Love jihad
* Proposed "Islamo-leftism" inquiry
* Trojan Horse scandal

Genocide denial /
Denial of mass killings|

* Armenian
* Assyrian
* Bangladesh
* Bosnian
* Cambodian
* The Holocaust
* Holodomor
* Nanjing
* Rwandan
* Serbs during WWII

Regional

| Asia|

* India
* Cow vigilante violence
* Pakistan
* Jinnahpur
* Philippines
* Tallano gold
* South Korea
* Finger-pinching
* Thailand
* Finland Plot

|

Americas
(outside the United States)|

* Argentina
* Andinia Plan
* Canada
* Avro Arrow cancellation
* Leuchter report
* Peru
* Casa Matusita
* Venezuela
* Daktari Ranch affair
* Golpe Azul

Middle East / North Africa|

* In the Arab world
* 10 agorot
* Cairo fire
* Kissinger Plan in Lebanon
* Israel-related animal theories
* Iran
* Western-backed Iranian Revolution
* Israel
* Pallywood

Russia|

* Alaska payment
* Dulles' Plan
* Golden billion
* Petrograd Military Organization
* Rasputin
* Ukraine bioweapons

Turkey|

* 2016 coup attempt
* Ergenekon
* Operation Sledgehammer
* Gezi Park protests
* Sèvres syndrome
* Üst akıl

Other European|

* Euromyth
* Georgia
* Global War Party
* Ireland
* German Plot
* Lithuania
* Statesmen
* Roman Republic
* First Catilinarian conspiracy
* Spain
* Mano Negra affair
* Sweden
* Lilla Saltsjöbadsavtalet
* UK
* Clockwork Orange plot
* Elm Guest House
* Harold Wilson
* Voting pencil

United States|

* Barack Obama
* Citizenship
* Religion
* Parentage
* "Obamagate" / Spygate
* Biden–Ukraine
* Black helicopters
* CIA and JFK
* CIA assistance to bin Laden
* Clinton body count
* Cultural Marxism
* Election denial movement
* FBI secret society
* FEMA camps
* Georgia Guidestones
* Jade Helm 15
* Montauk Project
* Philadelphia Experiment
* Pizzagate
* The Plan
* Project Azorian
* QAnon
* Pastel
* Incidents
* Saddam–al-Qaeda
* Sandy Hook (2012)
* Springfield pet-eating hoax
* Trump–Ukraine
* "Vast right-wing conspiracy"
* Vietnam War
* POW/MIA issue / Stab-in-the-back myth

| 2020 election|

* Italygate
* "Pence Card"
* Maricopa County ballot audit
* Stop the Steal

|

Other

* Dead Internet theory
* NESARA/GESARA
* New Coke
* Phantom time / New chronology
* Shadow government claims
* Bilderberg
* Illuminati
* synarchism
* Shakespearean authorship

| Pseudolaw|

* Admiralty law
* Freeman on the land movement
* Redemption movement
* Sovereign citizens
* Strawman theory
* Tax protesters

|

Satirical|

* Acre
* Bielefeld
* Birds Aren't Real
* Li's field
* Ted Cruz–Zodiac Killer meme

See also

* Argument from ignorance
* Conspiracy Encyclopedia
* Conspiracy fiction
* Conspirituality
* Dogma
* pseudoskepticism
* Falsifiability
* Fringe science
* Historical negationism
* Online youth radicalization
* Paranormal
* Prejudice
* Hate speech
* Radicalization
* Science by press conference
* Superstition

* v
* t
* e

First presidency of Donald Trump (2017–2021)

* Previous: Obama administration
* Next: Biden administration

* See also: Second Trump administration

General|

* Appointments
* ambassadors
* attorneys
* judges
* Supreme Court candidates
* Gorsuch
* Kavanaugh
* Barrett
* Cabinet
* Pence vice presidency
* Economic advisors
* Withdrawn appointees
* Short-tenure appointees
* Dismissals and resignations
* attorneys
* Comey
* inspectors general
* Executive orders
* Legal affairs
* Impeachments
* efforts
* resolutions
* impeachment inquiry
* first impeachment
* first trial
* second impeachment
* second trial
* proposed expungements
* Opinion polling
* 2017
* 2018
* 2019
* Pardons
* Joe Arpaio
* commutation of Jaime Davidson
* Proclamations
* 2017
* 2018
* 2019
* 2020–21
* Trips
* 2017
* 2018
* 2019
* 2020–21
* international
* Rex TIllerson
* Mike Pompeo
* North Korea summit
* Singapore
* Hanoi
* DMZ
* Riyadh summit
* Helsinki summit
* Namaste Trump

Events|

| Timeline|

* First 100 days
* 2017
* Q1
* Q2
* Q3
* Q4
* 2018
* Q1
* Q2
* Q3
* Q4
* 2019
* Q1
* Q2
* Q3
* Q4
* 2020
* Q1
* Q2
* Q3
* Q4
* January 2021

|

Speeches|

* Joint address to Congress
* Warsaw speech
* National Scout Jamboree
* State of the Union Address
* 2018
* 2019
* 2020
* Oval Office Address
* 2019
* 2020
* Farewell address

Other|

* Transition
* Inauguration
* Biden transition

Policies|

| Domestic|

* Government shutdowns
* January 2018
* 2018–2019
* Salute to America
* 2019
* 2020
* COVID-19 pandemic
* Taskforce
* Communication
* Government response
* stimulus bills
* CARES Act
* Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021
* Operation Warp Speed
* White House outbreak
* Interference with science agencies
* Reactions to the George Floyd protests
* Photo op at St. John's Church
* Deployment of federal forces in the United States
* 2020 Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration
* National Garden of American Heroes
* Infrastructure
* Racial views
* Social
* First Step Act
* Cannabis
* Space

|

Economic|

* Tax cuts
* Tariffs
* China trade war
* USMCA
* Farmer bailouts

Environmental|

* Paris Agreement withdrawal
* America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018

Foreign|

* America First
* Saudi Arabia arms deal
* Relations with Iran
* Nuclear deal withdrawal
* Relations with Israel
* Jerusalem recognition
* Golan Heights recognition
* Palestine peace plan
* Abraham Accords
* UAE
* Bahrain
* Sudan
* Morocco
* Kosovo–Serbia agreements
* Syria strikes
* 2017
* 2018
* Killings
* al-Baghdadi
* Soleimani
* Afghanistan withdrawal
* Taliban deal
* Proposed invasion of Venezuela

Immigration|

* Travel bans
* reactions
* legal challenges
* protests
* replacement
* Executive Order 13767
* Border wall
* Family separation policy
* protests
* Migrant detentions
* Troop deployments
* National emergency

Protests|

* 2017 Women's March
* list
* Lincoln
* Portland
* Seattle
* global
* LGBTQ
* Travel ban
* list
* Day Without Immigrants
* Not My Presidents Day
* Day Without a Woman
* Tax March
* March for Science
* list
* Portland
* Seattle
* 2018
* People's Climate March
* May Day
* March for Truth
* Impeachment March
* Boston Free Speech Rally (counter-protest)
* U.S. national anthem kneeling protests
* 2018 Women's March
* list
* Gun violence
* March for Our Lives
* list
* Portland
* Seattle
* Family separation
* Abolish ICE
* Families Belong Together
* Occupy ICE
* Women Disobey
* Donald Trump baby balloon
* Kremlin Annex
* Nobody Is Above the Law
* 2019 Women's March
* list
* 2019 Presidents Day protest
* Dump Trump (statue)
* December 2019 impeachment protests
* 2020 Women's March
* January list
* October list
* Racial unrest
* George Floyd protests
* list-USA
* list-abroad
* Trump Statue Initiative
* God Emperor Trump

Related|

* 2016 election
* Trump campaign
* Trumpism
* Donald Trump and fascism
* Social media
* Twitter
* Crossfire Hurricane
* Classified information disclosures
* Special counsel investigations
* Mueller
* Durham
* Links between Trump administration and Russian government officials
* Russian bounty program
* Anonymous senior official op-ed
* Stormy Daniels scandal
* Ukraine scandal
* Federal government data breach
* Attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election
* Fake electors plot
* Chesebro memos
* Eastman memos
* Lawsuits
* Texas v. Pennsylvania
* Jeffrey Clark letter
* January 6 United States Capitol attack
* timeline
* aftermath
* continued protests
* domestic reactions
* international reactions
* Presidential Library

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Joe Biden

* 46th President of the United States (2021–2025)
* 47th Vice President of the United States (2009–2017)
* U.S. Senator from Delaware (1973–2009)

Senator|

* Early life and career
* Classified Information Procedures Act
* Counterterrorism Act
* Violence Against Women Act
* Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act

Vice presidency|

* Obama transition
* Task forces
* Gun Violence Prevention
* Protect Students from Sexual Assault
* First Trump transition

Presidency|

| Appointments|

* Cabinet
* Harris vice presidency
* Agriculture
* Commerce
* Defense
* Education
* Energy
* Executive Office appointments
* HHS
* Homeland Security
* HUD
* Interior
* Justice
* U.S. attorneys
* Labor
* State
* ambassadors
* Transportation
* Treasury
* Veterans Affairs
* Judicial appointments
* Jackson
* Supreme Court candidates

|

Legislation|

| 2021|

* American Rescue Plan Act
* Capitol Police Emergency Assistance Act
* Consolidated Appropriations Act
* Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
* National Defense Authorization Act
* RENACER Act
* Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act

|

2022|

* Bipartisan Safer Communities Act
* CHIPS and Science Act

Consolidated Appropriations Act
* Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act
* Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act
* No TikTok on Government Devices Act
* Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
* State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act
* Emmett Till Antilynching Act
* Inflation Reduction Act
* Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act
* PACT Act
* National Defense Authorization Act
* Postal Service Reform Act
* Respect for Marriage Act
* Speak Out Act
* Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act

2023|

* COVID-19 Origin Act
* Fiscal Responsibility Act
* National Defense Authorization Act
* DCA agreement between Finland and the US

2024|

* ADVANCE Act
* Consolidated Appropriations Act
* National Defense Authorization Act
* National Security Act
* Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act

2025|

* Social Security Fairness Act

Policies|

* Cannabis
* COVID-19
* COVID-19 Advisory Board
* White House COVID-19 Response Team
* Economic
* Biden v. Nebraska
* Build Back Better Act
* Build Back Better Plan
* Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund
* Electoral and ethical
* Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court
* Summit for Democracy
* Environmental
* 2021 Leaders Summit on Climate
* Executive Order 13990
* Foreign
* Geneva summit
* 2023 Chinese balloon incident
* AUKUS
* Camp David Principles
* Afghanistan withdrawal
* killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri
* War in Ukraine
* 2022 visit by Volodymyr Zelenskyy
* 2023 visit to Ukraine
* Gaza war
* Ankara prisoner exchange
* Relations with Iran
* Immigration
* A Proclamation on Securing the Border
* Social
* 2021 National Day of Unity
* Space

Timeline|

* Transition
* Inauguration
* security
* Celebrating America
* protests
* First 100 days
* 2021
* Q1
* Q2
* Q3
* Q4
* 2022
* Q1
* Q2
* Q3
* Q4
* 2023
* Q1
* Q2
* Q3
* Q4
* 2024
* Q1
* Q2
* Q3
* Q4
* January 2025
* Second Trump transition

* Classified documents incident
* White House cocaine incident
* Efforts to impeach
* House Oversight Committee investigation
* inquiry
* Executive actions
* proclamations
* Opinion polling
* 2021
* 2022
* 2023
* 2024–2025
* Presidential trips
* international
* 2021
* 2022
* 2023
* 2024–2025
* Death and state funeral of Jimmy Carter

Elections|

| U.S. Senate|

* 1972
* 1978
* 1984
* 1990
* 1996
* 2002
* 2008

|

Vice presidential|

* 2008 campaign
* selection
* convention
* debate
* election
* transition
* 2012 campaign
* convention
* debate
* election

Presidential|

* 1988 campaign
* primaries
* 2008 campaign
* primaries
* debates
* 2020 campaign
* endorsements
* celebrity
* organizations
* Congress
* state and territorial officials
* municipal officials
* primaries
* endorsements
* debates
* Unity Task Forces
* running mate selection
* convention
* debates
* election
* protests
* 2024 campaign
* withdrawal
* Democratic opposition
* primaries
* endorsements
* protest vote movements
* debate

Family|

* Edward Francis Blewitt (great-grandfather)
* Neilia Hunter Biden (first wife)
* Jill Biden (second wife)
* James Biden (brother)
* Valerie Biden Owens (sister)
* Beau Biden (son)
* Hunter Biden (son)
* Ashley Biden (daughter)
* Howard Krein (son-in-law)
* Hallie Olivere Biden (daughter-in-law)
* Kathleen Buhle (former daughter-in-law)
* Melissa Cohen Biden (daughter-in-law)
* Dogs
* Champ
* Major
* Commander
* Cat
* Willow

Writings|

* Promises to Keep
* Promise Me, Dad
* Tomorrow Will Be Different (foreword)

Speeches|

* Inaugural address (2021)
* Joint session of Congress (2021)
* State of the Union Address
* 2022
* 2023
* 2024
* Warsaw speech (2022)
* Battle for the Soul of the Nation speech (2022)
* Farewell address (2025)

Media
depictions|

* Confirmation
* The Choice 2020
* "Intro to Political Science"
* My Son Hunter
* "One Last Ride"
* The Onion's "Diamond Joe"
* Our Cartoon President
* Saturday Night Live parodies
* Spitting Image

Related|

* Age and health concerns
* Awards
* Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot
* Biden Foundation
* Biden Presidential Library
* Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory
* Buy a shotgun
* Eponyms
* Hunter Biden laptop controversy
* I Did That!
* Let's Go Brandon
* Public image
* Sexual assault allegation
* Situation Room
* Sleepy Joe
* 2019 Trump–Ukraine scandal

* ← Donald Trump →

* ← Dick Cheney
* Mike Pence →

* Category

* v
* t
* e

(← 2012) 2016 United States presidential election (2020 →)

Donald Trump, Mike Pence (R), 304 electoral votes; Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine (D), 227 electoral votes

* Fundraising
* Positions
* Polls
* national
* by demo.
* statewide
* pre-2016
* early 2016
* international
* Social media
* Timeline
* Debates
* Newspaper endorsements
* primary
* Vote pairing
* Recounts
* Russian interference
* Faithless electors
* Electoral College vote count
* Transition
* inauguration

| Republican Party
▌AIP · ▌CPNY · ▌RTLP|

* Debates and forums
* Endorsements
* Primaries
* Polls (national · statewide · straw)
* Results
* Convention
* VP candidate selection

Candidates|

Nominee
Donald Trump

campaign
endorsements
positions
protests
GOP opposition
VP nominee: Mike Pence

Other candidates
Jeb Bush

campaign
positions
Ben Carson

campaign
Chris Christie

campaign
Ted Cruz

campaign
endorsements
positions
Mark Everson
Carly Fiorina

campaign
Jim Gilmore

campaign
Lindsey Graham

campaign
Mike Huckabee

campaign
positions
Bobby Jindal

campaign
John Kasich

campaign
endorsements
Jimmy McMillan
George Pataki

campaign
Rand Paul

campaign
positions
Rick Perry

campaign
positions
Marco Rubio

campaign
positions
Rick Santorum

campaign
Scott Walker

campaign

Democratic Party
▌WEP · ▌WFP|

* Political positions
* Endorsements
* Debates and forums
* Primaries
* Polls
* national
* statewide
* straw
* Results
* Convention
* superdelegates
* VP candidate selection

Candidates|

Nominee
Hillary Clinton

campaign
endorsements

political
non-political
celebrities
performers
positions
Democratic opposition
VP nominee: Tim Kaine

Other candidates
Lincoln Chafee

campaign
Rocky De La Fuente

campaign
Paul T. Farrell Jr.
Lawrence Lessig

campaign
Martin O'Malley

campaign
Bernie Sanders

campaign
endorsements
positions
Jim Webb

campaign
Willie Wilson

Libertarian Party
▌IPNY|

* Debates and forums
* Primaries
* Convention

Candidates|

Nominee
Gary Johnson

campaign
endorsements
positions
VP nominee: Bill Weld
Other candidates
John McAfee
Austin Petersen

Green Party|

* Debates and forums
* Primaries
* Convention

Candidates|

Nominee
Jill Stein

campaign
endorsements
VP nominee: Ajamu Baraka
Other candidates
Darryl Cherney

Independents
▌ IPMN|

* Better for America
* Candidate: Evan McMullin
* campaign
* endorsements
* Running mate: Mindy Finn

Other third-party and independent candidates

| American Delta Party
▌Reform|

* Nominee: Rocky De La Fuente
* campaign
* VP nominee: Michael Steinberg

|

American Party (South Carolina)|

* Nominee: Peter Skewes

American Solidarity Party|

* Nominee: Mike Maturen

America's Party|

* Nominee: Tom Hoefling

Constitution Party|

* Primaries
* Convention

Nominee
Darrell Castle

campaign
VP nominee: Scott Bradley
Other candidates
Tom Hoefling

Nutrition Party|

* Nominee: Rod Silva

Peace and Freedom Party
▌PSL|

* Nominee: Gloria La Riva
* VP nominee: Dennis Banks
* PSL VP nominee: Eugene Puryear*

* Other candidates: Monica Moorehead
* Jill Stein

Prohibition Party|

* Nominee: James Hedges

Socialist Action|

* Nominee: Jeff Mackler

Socialist Equality Party|

* Nominee: Jerry White

Socialist Party USA|

* Nominee: Mimi Soltysik
* campaign
* VP nominee: Angela Nicole Walker

Socialist Workers Party|

* Nominee: Alyson Kennedy
* VP nominee: Osborne Hart

Pacifist Party|

* Nominee: Bradford Lyttle

Workers World Party|

* Nominee: Monica Moorehead

Other Independent candidates|

* Laurence Kotlikoff

* : These candidates were constitutionally ineligible to serve as President or Vice President.

* Other 2016 elections: Senate
* House

* v
* t
* e

(← 2016) 2020 United States presidential election (2024 →)

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris (D), 306 electoral votes; Donald Trump, Mike Pence (R), 232 electoral votes

* 2020 United States elections
* Polls
* national
* state
* Predictions
* Timeline
* Debates
* Postal voting
* Social media
* Fundraising
* Electors
* Electoral College vote count
* Transition
* inauguration

| Democratic Party
▌IPO · ▌WFP|

* Primaries
* Candidates
* Debates
* Forums
* Results
* Convention (automatic delegates)
* Polls (national · state)
* Positions
* Endorsements
* VP candidate selection
* Unity Task Forces

Candidates|

* Nominee: Joe Biden
* campaign
* endorsements
* celebrity
* organizations
* Congress
* state & territorial officials
* municipal officials
* positions
* VP nominee: Kamala Harris
* positions

Withdrew during primaries
Michael Bennet
Michael Bloomberg

campaign
endorsements
positions
Pete Buttigieg

campaign
endorsements
positions
Tulsi Gabbard

campaign
positions
Amy Klobuchar

campaign
endorsements
positions
Deval Patrick
Bernie Sanders

campaign
endorsements
positions
media coverage
Tom Steyer
Elizabeth Warren

campaign
endorsements
positions
Andrew Yang

campaign
endorsements

Withdrew before primaries
Cory Booker

campaign
endorsements
positions
Steve Bullock
Julian Castro
Bill de Blasio
John Delaney

campaign
positions
Kirsten Gillibrand

positions
Ben Gleib
Mike Gravel

campaign
Kamala Harris

campaign
endorsements
positions
John Hickenlooper
Jay Inslee

campaign
Wayne Messam
Seth Moulton
Richard Ojeda
Beto O'Rourke

campaign
Tim Ryan
Joe Sestak
Eric Swalwell
Marianne Williamson

campaign

Republican Party
▌CPNYS · ▌RTLP|

* Primaries
* Results
* Debates
* Convention
* Polls

Candidates|

Incumbent nominee
Donald Trump

campaign
endorsements

political
non-political
positions
GOP opposition
GOP reactions to fraud claims
Incumbent VP nominee: Mike Pence

Withdrew during primaries
Rocky De La Fuente
Bob Ely
Jack Fellure
Zoltan Istvan
Joe Walsh

campaign
Bill Weld

campaign

Withdrew before primaries
Mark Sanford

campaign

Libertarian Party|

* Primaries
* Results
* Convention

Candidates|

Nominee
Jo Jorgensen

campaign
endorsements
VP nominee: Spike Cohen

Eliminated in balloting
Jim Gray
Adam Kokesh
John McAfee
John Monds
Vermin Supreme

campaign

Withdrew before or during primaries
Max Abramson
Lincoln Chafee
Zoltan Istvan

Formed exploratory committee but did not run
Justin Amash

Green Party
▌LMN · ▌SA · ▌SPUSA|

* Primaries
* Results
* Debates
* Convention

Candidates|

* Nominee: Howie Hawkins
* campaign
* endorsements
* VP nominee: Angela Walker

Withdrew during primaries
Dario Hunter

Other candidates
Jesse Ventura

Constitution Party|

* Primaries
* Nominee: Don Blankenship

Other third-party candidates

Alliance Party
▌AIP · ▌Reform|

* Nominee: Rocky De La Fuente
* VP nominee: Darcy Richardson
* AIP VP nominee: Kanye West

Other candidates
Max Abramson
Phil Collins

American Solidarity Party|

* Nominee: Brian T. Carroll

Other candidates
Joe Schriner

Birthday Party|

* Nominee: Kanye West
* campaign
* positions

Bread and Roses|

* Nominee: Jerome Segal

Party for Socialism & Liberation
▌LUP · ▌PFP|

* Nominee: Gloria La Riva
* VP nominee: Leonard Peltier (withdrew)

* Other candidates: Howie Hawkins

Progressive Party|

* Nominee: Dario Hunter

Prohibition Party|

* Nominee: Phil Collins

Socialist Action|

* Nominee: Jeff Mackler

Socialist Equality Party|

* Nominee: Joseph Kishore

Socialist Workers Party|

* Nominee: Alyson Kennedy

Independent candidates|

Declared
Pete Accetturo
Mark Charles
Brock Pierce (▌IPNY nominee)
Jade Simmons
Joe Schriner

Withdrew
Perry Caravello
Jeremy Gable

Disputes

Attempts to overturn|

* Protests
* during inauguration week
* U.S. Capitol attack
* timeline
* aftermath
* second impeachment of Donald Trump
* trial
* January 6 commission
* reactions
* domestic
* international
* Trump fake electors plot
* Arizona
* Georgia
* Michigan
* Trump–Raffensperger phone call
* Eastman memos

Lawsuits|

* Filed before Election Day
* Filed during or after Election Day
* Arizona
* Georgia
* Michigan
* Nevada
* Pennsylvania
* Wisconsin
* Texas v. Pennsylvania
* Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference

Controversies|

* Russian interference
* Voting restrictions

* v
* t
* e

(← 2020) 2024 United States presidential election (2028 →)

Donald Trump, JD Vance (R), 312 electoral votes; Kamala Harris, Tim Walz (D), 226 electoral votes

* 2024 United States elections
* Polls
* national
* state
* Timeline
* Debates
* Fundraising
* Ballot access
* Interference
* Chinese
* Iranian
* Russian
* Electors
* Electoral College vote count
* Transition
* inauguration

Republican Party
▌CPNYS|

* Primaries
* Candidates
* Debates and forums
* Results
* Convention
* Polls

* national
* state

* Endorsements
* VP candidate selection

Candidates|

* Nominee: Donald Trump
* campaign
* eligibility
* Trump v. Anderson
* endorsements
* political
* non-political
* opposition
* positions
* VP nominee: JD Vance
* positions

Withdrew during primaries
Ryan Binkley
John Anthony Castro
Ron DeSantis

campaign
endorsements
positions
Nikki Haley

campaign
endorsements
positions
Asa Hutchinson

campaign
E. W. Jackson
Vivek Ramaswamy

campaign
Sam Sloan

Withdrew before primaries
Doug Burgum

campaign
Chris Christie

campaign
Larry Elder
Will Hurd
Perry Johnson
Steve Laffey
Mike Pence

campaign
positions
Tim Scott

campaign
Corey Stapleton
Francis Suarez

Democratic Party
▌WFP|

* Primaries
* Candidates
* Debates and forums
* Results
* Convention
* Polls
* VP candidate selection
* Protest votes

Candidates|

* Nominee: Kamala Harris
* campaign
* endorsements
* political
* non-political
* Haley Voters for Harris
* White Dudes for Harris
* positions
* VP nominee: Tim Walz

Withdrew after primaries
Joe Biden

campaign
endorsements
opposition
positions
withdrawal
Marianne Williamson

campaign

Withdrew during primaries
Jason Palmer
Dean Phillips

campaign
Vermin Supreme
Cenk Uygur

Withdrew before primaries
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Jerome Segal

Libertarian Party|

* Primaries
* Convention

Candidates|

* Nominee: Chase Oliver
* campaign
* VP nominee: Mike ter Maat

Eliminated in balloting
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Art Olivier
Michael Rectenwald
Mike ter Maat

Withdrew before primaries
Joe Exotic

Other candidates
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (LPCO · LPNH)

Green Party
▌KP|

* Primaries
* Convention

Candidates|

* Nominee: Jill Stein
* campaign
* endorsements
* VP nominee: Butch Ware

Withdrew after primaries
Randy Toler

Withdrew before primaries
Emanuel Pastreich
Cornel West

Independent
▌GMPJ · ▌NLMN · ▌OPP
▌SA · ▌UCP · ▌UPC|

* Candidate: Cornel West
* campaign
* Running mate: Melina Abdullah

Independent (withdrawn)
▌AP · ▌AIP · ▌IPoD
▌NLP · ▌RPUSA|

* Candidate: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
* campaign
* Reform Convention
* Running mate: Nicole Shanahan

Other third-party candidates

American Solidarity Party|

* Nominee: Peter Sonski
* campaign

Other candidates
Joe Schriner

Constitution Party|

Convention

* Nominee: Randall Terry
* campaign
* VP nominee: Stephen Broden

Other candidates
Joel Skousen

Independent American Party|

* Nominee: Joel Skousen

Legal Marijuana Now Party|

Primary

* Nominee: Dennis Schuller
* VP nominee: Rudy Reyes

Other candidates
Ed Forchion
Krystal Gabel
Rudy Reyes
Vermin Supreme

Liberal Party USA|

* Nominee: Laura Ebke

Pirate Party|

* Nominee: Vermin Supreme

Party Party|

* Nominee: Robby Wells

Party for Socialism & Liberation
▌PFP · ▌SCW|

* Nominee: Claudia De la Cruz
* campaign

Socialist Equality Party|

* Nominee: Joseph Kishore
* VP nominee: Jerry White

Socialist Workers Party|

* Nominee: Rachele Fruit

Unity Party of America|

* Nominee: Paul Noel Fiorino

Other independent candidates|

Declared
Shiva Ayyadurai
Johnny Buss
Joseph "Afroman" Foreman
Tom Hoefling
Taylor Marshall
Emanuel Pastreich

Withdrew
Krist Novoselic
Kanye West

campaign
positions

Disputes

Controversies|

* Republican Party efforts to disrupt the 2024 United States presidential election
* Election denial

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