House Republicans’ “Truly Fringe Candidates” Will Cost Them the Majority

House Republicans who have denied the 2020 election results or refused to commit to accepting the 2024 outcome, and who hold more extreme views on social issues, are running in critical congressional races throughout the country.

[Gabe] Evans, for instance, has said he supports a national abortion ban and that, "if the circumstances wouldn't warrant killing a born person, the unborn also should not be killed." At a debate last week, Mr. Evans, who voted against a ban on corporal punishment in Colorado public schools, was asked three times to say when he believed it was appropriate for children to be hit in school. The moderator moved on when it became clear that Mr. Evans did not intend to answer the question.

"National Republicans have elevated anti-abortion zealots, election deniers and fringe conspiracy theorists," said Justin Chermol, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "These unserious recruits are no different from the so-called moderate House Republicans who have enabled unchecked extremism."

Ryan Mackenzie, the state representative who is seeking to defeat Representative Susan Wild in Pennsylvania's battleground Seventh Congressional District in the Lehigh Valley, signed on to a letter in 2020 that asked Congress to reject the Electoral College votes from his state. He also signed onto an amicus brief supporting the Texas lawsuit to overturn Pennsylvania's electoral results.

In Michigan, Tom Barrett, a former Army helicopter pilot, is running for an open seat in the state's Seventh Congressional District. Mr. Barrett was part of a group of state lawmakers who signed a letter to Vice President Mike Pence in 2020 asking him to postpone "the Jan. 6 opening and counting of the electoral votes for at least 10 days."

Mr. Barrett's campaign is now under scrutiny for running an advertisement in a Black-owned newspaper that incorrectly listed Election Day as Nov. 6, in what the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus is claiming was an intentional effort to disenfranchise Black voters. Election Day is on Nov. 5.

In 2021, [Yvette] Herrell objected to certifying the Electoral College results from Arizona and Pennsylvania.

Ms. Herrell said in 2020 that she wished "we could have eliminated all abortion in this state."

In Washington State, Joe Kent, who ran and lost by a slim margin two years ago, once advocated a national abortion ban, supported Jan. 6 defendants and vociferously denied the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election.

Last cycle, he claimed that the violence on Jan. 6, 2021, was caused by a peaceful crowd being infiltrated by Deep State agents provocateurs.