Prominent election deniers are running again in 2024, but some have toned down their claims

At least 17 Republican candidates who put false claims about the 2020 election at the center of their 2022 and 2023 statewide campaigns are running for office again in 2024.

But this time around, most of them aren’t making the debunked claims that the race was stolen from Donald Trump a lynchpin of their pitches to voters. Rather, these candidates have generally broadened their focus on the issue, campaigning on ideas like “election security” and “election integrity.”

After outspoken 2020 election deniers suffered defeats in battleground states across the board in the last midterm elections, it's a shift GOP operatives say is critical for these candidates to appeal to voters beyond the hardcore Trump supporters.

“That message didn’t work,” said veteran Republican strategist Alex Conant. “Republicans want to win in 2024. They know they’re not going to win in 2020 — there’s nothing we can do now to change what happened.”

“For a lot of Republican voters, they want to make sure that their votes count, and are more interested in what candidates can do about election security than listening to them complaining about 2020 conspiracy theories,” he added.

But groups tracking candidates who have sown doubt about President Joe Biden's 2020 victory say the pivot is also intended to obscure these candidates' disproven, and dangerous, positions.

“The election denial movement has damaged trust in our elections and has led to threats and harassment that election officials are dealing with everyday,” said Joanna Lydgate, the CEO of States United Action, a nonpartisan group that tracks election deniers running for office. “I think that’s a really important point to remember, in light of those candidates who may appear to have backed