Some corporate leaders are funding Trump-backed election deniers in races for secretary of state, a role that administers elections

More than two dozen corporate leaders and businesses are quietly donating to the campaigns of at least four Republicans who have pushed false claims about the 2020 election results while running to become secretaries of state, according to a review of state campaign finance disclosures.

Secretary of state candidates Jim Marchant, running in Nevada; Mark Finchem, in Arizona; Kristina Karamo, in Michigan, and Chuck Gray, in Wyoming — all endorsed by former President Donald Trump — have disputed the 2020 election results on the campaign trail.

If the candidates win, they would have a critical role in both administering the election and counting ballots in 2024 — when Trump could again lead the GOP presidential ticket.

Nevada, Arizona and Michigan are each considered swing states during presidential elections, and Trump lost to President Joe Biden in all three of those states. The former president and his allies filed lawsuits challenging the results in those states, only for courts to reject them.

The candidates have echoed Trump’s false claims that widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election against Biden, allegations that led to dozens of failed lawsuits attempting to overturn state results and prompted the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. Trump’s political action committee, Save America, has donated $17,000 combined to the Finchem, Marchant and Karamo campaigns, according to a report by campaign watchdog Issue One.

Despite the fact they have embraced false election conspiracies, the candidates have received donations from corporate leaders across a variety of industries. Those business officials started financing the secretary of state candidates in August 2021 and continued their donations through September, according to state records.

Overall, the 12 secretary of state candidates who have disputed the 2020 election results have raised at least $5.8 million over the two-year 2022 election cycle, said Michael Beckel, a research director at Issue One, in a tweet. The other Republican candidates who have denied the election results are running to be secretaries of state in Alabama, Indiana, Connecticut, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Vermont and South Dakota.

The wealthiest donors to Marchant, Finchem, Karamo and Gray include Richard Uihlein, a shipping magnate and conservative megadonor; Patrick Byrne, the former Overstock CEO and current election denier; Jim Henry, the founder of oil and gas drilling company Henry Resources; Kyle Stallings, the CEO of oil and gas investment company Desert Royalty; Lewis Topper, a fast food executive who runs Integrated Food Systems Inc.; Matthew McKean, the CEO of energy company Frontier Applied Sciences; Ben Friedman, the CEO of restaurant food producer Riviera Produce, and Susan Gore, an heiress to the Gore-Tex fortune.

All eight have combined to give over $30,000, with donations since the start of last year split among Marchant, Karamo, Gray and Finchem, records show.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/12/2022-midterms-corporate-leaders-fund-election-deniers-in-secretary-of-state-races.html