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Election deniers are back on the ballot.

In most swing states, at least one major Republican candidate has questioned or outright denied the results of the 2020 US presidential election, which Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden.

While voters in swing states have previously largely rejected candidates who denied election results, Republicans running for statewide offices across much of the country are trying again.

In Arizona, gubernatorial candidate and US representative Andy Biggs voted against certifying his own state’s election results. In Wisconsin, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Tom Tiffany similarly voted against certifying the 2020 results as a US representative for his state.

Candidates for governor in Pennsylvania and Michigan have cast doubt on the validity of the 2020 results. And some swing state Republican candidates for secretary of state have questioned or denied election results.

Governors sign off on state election results, issuing certificates to the presidential electors of whichever candidate wins. They can call for investigations or special sessions, and use their bully pulpit to cast doubt on election results. Secretaries of state are meanwhile the chief election officials in most US states, overseeing voting systems and advising the local jurisdictions that run elections. They usually play a role in certifying election results, too.

In 2020, Trump pressured governors and secretaries of state, alongside a host of state and local officials in several swing states, to withhold their signatures in a broad campaign to overturn his loss. Swing state governors and secretaries of state refused to stall or impede their states’ results.

But if election deniers or skeptics are elected to these key statewide roles, they would be in office in 2028, raising apprehension that they may refuse to sign off on results, or succumb to pressure from Trump and his allies, should Republicans lose.

None of the candidates mentioned below responded to inquiries from the Guardian about who they currently believe won the 2020 election, or whether they would certify the 2028 results.

Arizona

Governor candidate: Andy Biggs

Biggs, a former state lawmaker elected to the US Congress in 2016, still has not straightforwardly acknowledged Biden’s 2020 victory. That year, he pressured Arizona Republicans, including the speaker of the statehouse, not to certify the valid election results. He has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that there is widespread voter fraud and cast doubt on voting machines.

On 6 January 2021, Biggs voted against accepting the electoral votes in his home state of Arizona, and in Pennsylvania. In prepared remarks, he called for an audit of the results in Arizona. The eventual audit by the Arizona senate affirmed Biden’s win. The Arizona senate president who launched the audit, Warren Petersen, is the Republican nominee for attorney general this year.

“The debate as to the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election has been suppressed by the left and its propogandists [sic] in the media….until today,” Biggs said in his prepared remarks. He reportedly sought a presidential pardon for his role in seeking to overturn the election results.

He faces incumbent Democratic governor Katie Hobbs in November.

Secretary of state candidate: Alex Kolodin

Kolodin, a state representative and attorney, served as legal counsel on lawsuits seeking to overturn the 2020 results in Arizona. He has also represented some of the fake electors in the state, who were charged for their roles by attorney general Kris Mayes, though the case was dismissed earlier this year.

Kolodin was disciplined by the state bar of Arizona, including a period of probation and required ethics courses. Kolodin dismissed the complaints as made by “radical left-wing activists”.

Kolodin faces Democratic incumbent Adrian Fontes in November.

Georgia

Governor candidate: Rick Jackson

Jackson, a rich healthcare executive, attacked Georgia’s current Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, calling him a “Judas” in his campaign ads. Raffensperger refused to give in to pressure from Trump to question and overturn the state’s results.

Raffensperger lost in the primary, where Jackson and Burt Jones, who was one of Georgia’s fake electors, made it to a runoff. Jackson won the runoff. Per Politico, Jackson has said: “That was totally ridiculous what happened in 2020 and our people really let us down.”

Jackson’s campaign told CNN that Jackson “acknowledges both Biden’s win and that there were issues in the 2020 election that needed to be resolved in order to ensure Georgians have faith in our electoral system”.

He faces Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, in November.

Michigan

Governor candidate: John James

James, who has served in the US House of Representatives since 2023, initially refused to concede his own 2020 loss for a US Senate seat, and cast doubt on the results of the race.

While running for governor this year, James has said the 2020 election was “rigged” and claimed Trump won Michigan three times (he lost it in 2020). In 2022, though, James told PBS News Hour that Biden had been duly elected as president.

He faces the Democratic secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, in the November general election. James has claimed without evidence that Benson “rigged and manipulated the election process to defeat me and President Trump” in 2020.

Nevada

Secretary of state candidate: Jim Marchant

Marchant, a far-right state lawmaker and prominent election denier, previously sought the secretary of state’s office in 2022, losing to Democrat Cisco Aguilar, whom he will face again this November. That year, he was part of a coalition of Republican secretary of state candidates in swing states who supported Trump’s lie that the 2020 election had been stolen.

Marchant also lost a 2020 bid for a US House seat, then sued over his loss and tried, unsuccessfully, to redo the election. He supported the fake elector scheme in 2020 and told the Guardian in 2022 that it was “very possible” he would be prepared to do the same in 2024, if he won his race for secretary of state.

He believes a host of conspiracy theories central to the election denial movement, including that voting machines are manipulated and that judges were “bought off” when they sided against lawsuits seeking to overturn election results, he told the Guardian in 2022.

Pennsylvania

Governor candidate: Stacy Garrity

Garrity, the state’s treasurer, spoke at a Pennsylvania rally on 5 January 2021 that called for decertifying the 2020 presidential election results, though her 2024 re-election campaign claimed she spoke specifically about a state senate race at that time.

She also appeared with Trump and Mehmet Oz at a rally in 2022 and said of Trump’s 2020 race: “We know that he won.” 

Garrity herself was on the ballot in 2020, and won her bid for state treasurer. She told a local news outlet earlier this year that there were “irregularities” in the 2020 election, though she said she couldn’t say “to what extent”.

“But the president seems, you know, he’s very convinced that there was a lot there. And it seems like more information comes out all the time. But I’d rather look forward,” she said.

Garrity told CNN this month: “As I have said repeatedly since the 2020 election, I am painfully aware that Joe Biden was elected president.”

She is running against Democratic incumbent governor Josh Shapiro in November.

Wisconsin

Governor candidate: Tom Tiffany

Tiffany, a US representative first elected to Congress in 2020, voted against accepting the votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania. He has said he would have objected to Wisconsin’s results as well if given the chance to vote directly on them. He has said, without evidence, that “illegal votes” were cast and counted that year.

As recently as May 2026, Tiffany would not say whether Biden had won the 2020 election in Wisconsin fairly, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He also supported the FBI’s questioning of election workers in the state earlier this year, the paper reported.

“The problem with the 2020 election was the improprieties that happened,” Tiffany said in May 2026, the Journal Sentinel reported. While his campaign did not respond to the Guardian, CNN reported this month that Tiffany said Biden won in 2020, and committed to certifying the vote in 2028.

He faces Milwaukee county executive David Crowley in November.