Evert Nelson / The Topeka Capital-Journal via AP
State Rep. Stephanie Clayton, D-Overland Park, reacts to Tuesday evening, Aug. 2, 2022, at the Overland Park Convention Center in Overland Park, Kan., to election returns on an abortion referendum. Kansas voters on Tuesday protected the right to get an abortion in their state, rejecting a measure that would have allowed their Republican-controlled Legislature to tighten abortion restrictions or ban it outright.
Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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Civil rights took a small step forward Tuesday night when Kansans came out to the polls in overwhelming numbers (more than double the turnout of the 2018 midterms) to toss cold water on a ballot initiative that would have eliminated state constitutional protection of the right to abortion.
The result is a welcomed surprise for activists across the country who entered the day expecting to lose, but hoping the vote would at least be close, setting for the stage for future wins in other states like Michigan. But the tidal wave of voters instead shocked the nation, rejecting the initiative by a 25-point margin in a state that Trump won by more than 15 points in 2020.
Those who support the rights to privacy and bodily autonomy, and oppose forced pregnancy, as well as those who believe in the freedom to make personal religious, educational and health care decisions, should take a moment to celebrate their victory in historically conservative Kansas.
Unfortunately, Tuesday’s primaries in Arizona, Missouri, Michigan, Kansas and Washington did not all bear good results for civil rights or democracy.
Across the country, candidates actively engaged in spreading lies, conspiracy theories, even violence, are now the official Republican nominees for higher office.
One noteworthy example is Paul Gosar, the incumbent candidate for Arizona’s fourth congressional district.
Gosar was rebuked by his own party leadership this year after he knowingly spoke at a rally of white supremacists. Last year, he was removed from his committee assignments for posting an animated violent fantasy video in which he murders Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and attacks President Joe Biden.
Despite Gosar’s clear penchant for violent extremism, Arizona Republicans turned out en masse, giving the twice-censured incumbent more than 65% of the vote — a 49-point margin over his next closest opponent. White supremacy and calls to violence are big draws in Arizona’s 4th Congressional district, it seems.
Gosar’s actions are a far cry from the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan, who delivered a commencement speech at Eureka College in which he said, “Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with conflict by peaceful means.”
And Arizona Republicans’ response is light-years away from John McCain’s vision of a United States in which “Our shared values define us more than our differences. And acknowledging those shared values can see us through our challenges today if we have the wisdom to trust in them again.”
But worse is that Gosar’s victory is not even the most disturbing narrative of the 2022 primary cycle.
Consider that right now, in six states, including right here in Nevada, the Republican nominee for secretary of state — the office tasked with overseeing elections — is a 2020 election denier who has openly advocated overthrowing the duly elected government of the United States. These people are running specifically on a platform of cheating voters of their votes. Electing them would be like making a bank robber president of the bank.
Four of those states are historic battlegrounds in presidential elections. And combined, the four states represent enough votes in the Electoral College to have changed the outcome of both the 2020 and 2016 elections.
This is how bleak our times have become: American democracy could rest on the fate of four state seats. The entire nation might be held hostage by four self-admitted conspiracy nuts. Nevada’s voters, at least, can stop one of these four and help save America.
As Jessica Hill reported in the Sun three weeks ago, “Republican Jim Marchant, a former Nevada Assemblyman vying to be Nevada’s next secretary of state, has said he would not have certified the 2020 presidential election in which President Joe Biden won by more than 30,000 votes here against Donald Trump.”
Marchant has continued to spread unfounded propaganda despite multiple judges dismissing court cases claiming election fraud and the fact that, as Hill reported “Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske and her office spent 125 hours investigating her party’s claims of election fraud, but her office could not find evidence of any widespread fraud that would have altered the results of the election.”
Similar claims are being made and repeated by candidates for the Secretary of State’s offices in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Indiana. And at least nine other election deniers in six other states are on the ballot in upcoming primaries. Those states include additional battlegrounds such as Wisconsin and Minnesota.
There are now less than 95 days until the 2022 general election.
While we celebrate a historic victory for civil rights in Kansas, we cannot forget that there is work still left to be done. Disgraced and impeached former President Donald Trump has demonstrated that he still wields significant power in the Republican Party. And his acolytes have been blatantly transparent about their desire to overthrow democracy, disregard the will and voice of the people as expressed at the ballot box, and install their hand-picked successor as the leader of what is supposed to be the world’s beacon of freedom and self-determination.
America is a great country and Americans are by and large great people.
But to maintain our greatness, Americans must be willing to defend our nation at the ballot box and prevent those who seek to destroy our history, our institutions, and our free and fair elections from gaining control of our electoral processes.
It’s up to us to keep this great nation moving forward.
