June 7, 2026, 5:02 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON – Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs challenged President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election even though he won re-election on the same ballots.
Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was one of Trump’s 2020 alternate electors in the controversial effort to overturn Trump’s election loss in the Peach State that year.
And U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, of Wisconsin, voted against certifying Joe Biden‘s Electoral College victories in Arizona and Pennsylvania following the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack, after Trump urged his supporters to fight his election loss. Tiffany later said he would have objected to his own state’s electoral votes, too, if he had the opportunity.
These are just some of the Republicans running for governor of politically competitive states who were among those who rejected President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. If they win, they would have power over election administration.
Conservatives say the candidates could be instrumental to help ensure that any potential election problems in their states are handled quickly and aggressively, including ensuring that noncitizens don’t vote.
Hans von Spakovsky, a former Justice Department official and election integrity expert at the conservative Advancing American Freedom advocacy group, told USA TODAY that governors can be instrumental in bolstering election security by working “with their state legislatures to pass state versions of the SAVE Act,” referring to a Trump-backed bill in Congress that includes heightened voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements.
Demonstrated cases of intentional voter fraud are exceedingly rare: The conservative Heritage Foundation found only 1,500 instances spanning decades of elections involving more than 1 billion votes cast nationwide. Voting-rights activists say the bigger threat to election security comes from officials who questioned, challenged or sought to overturn the 2020 election results and who could use the levers of state government to influence future election administration.
“We know who won the 2020 election. It is the most scrutinized election probably in world history,” said David Becker, founder and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, a nonpartisan nonprofit that since 2016 has worked with election officials to bolster election security and integrity. “So it should be troubling to anyone who’s an American voter who’s going to be governed in any of these states when there is a candidate who seemingly is disconnected from reality.”
Biden won the popular vote by more than 7 million votes and the Electoral College by a 306-232 margin. Trump and his allies filed more than 60 lawsuits challenging the results and failed to overturn a single state’s outcome.
The group States United Action, which says it advocates for “free and fair elections,” tracks candidates who reject the 2020 results and run for statewide and congressional office. It says the latest data shows such candidates appear on the ballot in at least half the states across the country.
While some have gone all in for Trump on the issue, others have been more mixed in their support, including some who have differed in their public and private statements, Becker said.
“There are those who actively sought to overturn the will of the voters, who objected to electoral votes that were duly authorized in states,” Becker said. “And there are some who’ve made comments in one venue where they felt comfortable expressing doubt about the 2020 election, but in other venues seek to change their tunes somewhat.
Elections in key battleground states
Many of the candidates are running in states that could help decide future presidential elections, including in 2028.
Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have been decided by relatively narrow margins in recent races and they’ve been at the center of disputes over voting rules, ballot counting, certifying results and overall election administration.
Governors don’t run elections day-to-day but they can shape voting laws and appoint key officials like secretaries of state and election board members. In some states, they can also influence how election disputes are handled.
Here’s what to know about candidates who could be running key battleground states in 2028 after challenging the results of the last disputed presidential election:
Andy Biggs – Arizona
One of the most outspoken Republicans challenging the 2020 results, the GOP congressman is running for governor in Arizona, one of the nation’s most important election-administration battlegrounds.
Biggs objected to Electoral College votes from Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada on Jan. 6, 2021, according to his own congressional statements. He won re-election in 2020 on the same ballots that delivered Arizona to Biden by roughly 10,500 votes.
The Jan. 6 committee investigating the Trump-led effort to overturn the 2020 election results recommended that the House Ethics Committee investigate Biggs and three other Republican lawmakers, citing evidence that they participated in meetings and other efforts to challenge or overturn the 2020 election results.
Biggs has denied wrongdoing.
Arizona remains a focal point of election disputes because of its slim victory margins, repeated audits and continuing battles over voting rules and election administration.
Biggs campaign spokesman Drew Sexton said Biggs’ victory in 2020 was decisive enough for him to win despite some of the problems that caused Trump to lose.
Burt Jones – Georgia
Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was one of the 16 Republicans who served as alternate Trump electors in Georgia after Biden narrowly won the state in 2020.
Jones, who has Trump’s endorsement in the governor’s race and is widely viewed as the Republican front-runner, was identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Fulton County investigation into efforts to overturn Georgia’s election results, though he was never charged criminally.
In all, the sweeping Fulton County indictment charged Trump and 18 additional co-defendants, and 30 “unindicted co-conspirators,” or people who Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis alleged took part in the criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.
Jones has denied wrongdoing and blasted the case as a political effort by Willis to go after Trump and his allies. In September 2024, the head of the prosecuting attorneys’ council in Georgia who took over the investigation after Willis was removed from the case, Peter Skandalakis, concluded that “the conduct and involvement of Senator Jones as an elected representative to be reasonable and not criminal in nature.”
The Jones campaign did not respond to questions from USA TODAY.
Jones faces healthcare CEO Rick Jackson in a June 16 runoff, with the winner taking on Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, in November after she dominated the Democratic primary for governor in May.
Stacy Garrity – Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity, the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for governor, has faced criticism for comments questioning Biden’s victory in 2020.
Speaking at a campaign rally in 2022 with Trump at her side, Garrity said, “We know that he won.” She later said she accepted Biden’s presidency while continuing to raise concerns about how the election was conducted.
Pennsylvania is another of the most closely watched battleground states that has also been the center of repeated battles over mail voting, ballot counting and election procedures.
In the November general election, the former U.S. Army Reserve officer faces popular Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is seeking his second term.
Garrity “cannot be trusted to lead the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” the state Democratic party said in a January 2026 statement. “If we can’t trust her to uphold the basic responsibility of respecting Pennsylvanians’ votes and protecting democracy, how can we trust her to protect our families or fight for us?”
The Garrity campaign did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Tom Tiffany – Wisconsin
Tiffany, also endorsed by Trump in his current gubernatorial race, has continued to push claims of potentially rigged elections since voting against certifying Biden’s Electoral College victories in Arizona and Pennsylvania following the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
Biden won Wisconsin by 20,695 votes in 2020, an outcome that was confirmed after Trump sought a recount in the two most populated counties.
Tiffany claimed election laws were improperly changed before the 2020 election, and has supported tighter election-security measures.
Tiffany said he supported the FBI’s effort to interview high-ranking Wisconsin state election officials at their homes about the 2020 presidential election.
“So clearly they have found something that is worth investigating and so I just believe they should be allowed to complete the investigation,” Tiffany told a Channel 3000/News 3 Now reporter. “If there’s nothing there, then that’ll go away. If they do find something, then they can investigate that even further to make sure that there’s been no problems.”
Tiffany also said there were still “a couple things that were concerning” about 2020 even after multiple audits, lawsuits and other lookbacks found no evidence of problems.
Tiffany is the only major Republican running for governor, and faces a crowded field of Democrats in the open race. An Aug. 11 primary will determine who advances to the Nov. 3 general election.
“Tom Tiffany and Stacy Garrity have two things in common—election denialism and a Trump endorsement,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Emily Stuckey in a March statement. “What could Tiffany have promised Trump that he hasn’t already done for him? What could a potential Trump lackey future governor be promising a president who thinks democracy is optional?”
The Tiffany campaign did not respond to several requests for comment.
Pamela Evette – South Carolina
In South Carolina, another pivotal battleground state, Trump on May 29 endorsed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette for governor from a large GOP primary field of candidates. Many of them say Trump won the 2020 election.
Other candidates include U.S. House Rep. Ralph Norman, who called for military intervention to block Biden from the White House in 2021; Rep. Nancy Mace, who’s dubbed herself “Trump in high heels”; and Attorney General Alan Wilson, who signed on to a Texas lawsuit full of bogus conspiracy theory claims that sought to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump cited Evette’s promise to “Safeguard our Elections” as one reason she received his endorsement.
Evette has repeatedly attacked her GOP primary challengers for what she claims was their inadequate support of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. She posted an AI-modified social media video criticizing Mace for “supporting Democratic efforts to elect Joe Biden,” because Mace signed a letter refusing to support Republican efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election.
She has also publicly attacked Wilson for “affirming Biden’s election” and “betraying Trump” and has what Democracy Docket says is a “thoroughly detailed plan for weakening voting rights if elected governor.”
Democracy Docket is a progressive voting rights and election litigation group founded in 2020 by Democratic Party lawyer Marc Elias.
Evette describes those measures as “common-sense, conservative reforms needed to restore trust and integrity at every ballot box.”
Norman also voted against certifying Biden’s victory following Jan. 6. He has aligned himself with many of Trump’s concerns about election administration and argues that states should strengthen election-security laws.
Byron Donalds – Florida
U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, of Florida, a close Trump ally, was among the GOP lawmakers who voted against certifying Biden’s Electoral College victory after Jan. 6.
Donalds has echoed Trump’s concerns about election security and has supported Trump-backed voter ID requirements, citizenship verification efforts and other election-integrity measures including the SAVE America Act.
Backed by Trump’s early endorsement and holding a big fundraising advantage, Donalds is the leading candidate in the race to succeed Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The Republican primary is scheduled for Aug. 18.
Tommy Tuberville – Alabama
Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville joined a group of 147 Republican senators and House members who voted to overturn the 2020 election results after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
After the attack, he also supported creation of a commission to investigate fraud allegations in disputed states.
A heavy favorite in the Alabama’s governor’s race, the former college football coach remains one of the highest-profile elected officials in gubernatorial races after supporting challenges to the 2020 results.
John Rose – Tennessee
Tennessee Rep. John Rose also voted to object to Biden’s electoral votes from Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin for the 2020 election, saying “widespread concern from constituents over election integrity warranted further study. He also joined a Texas lawsuit challenging how Pennsylvania conducted its elections that the Supreme Court shot down.
Rose has emphasized election integrity and voting-security issues as part of his campaign for Tennessee governor. Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn is the heavy favorite in the Republican primary on Aug. 6.
