Press Releases

Recap: As Ultra-MAGA Candidates Continue to Win Primaries, ECU // LAV, DASS, and DAGA Outline Stakes of AG and SOS Races

May 17, 2022

“We’re seeing a wave of anti-democratic movement that’s sweeping across the country”

“We are on the frontline of protecting the right to vote and safeguarding our constitution”

As Trump-backed candidates are winning their party’s endorsements and primaries in Attorney General and Secretary of State races across the country, End Citizens United // Let America Vote President Tiffany Muller, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, and Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold held a press call to discuss the stakes of AG and SOS elections this November.

AG Ford, the Co-Chair of the Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA), discussed the role Attorneys General play in preventing election sabotage and ensuring that the will of the people is upheld, and how the radical GOP slate of self-serving Attorney General candidates nationwide threaten to silence the voice of the people by overturning election results.

Secretary Griswold, the Chair of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State (DASS), discussed the threats that trusted local elected officials are facing, and the slate of ultra-MAGA, GOP-endorsed candidates like Kristina Karamo in Michigan and Tina Peters in Colorado, want to roll back the freedom to vote by restricting accessible methods of voting and overturn election results to benefit their political allies.

Click here to watch

Key quotes from the call:

ECU // LAV President Tiffany Muller

  • We’ve seen conspiracy-driven ultra–MAGA and Trump-backed candidates in Colorado and Michigan win their party’s endorsement. And that’s just the start of it, we expect more of these ultra-MAGA candidates to win the Republican nominations in the weeks and months to come.

  • [Attorneys General and Secretaries of State] are on the frontlines of protecting the freedom to vote and pushing back against efforts to undermine our elections, [but] there are candidates running for Secretary of State and AG who deny the 2020 election results and perpetuate false conspiracy theories that threaten our democracy. 

  • At End Citizens United and Let America Vote, we’re doing everything we can to elect and re-elect Secretaries of State and Attorneys General who will uphold the democratic process, establish free and fair elections, and respect the will of the voters. That’s why last year we launched our first ever “Democracy Defenders” program where we will spend $7 million in key Attorney General and Secretary of State races across the country.

Attorney General Aaron Ford

  • I know firsthand the vital role that Democratic Attorneys General play in defending our democracy. Along with our partners in Secretaries of State offices, we are on the frontline of protecting the right to vote and safeguarding our constitution and our nation’s peaceful transfer of power.

  • Democratic Attorneys General and candidates present voters with a clear contrast. We are for protecting people and consumers who need a voice and want their votes to be counted, while these Republican candidates are campaigning against those efforts and on Donald Trump’s brand of politics and the Big Lie.

Secretary Jena Griswold

  • We’re seeing a wave of anti-democratic movement that’s sweeping across the country and gaining momentum, and it’s dangerous, frankly. In 2020, Donald Trump tried to steal the American presidency. He failed, but factions are now focused on 2022 and 2024, and the very people who tried to foment a coup on the United States are now running to oversee our nation’s elections.

  • Democratic Secretaries of State will always protect the right to vote of every eligible American, we safeguard our election infrastructure. To be very clear: We don’t do this for Democrats, we do it for the American people. The job as Secretary of State is to make sure that every eligible voter–Republican, Democrat, and unaffiliated alike–has accessible and secure elections. That’s why it’s so important for Democrats to win.

###