Despite GOP rhetoric, voters care about Jan. 6

Over the course of the summer, the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 presented its findings from a yearlong investigation into the months leading up to the election in 2020, the weeks leading up to Jan. 6 and what happened on that day. But the attack on our country didn’t end on that day. Here in Nevada, we have people like former Nevada Attorney General and current Republican Senate nominee Adam Laxalt, MAGA Secretary of State candidate Jim Marchant, and gubernatorial candidate Joe Lombardo threatening our right to pick who leads us.

When the hearings began in June, Republicans in Nevada tried to dismiss the investigation, calling it a distraction from issues like inflation or a partisan witch hunt. It has been neither.

And Nevadans are aware of that. A recent poll from Defend Democracy Project and Public Policy Polling showed that a large majority (77%) of Nevada voters have seen, heard, or read a lot or some about the investigation into what happened on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol and the events leading up to it. Furthermore, a majority (51%) of Nevadans support the investigation and 50% consider the investigation to be very important when it comes to protecting democracy.

It’s clear that we in Nevada have been paying attention, but the results were similar across the country. Across all seven states polled, voters said they were concerned about the attack on Jan. 6 and that they hold Trump and Republicans, not just Trump, responsible for the attack. Over half of voters support the Committee’s investigation.

Voters have become much more aware of the Congressional investigation into Jan. 6 over the last few months according to July polling. What’s more: they are concerned with what they’ve heard about Donald Trump and the Trump Republicans who helped him try to overturn the 2020 election.

In sum, the hearings have proven to large numbers of people from all walks of life, both here in Nevada and across the country, that Donald Trump and Trump Republicans knowingly engaged in a criminal conspiracy and used violence to try to overturn a US presidential election they know they had lost.

The threat to our right to pick our own leaders did not end after Jan. 6. This year, MAGA Republican election conspiracy theorists are running serious campaigns to manipulate future Nevada elections. Senate nominee Adam Laxalt continues to attack Nevada’s electoral system using debunked claims of ‘election fraud’ and advocating for dramatic changes.

Lombardo, the Trump-endorsed nominee for governor, has promised to centralize Nevada elections. And far-right MAGA Republican nominee Jim Marchant is a serious contender in his race to become secretary of state. The Qanon-connected election conspiracy theorist plans to remake Nevada elections through sweeping systemic changes, from banning voting machines and early voting to hand-auditing all future elections.

The threat continues today and will only grow stronger unless MAGA Republicans here in Nevada and all over America are stopped. Their reaction to the lawfully executed warrant at Donald Trump’s home shows how they will stop at nothing, including violence, when elections or the law do not go their way. Americans across the country know that this is not the path forward.