Republicans, we must confront the election deniers in our own party

Democrats won decisively on Tuesday, capturing both chambers of Congress and governorships across the country. Already, a comforting narrative is taking shape in political circles: The election-denial movement that has plagued our country is finally dead. With Republicans suffering major defeats and the Trump administration declining to embrace widespread allegations of fraud, perhaps the conspiracy theorists have finally lost their audience.Don’t bet on it.As two life-long Republicans who have spent years defending the integrity of elections in Arizona and Georgia, we know that election conspiracies don’t disappear when the political winds shift. These movements adapt, organize, and wait for their next opportunity. But mark our words now: Unless Republicans confront it now, once and for all, our party will continue paying the ultimate price. Lost talent, lost resources, lost time, lost credibility, and lost elections.A large network of activists, influencers, and organizations — we intentionally won’t name them here, but let’s call them grifters — have spent the better part of this decade intentionally building an infrastructure that is intended to last. For some, baselessly attacking the process of election administration has become a business model. For others, they’ve formed entire political identities around it. Either way, the incentives to manufacture doubt and undermine public confidence remain.We know this to be true because we have seen the ugly conspiracies rear their heads in each of our states. The consequences have equally been dire.Arizona has spent years and millions in taxpayer dollars battling baseless election allegations, losing hardworking and dedicated election professionals, and combating nonstop harassment and threats directed at election officials. In Georgia, audits, recounts, and investigations repeatedly affirmed the 2020 presidential election results, yet, just like Arizona, countless public servants faced intimidation and threats of violence for simply for doing their jobs.These experiences make us especially grateful to the countless election officials and workers who made Tuesday’s election possible. Even though their work is far from finished, their dedication in such a politically charged environment deserves our gratitude and respect. In the coming days, election professionals will count remaining eligible ballots, reconcile records, conduct canvasses and audits, and verify results before certifying our elections. These safeguards take time. That time is a feature of secure elections, not evidence of wrongdoing.And yet, unfortunately, these public servants are the very people who have faced the brunt of election conspiracies. What we can’t understand is why our party isn’t leading the effort to defend them, not make their lives a living hell. Tuesday night should make that even easier for most, if we’re being honest.The truth is that many in our party have turned their backs on true conservative principles to embrace dangerous conspiracies and lies.On the flip side, conservatives like us have long championed the rule of law, government accountability, transparency, and responsibility from our elected leaders. These principles must also guide how we approach our elections and governing more broadly.In 2023, Republican election officials from Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, and Utah outlined a conservative framework for restoring election trust. Their recommendations were straightforward: publicly affirm the security and integrity of American elections, embrace transparency and public education, and champion policies that continuously improve election administration.These aren’t partisan concessions. They are conservative principles that we have worked to live up to in our efforts to be the “adults in the room.” To our fellow Republicans, we hope that they serve as a blueprint for where to go next.So, as a friendly reminder, here’s what we should all agree on: There is nothing inconsistent about demanding secure elections. There is nothing wrong about defending the integrity of elections that have been properly administered. We can and should investigate credible allegations of fraud and correct mistakes when they happen. And, critically, we must advocate stronger safeguards in a rapidly evolving national security landscape.Unfortunately, some in our party have spent their political energy and capital attacking our institutions and public servants, instead of keeping our government running and delivering results for the public. This Tuesday we paid the price for those misguided decisions. Voters told us clearly that we should be focused on real issues like fighting corruption, addressing affordability, and reversing inflation.We can’t expect to rebuild public confidence while tolerating voices that undermine it, just like we can’t build a durable political future by insisting that every electoral defeat is someone else’s fault.Republicans, we have a choice to make. We can continue indulging those who profit politically or financially from distrust, or we can recommit ourselves to the principles that should define conservative leadership in this new era of politics.DEMOCRATS RAN RADICALS AND STILL WON. DON’T BLAME THE CANDIDATES — TRUMP OWNS THIS BLOODBATHTuesday’s results should prompt serious reflection about our party’s future. But one lesson should already be clear: Election denialism isn’t going away simply because Republicans lost.Our party has a long journey ahead of us these next several weeks and months as the 2028 cycle begins to take shape. This go around we hope we can start leading with the principles we claim to believe in, and leave everything else behind us once and for all.Thomas Galvin is a Republican supervisor on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in Arizona. Gabriel Sterling is a senior fellow at the Secure Democracy Foundation and the former chief operating officer for Georgia’s Republican secretary of state.