Last night at Mar-a-Lago, Perry Johnson doubled down on embracing election conspiracy theories as he stood beside Matthew DePerno and cheered on false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
DePerno has used his campaign for Michigan Attorney General to elevate his singular agenda to decertify the state’s 2020 general election results. There has been no low he hasn’t been willing to stoop to in pursuit of his baseless crusade to relitigate an election that has long since concluded, been certified, and has been audited “more than 250” times. With his endorsement and appearance at last night’s event, Perry joined the rest of the GOP gubernatorial field in stoking distrust in our elections.
Ryan Kelley, who participated in the violent insurrection on January 6th, and Ralph Rebandt were also in attendance.
Johnson, Kelley, and Rebandt aren’t outliers. Their fellow gubernatorial Republicans James Craig, Garrett Soldano, and Tudor Dixon have all expressed support for an Arizona-style “audit” in Michigan, despite the multi-million dollar sham exercise reinforcing the fact that there was no evidence of fraud. Kevin Rinke made the baseless claim that “2020 election was rife with administrative problems, leading to a tainted election” and pledged to “audit the voter rolls.”
The rest of the crowded field have actively undermined public trust in the electoral process or committed to support legislation that will make it harder for all Michiganders to vote.
MDP spokesperson Rodericka Applewhaite issued the following statement:
“By embracing election conspiracy theories, Perry Johnson has set his extremism in stone. Michiganders now know that all ‘quality’ means for the odd-quality guru is backing baseless lies despite overwhelming evidence proving their conspiracy theories are just that. Unfortunately, this demonstrated unwillingness to stay grounded in reality has become the default for Republicans seeking office in Michigan as every gubernatorial candidate has echoed similar claims meant to destabilize our democratic process while ignoring the kitchen table issues that Michigan families are facing. Michiganders and our democracy at large deserve leaders that won’t prop up lies and strip voting rights when elections don’t go their way.”
