Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, on Sunday said GOP candidates running in this week’s midterm elections will ultimately accept the results after exploring all the options available to them.
“Every election is run differently at the county level, at the precinct level,” McDaniel told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “So we want to make sure it’s run fair and transparently. And then we will let the process play out, and then we will accept the results.”
Some Republican candidates have resisted declaring they would accept the results outright.
“I sure hope I can, but I can’t predict what the Democrats might have planned,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.), who has been considered one of the most vulnerable Senate Republicans and is running a tight race against Democrat challenger Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. “You know, we’re not trying to do anything to gain partisan advantage. We’re just doing whatever we can to restore confidence. It sure seems like there’s an awful lot of, in the past, a lot of attempts on the part of Democrats to make it easier to cheat.”
McDaniel defended Johnson’s comments, also citing examples of Democrats whom she described as using language that is “not helpful.”
McDaniel referred to Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate for Georgia governor who acknowledged Brian Kemp’s win in the state’s 2018 gubernatorial race but did not concede, citing voter suppression, and Hillary Clinton who recently said “right-wing extremists already have a plan to literally steal the next presidential election.”
“If there’s real problems, everyone should be able to address that,” McDaniel said. “And I think Ron Johnson and Stacey Abrams, in the end, once all their avenues are exhausted, right, they will — they will accept the results.”
McDaniel has appeared on Steve Bannon’s podcast to help recruit poll watchers. Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison for defying the demand of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection that he be interviewed before the panel and submit records related to the attack.
“I’m never telling people to harass,” she said. “I would never do that. I’m saying, please go sign up.”
Last week, a judge said a group of armed people watching ballot drop boxes in Arizona would have to maintain a minimum of 250 feet distance from the locations following allegations of voter intimidation, according to The Associated Press.
“Well, nobody should be intimidating or breaking the law,” she said. “Nobody should. But poll watching is not intimidating.”
Many Republicans have been motivated by the conspiracy movie “2000 Mules” to hold stakeouts at drop boxes and mobilize around former President Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
McDaniel also deflected a question about whether she would like to see Trump declare a 2024 presidential run soon.
“I’m only focused on 2022,” she said. “I don’t even know what I’m doing for Thanksgiving right now, let alone thinking about 2024.”