Politics
These gov candidates stood up to Trump in 2020. Now they’re betting voters have moved on.
State election officials were among the most visible defenders of American democracy after the 2020 election — standing up to President Donald Trump, rejecting false claims and, whether they wanted to or not, becoming national symbols of institutional resistance to his attempts to overturn his election loss.
But as some run for governor in 2026, they are eager to talk about anything but 2020.
More than five years after Trump’s attempt to cling to power ignited a political rallying cry on the left and a loyalty test on the right, these Republican and Democratic candidates are betting — and, in some cases, hoping — that voters have moved on.
A pair of Republican secretaries of state who rejected Trump’s false 2020 election claims and then survived MAGA-fueled 2022 primaries are running for governor. Unsurprisingly, neither is keen to relitigate the issue that linger over their hopes this year.
“2020 is very far behind us as secretaries of state,” Kansas Republican Secretary of State Scott Schwab said. “We remember it, but we’re moving on, and I think the American public is too.”
But Trump isn’t ready to move on, complicating these candidates’ hopes of putting 2020 in the rearview mirror. Speaking before an audience of global leaders and business officials in Davos last week, Trump repeated his false claim that the 2020 election was “rigged” and promised that “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”
Two Democratic secretaries of state are also running for the governor’s mansion. And while defending democracy and their defiance to Trump on election issues forms a defining part of their political biographies, both candidates lead with pocketbook issues rather than making protecting the vote the centerpiece.
“This election is about Michigan, and this election is about who is best positioned to lower costs for the people in our state,” Michigan Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told Blue Light News.
In many ways, the shift reflects the reality of running for the governor’s mansion. The job description is much broader from the office of the secretary of state — and voters want to hear about what politicians will do for them now.
But it also underscores the political evolution of one of the most animating aspects of Trump’s first term.
For Democrats, democracy was a potent force in 2022, when candidates leaned heavily into running against election deniers. And many Democrats say it’s still effective.
“They use the issue as an illustration of character,” said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. “It really communicates integrity, nonpartisanship, commitment to democracy and freedom, standing up for people, and courage.”
As Democratic candidates’ use of democracy messaging has evolved, strategists say the meaning of “democracy” itself has also shifted since 2020. Then, it was largely about election integrity and the transfer of power. Now, it’s increasingly tied to broader concerns about executive authority, with Democrats arguing they’ll be the ones who can stand up to a president they see as authoritarian.
“This is the moment where you need a governor who won’t bend the knee,” said Benson, who has been outspoken against the Trump administration following back-to-back killings of protestors in Minnesota by federal agents.
Jocelyn Benson
Benson was on the front lines of defending her state’s election results after 2020, facing threats and swatting attacks. That period is a part of her messaging: Her campaign launch video showed news footage of her home being surrounded by protesters, and she remains outspoken against false claims related to the 2020 election.
She has also cast that moment as proof of leadership — and a willingness to stand up to Trump. “We fought back to protect democracy itself and we showed that as state officials, that’s how we have to respond to bullies who try to rip away our rights no matter how powerful they may be,” she said.
But on the campaign trail, Benson has often focused more on bread-and-butter economic issues. Affordability, housing, health care, childcare and energy costs are listed as her top issues on her campaign website.
“What every resident, every citizen, every voter in this election knows is how important it is to have a governor who will fight for them and who will fight for them in a way that that effectively lowers their cost of living while also protecting the safety of themselves, their families and their communities,” Benson told Blue Light News.
Brad Raffensperger
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was one of the most prominent Republicans to reject Trump after the president urged him to “find” more votes in his state. The incident propelled him into the national spotlight — and drew fury from the president and his MAGA base, leading to death threats. He warded off a Trump-endorsed primary challenge in 2022, in part by taking his case to conservative media. Now, he’s seeking the governor’s mansion in the state that is in many ways the epicenter of Trump’s bid to hold on to power in 2020.
Raffensperger does not directly talk about the 2020 incident in his launch video or on his campaign website. Instead, he frames his record as evidence that he is willing to make the “tough decisions.” His launch video focuses on creating jobs in Georgia, lowering property taxes and banning transgender women from women sports, among other issues — issues that are key to voters but not central to his current day job.
But Georgia’s 2020 election keeps getting pushed back into the spotlight.
On Wednesday, the FBI executed a search warrant at the Fulton County elections office outside Atlanta, seizing all ballots from the 2020 election there.
“He’s trying to talk about other issues, [but] 2020 keeps coming up,” said Buzz Brockway, a former Republican state legislator who lost to Raffensperger in a 2018 primary.
Brockway said many Republicans have moved on from 2020 — but that there remains a “loud, noisy contingent who are continuing that battle” that Raffensperger will have to contend with, even if most voters’ main focus lies elsewhere.
Raffensperger has largely sidestepped questions about the 2020 election — in a November interview with the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, he said that it showed that he does the “right thing, no matter what.”
“Other people haven’t been put to that test, but we were at the end of the day,” he said.
Raffensperger’s campaign declined to comment for this story.
Still, Raffensperger’ opponents in the GOP primary, particularly Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, are eager to keep 2020 alive in the race. Jones, who was a fake elector in the state, has tried to cast his actions during that period as unflinching loyalty to the president.
“I don’t know that it brings Jones any new voters,” Brockway said, but it may be an effort to “energize his base.”
Scott Schwab
In ruby-red Kansas, Schwab defied some of the loudest voices in his party when he repeatedly rejected false claims about the 2020 election in his role as secretary of state. He has been clear that he does not see that chapter as central to his gubernatorial bid as he runs in a crowded GOP primary.
“Everybody’s concerned about taxes, especially with cost of living,” Schwab, a past chair of the National Association of Secretaries of State, said in an interview. “Property taxes are a real red-hot button in Kansas.”
His campaign launch video only briefly mentions election issues, and almost as an afterthought. “As secretary of state, I streamlined business services and cut bureaucratic red tape,” he said. “I secured our elections, too.”
There remains a segment of the GOP for whom election issues remain salient, said Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University in Kansas. But for the broader electorate — those most likely to turn out in midterm elections — these issues are still “pretty low down the list.”
In 2022, Schwab, Raffensperger and Benson all prevailed in their reelections, despite facing Trump-backed challengers or outright election deniers.
“I would say that most people really believe that we’ve moved on,” Schwab said.
Shenna Bellows
Democrat Secretary of State Shenna Bellows became Maine secretary of state in January 2021 after being chosen by the state legislature, just as Trump was in the middle of his push to overturn his election loss. In 2023, she ruled that Trump should be barred from the ballot for his conduct during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, a decision later overturned by the Supreme Court.
In the blue-leaning state, and facing a crowded primary, Bellows has been more eager to talk about the issue than some of her fellow chief election officials.
“Leadership is about doing what is right, even when it is hard,” she said in her launch video, which highlighted the threats and harassment she faced as a result of her decision.
In her bid for governor, she has emphasized that anger over Trump’s actions exists in tandem with persistent anxiety about the economy. Like Benson, she has been vocal in criticizing the killings in Minnesota.
“The economy is the number one issue for most Mainers, there’s a lot of economic concern right now, especially in the wake of the tariffs and increasing job losses that we’re about to see,” she told Blue Light News.
“That being said, I also think it’s really important to tell the truth,” she said. “What the Trump decision and my work as secretary and defending democracy tells people about me is that I will do the right thing even when it’s hard.”
SEATTLE — As a lesbian who was born in Egypt, Noha Mahgoub could have chosen to dress for what local organizers branded a “Pride Match” in colors associated with either her sexual orientation or her country of origin. The 43-year-old Democratic legislative aide — one of the top staffers in Washington state government — chose the latter, arriving in a red Egyptian national team jersey, a black hat emblazoned with YALLA and red-white-and-black tricolor facepaint.
“I’ve seen Pride shirts, I’ve seen Pride face paintings,” she observed from a concourse minutes before national anthems began echoing around Lumen Field. “It’s been really great, but I’m seeing a lot more Egypt and Iran and people cheering for their countries and singing their songs.”
Indeed, despite FIFA’s announcement that rainbow flags would be permitted in the stadium, few were visible as the match began. Instead, the stands rippled with the colors of the two Middle Eastern countries on the field, including many of the pre-revolutionary lion-and-sun flags that FIFA has attempted to ban under a stadium code of conduct that prohibits political displays.
Mahgoub had seen Egypt’s national team in person only once before, as a child while the team was angling to qualify for the 1990 World Cup. Since then, Mahgoub and her family relocated to Washington state, where she said the local Egyptian-American community has become enlivened by new arrivals coming to work at Seattle-based tech companies.
“You know how it is, you start calling everybody your cousins — a lot of cousins that I wasn’t related to,” Mahgoub said. “Well, I think a lot of them are here.”
Ah, Belgium. The country of fries, chocolate, Kevin De Bruyne and, some might say, chronic political division.
Beyond Brussels, a mighty international melting pot, the country is split between Dutch-speaking Flanders, French-speaking Wallonia and a small German-speaking community. Those linguistic divisions are mirrored in its politics: Belgium has separate party systems on either side of the language border, as well as a highly devolved federal structure that gives significant powers to its regions.
Today, Belgian politics is as fragmented as ever. It took 234 days to form a federal government after the June 2024 election (yes, you read that right). The delay was driven largely by the fact that no camp came close to winning a majority, forcing months of negotiations between parties with sharply different ideological and linguistic bases.
Flemish nationalism has also become a growing force, shaped by two right-wing nationalist parties: the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), which wants to transform Belgium into a looser confederal state and ultimately give Flanders far greater autonomy, and the far-right Vlaams Belang, which openly campaigns for Flemish independence.
So, you might think the 2026 World Cup would offer Belgium’s leader a rare opportunity to rally and unify the country behind a shared national symbol, right?
Wrong.
Prime Minister Bart De Wever, who hails from the N-VA party, has expressed almost no public support for the Red Devils, Belgium’s national soccer team.
That contrasts with leaders in nearby countries that also qualified for the World Cup. The leaders of the Netherlands, Germany and France have all publicly backed their squads, whether on social media or through public appearances.
The reason may be simple: De Wever just doesn’t care for the sport.
A Belgian official told Blue Light News: “The prime minister is not a soccer fan, so he doesn’t seek to project that image publicly. To do otherwise would not be authentic.”
Flemish media have indeed reported that the prime minister has little interest in soccer. In a podcast appearance a few years ago, he said the sight of people “going totally crazy in a group in the stands” left him feeling “ice cold.”
But politics is likely part of the story too. De Wever has led the Flemish nationalist N-VA since 2004. Throughout his political career, he has argued that Flanders should have far greater autonomy and that Belgium should evolve into a confederal state. For a politician with that background, overt displays of Belgian national unity probably don’t come naturally, and in fact contradict emphasis on Flemish autonomy.
This is not the first time the N-VA’s relationship with the Red Devils has attracted attention. In 2015, after Belgium reached No. 1 in the FIFA world rankings, Francophone Socialist Party leader Laurette Onkelinx asked the Chamber of Representatives to applaud the team. All parties joined in, except the N-VA.
During Euro 2016, the N-VA had to deny it instructed ministers and MPs to avoid publicly celebrating the Red Devils so as not to appear too Belgian, after rumors circulated in Belgian media.
One of De Wever’s few comments about this year’s World Cup concerned Belgium’s official tournament song. His complaint: It did not contain a single word of Dutch.
“My staff have confirmed to me that not a single word is sung in Dutch. That is, to put it mildly, not elegant,” he said, in keeping with his ideologies of promoting Flanders, when asked about the song during a parliamentary committee hearing.
Sport is often treated as a vehicle for national unity. In New Zealand, Belgium’s opponent in today’s match, elite teams have successfully woven elements of Māori culture into their sporting traditions, most famously through the prematch haka, which has helped create a shared cultural identity that connects Māori and non-Māori New Zealanders.
In Belgium, however, this World Cup has not yet become that kind of unifying project. At least not from the very top.
HOLLYWOOD, Florida — Colombia and Portugal’s World Cup match in Miami Gardens won’t be the only major draw pulling crowds to South Florida this weekend: Florida’s Republican grassroots are heading to Hollywood for their “Sunshine State Showdown.”
The GOP’s event at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is one of the state party’s biggest of the year. The GOP sold more than 800 tickets, with the party’s most devoted volunteers and many donors coming in from all over the state to get revved up for the midterms, gameplan their messaging and hear directly from top candidates.
The shindig will feature speeches from Sens. Rick Scott and Ashley Moody, as well as gubernatorial candidates Rep. Byron Donalds, former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins. It will also include two congressional debates.
Several “Showdown” attendees said they were thrilled about the convergence of their party’s bash with a World Cup match. South Florida has already seen a huge economic boom in recent years, and the Magic City is poised to become even more prominent given Miami is set to be home to Donald Trump’s future presidential library and will host the G20 in December. “Miami is again at the center of the universe,” observed Miami-Dade County GOP Chair Kevin Cooper.
Several prominent Republicans said they see the international event as an opportunity to showcase the state. State Rep. Dean Black of Jacksonville, who also chairs the Republican Party of Florida’s fundraising committee, said he’d enjoyed seeing fans from abroad show appreciation over social media for American culture. “They have fallen in love with the greatness of America,” Black said. “By being exposed to the Republican Party event, they will learn just how that greatness came to be.”
Collins’ team said that while the lieutenant governor wasn’t attending the game, he was “happy the state of Florida is hosting so many fans from across the world experiencing the beauty of our state.”
Former Fox 35 Orlando anchor Ryan Elijah, a GOP candidate for Congress who’s attending the showdown, said he would be checking his phone regularly for World Cup updates.
“What a night for Florida to see the biggest names in Florida politics and World Cup soccer be just miles apart!” he said in a text. “It’s a dream night for tourism numbers and local businesses!”
But the packed weekend also risks turning into a logistical headache. The Hard Rock Hotel is one of the pickup points offering shuttle services to Miami Stadium. It’s less than 9 miles away from the big game.
Angie Wong, Republican executive committeewoman in Miami-Dade, attended Wednesday’s match between Scotland and Brazil. She said her family paid $200 for parking near the stadium and that it took more than an hour just to get out of the parking lot.
“We were lucky — we actually left before the game ended,” she said.
Yet this year’s “Showdown” is a more scaled-back affair than in the recent past. It won’t, for example, feature a dinner like in previous years. But that’s probably good news for any attendees who don’t want to miss the soccer match — or who are just trying to get back home without getting stuck in traffic. And it doesn’t have any major Trump administration officials attending, in comparison to last year, when the event prominently featured White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and now-former deputy chief of staff James Blair, who is currently running Trump’s political operation for the midterms.
Florida’s GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis — who remains highly popular with the state’s grassroots — won’t be speaking at the “Showdown” this weekend and his office didn’t reply to an inquiry about whether he’d attend Saturday night’s game. The governor was in the Miami area during the last couple of days, including hitting the Brazil-Scotland game on Wednesday night and holding a press conference at the former Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center on Thursday.
Evan Power, chair of the state party, had already arrived at the Hard Rock Hotel on Wednesday night and said he got to watch a Brazilian victory parade happening right outside the restaurant where he was having dinner. He added he hadn’t had any issues getting in and out of the events center and that Republicans sold out their room block, “so I think we were able to get in before the craziness.”
“In our room block, people are happy because they’re not paying the market rate that is out there,” Power said. “Seeing some of the prices — they’re crazy now.”
- The “Pride Match” that wasn’t
- Congressional Black Caucus blasts Slotkin over her calls for new leadership in the House
- Why Belgium’s prime minister isn’t cheering on the Red Devils
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- World Cup match collides with Florida GOP bash
- A drag queen, a rainbow festival and a game FIFA can’t control
- Envoy’s pharaoh well party
- The world’s not big on the US. The World Cup might help.
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