海角大神

A slate of conspiracy theorists seeking to take over key U.S. election posts lost races in battleground states, after months of warnings from election experts and Democrats that their ascension could threaten American democracy itself.聽

The final nail in the coffin arrived on Saturday in Nevada, where Republican Jim Marchant, who helped organize candidates under the 鈥淎merica First鈥� banner, lost his bid to become the state鈥檚 top election official to Democrat Cisco Aguilar, Edison Research projected.

Marchant and like-minded candidates echoed former President Donald Trump鈥檚 false claims that the 2020 election was rigged and promised to overhaul the voting apparatus in pivotal states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona聽with an eye toward 2024, when Mr. Trump is expected to seek the White House once again.

Their defeats were a sign of voters rejecting anti-democratic tendencies in tight midterm elections.聽President Joe Biden鈥檚 Democrats also held their majority in the Senate, Edison Research projected on Saturday, while officials continue to count ballots in 20 races that will determine control of the House of Representatives.

But the 鈥渞ed wave鈥� that Republicans had expected to give them wide congressional majorities and position them to sway the outcome of the 2024 White House race, did not materialize.

In an interview, Mr. Aguilar said his victory proved Americans were fed up with election denialism, two years after Mr. Trump鈥檚 defeat.

鈥淚 think it also showed that voters are tired of chaos, and chaos doesn鈥檛 work,鈥� Mr. Aguilar said. Mr. Marchant did not respond to requests for comment.

In swing states Arizona, Nevada and Michigan, 鈥淎merica First鈥� candidates were nominated for secretary of state, the position that oversees elections. Their rise drew an unusual level of attention and spending to the races, which have historically been political afterthoughts compared with the pitched battles for Congress and governorships.

All of those聽candidates lost.聽None have publicly conceded defeat.

In Pennsylvania, where the governor appoints the secretary of state, the Republican gubernatorial candidate was Doug Mastriano, who helped bus supporters to Washington for the Jan. 6, 2021, protests that turned into an attack on the Capitol and said he would not have certified the 2020 results. He lost decisively to Josh Shapiro, the Democratic attorney general.

The only 鈥淎merican First鈥� candidate to win a secretary of state race on Tuesday was Diego Morales in solidly Republican Indiana.

Election deniers consistently ran behind other Republican statewide candidates, according to New York University鈥檚 Brennan Center for Justice.

鈥淭hat says to me that Americans understood the stakes and are firmly on the side of free and fair elections,鈥� said Lawrence Norden, the senior director of Brennan鈥檚 elections and government program.

Fears about political violence 鈥� stoked by a spike in threats against election workers and armed observers at聽ballot聽drop boxes 鈥� have also proven unfounded, at least thus far.

Nevertheless, many Republican election deniers won other races around the country.

Mr. Trump鈥檚 falsehoods about the 2020 election have permeated the Republican base, prompting many candidates either to decline to repudiate his claims or outright embrace them. Reuters/Ipsos polling聽has聽shown about two-thirds of Republican voters believe the election was stolen from Mr. Trump.

Ahead of the midterms, a Washington Post analysis found more than half of Republican nominees for House, Senate and key statewide positions had questioned the 2020 outcome.

Many of those candidates found success on Tuesday, particularly in more solidly Republican areas. The Post had tracked more than 170 election deniers who won their races as of Sunday morning, with all but half a dozen in contests that had not been seen as competitive before Election Day.

In Arizona, Republican Kari Lake, who has already suggested without evidence that slow vote-counting there is due to malfeasance, is locked in a yet-uncalled race for governor with Katie Hobbs, the Democratic secretary of state.

In campaign appearances this fall, Mr.聽Biden聽repeatedly warned voters that 鈥渄emocracy was on the ballot.鈥�

On a trip to Cambodia,聽he聽told reporters that聽the聽opposition party had reached an inflection point: 鈥淚 think the Republican Party is going to have to make, like our parties in the past have done, it鈥檚 going to have to decide who they are.鈥�