Losing GOP Senate Candidate Claims Election Fraud—Because of Course

Despite Republicans winning control of the presidency, the Senate, and likely the House, one losing GOP candidate is still alleging fraud in his race and refusing to concede.

Wisconsin Senate candidate Eric Hovde, who lost to incumbent Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin, posted a video on X Tuesday afternoon claiming inconsistencies in the vote tally, citing everything from a surge in “same-day registration on a rainy day” to a sudden spike in absentee ballots, as well as “voting irregularities” in Milwaukee.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Hovde had refused to concede but not requested funds needed for a recount, according to the Wisconsin Republican Party. He addressed that question in the video, saying “asking for recount is a serious decision that requires careful consideration.”

“Further, there are meaningful limits on a recount, because they don’t look at the integrity of a ballot,” Hovde added, before complaining about two third-party candidates on the ballot.

Hovde claimed that Democrats “organized and funded a phony America First candidate,” Thomas Leager, in addition to Libertarian candidate Phil Anderson, both of whom Hovde claimed took votes away from him.

“Is this right and fair to deceive voters? Is this the democratic process we want?” Hovde asked.

Hovde probably isn’t pushing for a recount because his complaints don’t actually address the vote count. Instead, he’s upset that his margin was low enough to have third-party candidates matter in Baldwin’s margin of victory. Wisconsin, like the other battleground states in this election, was won by Donald Trump and in fact clinched his victory. If Hovde is mad about his loss, he has only his own campaign to blame.

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s job may be in jeopardy once again.

Some conservative lawmakers are plotting to nominate an alternative candidate to Johnson during internal GOP elections this week, The Hill reported Tuesday.

One source told The Hill that “there will be a nomination” on Wednesday.

Johnson, a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump, has expressed confidence that he will be reelected. “I think you’ll have total unity in the party,” he said.

The Louisiana Republican previously faced a failed challenge to vacate the speakership from Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie. He has also been openly criticized by Representative Chip Roy, who said that there were “a lot of Republicans” who were concerned about Johnson.

Roy said Tuesday that it “seems likely” that Johnson will have a challenger in the vote but did not clarify whether he or someone else would be the one to challenge the current speaker.

Johnson said Tuesday that Republicans will be “ready to deliver” Trump’s 2025 agenda.

“We will be ready day one. We are prepared this time,” he said.

Ready for what, exactly? Johnson has previously promised to push for government spending reform that could threaten Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, and Social Security. Johnson has also said he would repeal the CHIPS Act, which is set to create hundreds of thousands of jobs and bring in billions of dollars, even though it’s not currently on the GOP agenda. He later walked back that statement by saying it wasn’t on the agenda.

Republicans have begun warning Trump’s transition team that it cannot select any more Republican representatives to the president-elect’s Cabinet, because it threatens the GOP’s narrow House majority.

Trump’s transition team has a “warrior board” executive order ready for the president-elect’s desk. 

An executive order draft is floating around MAGA world that would establish a Trump-appointed “warrior board” with the power to purge any three- or four-star generals as it sees fit. The board would send its dismissal recommendations to Trump and they would be acted upon within 30 days.

The draft executive order, which was first reported on by The Wall Street Journal, makes it easy to quickly remove military officials “lacking in requisite leadership qualities” but leaves open the question of what those requisite qualities are. The executive order draws on General George C. Marshall’s 1940 creation of a “plucking board” led by retired general officers to “remove from line promotion any officer for reasons deemed good and sufficient.” But that plucking board was to uplift young officers with high potential, not to cull anyone not perfectly aligned with MAGA. 

It’s not yet clear if Trump will sign the executive order, but Trump has held vitriol toward certain military leaders for some time now. He has vowed to weaponize them against the “enemy within,” to fire anyone involved in the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and to create a task force to weed out “woke generals.”  

“This looks like an administration getting ready to purge anyone who will not be a yes man,” former Army lawyer Eric Carpenter told The Wall Street Journal. “If you are looking to fire officers who might say no because of the law or their ethics, you set up a system with completely arbitrary standards, so you can fire anyone you want.”

This draft may be ready to see President-elect Trump’s desk on day one.

Last month, the Biden administration gave Israel a 30-day deadline to increase aid flow to Gaza, or the U.S. would potentially cut military assistance. On Tuesday, that deadline came and went without Israel facing any consequences.

Aid groups including Oxfam, Mercy Corps, and Save the Children issued a statement Tuesday saying Israel failed to meet any of the conditions that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken laid out in an October 13 letter to Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer. These include increased civilian access to food and other necessities.

“Israel’s actions failed to meet any of the specific criteria set out in the U.S. letter,” the statement read. “Israel not only failed to meet the U.S. criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza.”

In a press briefing on Tuesday, State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said, “I certainly don’t have a change in U.S. policy to announce today.”

“We have seen some steps being taken. There need to be some additional steps that are also taken,” Patel added. “There is nobody in this administration saying that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is pristine.… It continues to be a crisis.”

On Tuesday, Israel announced that it was opening a new crossing into Gaza, meeting one demand in the October 13 letter, but there were no indications that any aid had traveled through it. At least 44,383 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s brutal war on the territory since October 7, 2023, including more than 16,765 children.

A July study from the medical journal The Lancet estimates that the actual death toll could exceed 186,000, taking into account thousands of bodies trapped under rubble and indirect deaths due to the destruction of infrastructure, including hospitals and food distribution systems. Last month, 99 health workers who worked in Gaza sent President Biden a letter saying that they had “witnessed crimes beyond comprehension,” urging a U.S. arms embargo to Israel.

Those pleas appear to have fallen on deaf ears in the Biden administration and the State Department, following a pattern where expert advice on Gaza has been ignored by top U.S. officials. During the 2024 election campaign, any potential changes in policy toward Israel and Palestine were dismissed by Kamala Harris’s campaign, a factor that likely contributed to her loss.

Donald Trump’s incoming administration is bringing in hawks who support Israel’s further killing and destruction, including Representative Elise Stefanik as the new ambassador to the United Nations and former Governor Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. In his last few months as president, Joe Biden has a chance to not only negotiate an end to the war but save lives, and he seems to be passing it up.

MAGA world is trying to cast its personal faves into seats opened up by Trump Cabinet nominations. Its fan fictions may unfortunately become reality.

Republican senator and election denier Katie Britt told Axios Tuesday that she thinks Florida Governor Ron DeSantis should appoint Lara Trump, President-elect Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, to Marco Rubio’s Senate seat as he leaves to serve as Trump’s secretary of state.

“She just got off a historic win,” Britt told Axios. “She understands the America First agenda. For me, I think she would be a tremendous pick, a voice for hard working families and another mom of school aged kids that understands what we’re up against, and that’s to fight to protect the American dream.”

Britt isn’t the only one calling for a Senator Lara Trump. “Lara Trump needs to be the nominated replacement by Governor DeSantis for Rubio,” MAGA Representative Anna Paulina Luna said on X. “She will keep the seat and avoid a messy primary for FLORIDA. Well spoken. Kicked butt on election integrity. Etc.”

CNN’s Steve Contorno reported that DeSantis is feeling the “constant drumbeat” of pressure from MAGA acolytes to make this happen. Lara Trump has yet to comment.