“In states like OHIO where Trump won by massive margins, he probably actually won by even larger margins were it not for the Democrat cheating,” Josh Mandel, a Republican running for Senate in Ohio, said on Twitter.
Democrats, voting rights advocates and moderate Republicans reacted to the Arizona election report’s release with a mix of resignation and fury, calling the endeavor a waste of time, money and attention. But some darkly expressed an understanding that the flow of lies about the 2020 election would not ebb.
Katie Hobbs, who as the Democratic secretary of state in Arizona pushed back forcefully on the review, wrote in a fund-raising appeal that “I wish I could tell you that I’m excited to put all this to rest, but I’m not naïve.” Ms. Hobbs, who is running for governor in 2022, added, “I know far-right Republicans and conspiracy theorists will continue to come after me regardless of the results.”
In some states where Republicans control the levers of government, the effort to undermine confidence in elections has been incorporated into official policy.
Late Thursday, the Texas secretary of state’s office announced that it would review results from four large counties, three won by Mr. Biden and one carried by Mr. Trump. Pennsylvania legislators have sought the personal information, including driver’s license numbers, of roughly seven million voters as part of a sprawling Republican review. And in Wisconsin, the Republican speaker of the State Assembly tapped a conservative former State Supreme Court Justice to conduct an election investigation — days after Mr. Trump threatened the state’s G.O.P. leaders with consequences if they did not take action.
None of it has been enough to satisfy Mr. Trump or his most fervent supporters.
In Wisconsin, a right-wing group called Rise Up, led by David A. Clarke Jr., a former Milwaukee County sheriff known for spreading conspiracy theories and wearing audacious cowboy hats, has for months applied public pressure on Republican lawmakers to carry out an Arizona-style review of the state’s 2020 results.
But on Friday morning, after news of the Arizona report had circulated for hours, the group sent supporters a warning: “Arizona is either going to support our efforts in Wisconsin,” it wrote, “or it will cause us to be a dog with our tail between our legs and run for the hills!”
