Like other Democrats, Stelson used the Jan. 6 riot as one plank in a broader message, wrapping democratic norms into an argument about Republican extremism.
It’s a strategy that has continued to evolve in the years after the 2021 Capitol riot. Democrats from Kamala Harris to candidates further down the ballot have focused on abortion rights and the economy, but they’ve also recognized the power of issues of upholding democracy to energize their base and peel off moderate Republicans who may be disaffected with their party.
National polling typically shows preserving democracy as the top issue for voters — or one of the top, next to topics like the economy.
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Perry played a pivotal role in pushing for an eleventh-hour leadership change at the Justice Department to help facilitate Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election results when the department’s leaders balked at promoting false claims of voter fraud. Perry’s phone was seized by the FBI in August 2022 as part of an investigation into those efforts, but there’s no indication he is a target of any criminal probe.
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“In ’22, I think everyone was like, ‘What the hell just happened?’” said Brian Lemek, executive director of Defend the Vote, a group backing what it considers pro-democracy candidates, including Stelson. “It just had to set in for people, and we really did have to kind of understand and appreciate the real threat here.”
Read the full piece in Politico
