Some Republicans fear the former president’s continued fixation on his loss threatens to deter their base from voting. But many of them are still staying silent.

One year after an election that ended with Donald Trump’s loss, the GOP is still tightly yoked to his baseless claims of voter fraud — a coupling that’s poised to roil the 2022 midterms as well as 2024.

A vocal group of lawmakers on the GOP’s right flank has embraced Trump’s repeated, unfounded arguments that his loss to President Joe Biden was tainted, some even declining throughout the year to say directly that Biden is the duly elected president. As the former president keeps pushing the same disenfranchisement rhetoric that helped propel the violence of Jan. 6, dozens more House Republicans have remained silent. Some worry Trump’s false allegations might depress their base, but they’re not distancing themselves.

“I think he’s reflecting the view of most of our base that are concerned, because there was election fraud” in 2020, said Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), the House GOP conference secretary, of Trump. “There are a lot of Republicans out there worrying about it. So I think he is probably reflecting that accurate belief that we have to shore this stuff up.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who’s kept Trump close as he presses a strong hand to win back the majority next year, said simply that “people should participate in their elections” when confronted recently with the former president’s warning that Republicans might stay home next fall or in 2024 without more attention paid to voter fraud assertions. McCarthy’s No. 2, Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), last month told Fox News that he saw problems with states’ administration of the 2020 election that were “not just irregularities.”

The GOP’s persistent embrace of debunked claims of widespread voter fraud, as well as the handful of Republican candidates seeking congressional seats after participating in “Stop the Steal” rallies, further underlines Trump’s continued hold on the party after some Republicans drifted away following Jan. 6. After Trump and other California Republicans laid the groundwork for evidence-free challenges to a Democratic victory in the California recall election earlier this year, at least one House Republican had suggested — before Tuesday’s election — that similar claims might be order in case of a loss by GOP nominee Glenn Youngkin in Virginia’s gubernatorial race.

In short, the party’s balancing act surrounding the 2020 vote and Trump’s influence isn’t about to end — despite Democrats’ interest in making 2022, and 2024, a referendum on the polarizing former president. And most conservatives aren’t too worried.

“We need to make sure that we’re getting to the bottom of some very abnormal, anomalistic, strange or irregular things that happened, so that we don’t have a repeat of that. We’ve got to have confidence in our election,” said Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), a member of the House Freedom Caucus.

The continued circulation of Trump’s fraud rhetoric has alarmed prosecutors and federal judges, who’ve described it as a harbinger of potential future Jan. 6-style violent episodes. Prosecutors have charged more than 650 people with breaching the Capitol during the pro-Trump insurrection earlier this year, with many defendants citing their allegiance to Trump as the reason they participated in the attack.

Some Republicans in the House, including stalwart conservatives, worry that Trump’s obsession with his loss in 2020 could burn the party in future races.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said that the former president’s message is “absolutely unhelpful“ when asked whether Trump’s statements were helpful as his party looks to retake the majority.

“When I talk to voters, I am very blunt with them. I say, ‘Stop being self-defeating. Get out and vote,’” Crenshaw added, after being asked about Trump’s statement. “‘You shouldn’t listen to anyone who tells you not to.’“

Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a member of the Jan. 6 select committee and the second House Republican who voted to impeach Trump to announce his plans to retire so far this year, called continued, baseless voter fraud claims “a really dangerous thing.”

“There’s still a significant amount of the country that believes the election was fraudulent. They truly believe — smart people, too,” Kinzinger said in an interview.

Yet Crenshaw and Kinzinger, with their different degrees of criticism, are in the minority of the party. Many Republicans have preferred to brush Trump’s rhetoric aside rather than reckon with it.

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