Protectors of democracy: Why these 27 races may be the most critical in midterm elections

Candidates who have often been overlooked by voters in past elections have an outsized presence in these midterm elections.

Ahead of Election Day, Republicans and Democrats running for secretary of state are combating misinformation from some of their counterparts and stressing how their races' outcomes could directly impact the future of democracy.

While the precise duties of the office can vary by state, these officials typically administer elections.

This election cycle, Americans in 27 states will see candidates for secretary of state on their ballot. At least 13 of these races will include a 2020 election denier as a choice, according to research by the nonpartisan group States United Action and its president and CEO, Joanna Lydgate.

“The bottom line is we can't take these races for granted anymore,” Lydgate said. “We can't put people in charge of our elections who don't believe in them.”

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What is an election denier?

Lydgate said her organization identifies election deniers as individuals who have publicly rejected the results of the 2020 election.

A USA TODAY analysis of election deniers on the ballot defined the term as:

• one of the 147 members of Congress who voted against certifying the election results or said they would have if they were in office.

• someone who has publicly said the 2020 election was “rigged,” “stolen,” marred by voter fraud or otherwise illegitimate — and have not recanted their false claim.

• or someone who still publicly questions the results of the 2020 election, nearly two years after it has been certified.

Fighting election misinformation

The 27 secretaries of state who win this year will oversee the 2024 presidential election and the 2026 midterms.

“So the real risk here is that we could see an election result that doesn't reflect the will of the voters,” Lydgate said.

For example, since the 2020 election controversy, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, said the job has the added responsibility of being on the front line of combatting election misinformation.

“That wasn't as much of a thing three, four, five or more years ago,” Simon said. “Now, it's a routine responsibility of explaining what our election system is and what it is not, and pushing back on those who try to undermine democracy with lies about the system.”

Simon is seeking a third term in office. He faces Kim Crockett, a Republican who has accused him of enabling voter fraud and called the 2020 election “lawless” and “rigged.”

“She peddles conspiracy theories,” he said.

Crockett said Simon’s “false narrative” about her is “hysterical” and “misleading.” She said she questions the push he has made toward more absentee and mail voting.

“There's this whole hundreds of millions of dollars being spent by the left and his friends on the left to create this false narrative that somehow Kim Crockett and other citizens are not allowed to ask questions,” Crockett said.

She is among the list of candidates the States United Action research team identified as an election denier.

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A need for nonpartisanship

Simon, along with Colorado Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold, was in office during the 2020 election, when false claims of voter fraud abounded, spearheaded by then-President Donald Trump. Since then, Simon and Griswold both say they have seen rhetoric around the office become more polarized.

“This isn't business as usual pre-2020,” Griswold said. “It's not partisan to stand up for the right to vote. It's American.”

Griswold’s opponent, Republican Pam Anderson, likewise said election officials need to “stand up for democracy, not as a left or right issue, but as an American value for free, accessible, and accurate and fair elections.”

“We need to take (out) the partisan rhetoric and politicians using these platforms to raise millions of dollars with polarizing and divisive rhetoric,” she said.

Lydgate said that among the 13 election deniers States United Action identified running for secretary of state – 11 Republicans and two independents – there is an effort to politicize American elections and democracy. For voters to trust their secretaries of state or any officials overseeing the process, she said nonpartisanship is crucial.

“To be the experts that they are and do their jobs, it's no different in my mind from taking your car to be serviced by a car mechanic or taking your child to see a nurse or a doctor when they're sick. These people are professionals,” Lydgate said.

Secretary of state candidates run with party labels on the ballot. But with challenges to the election system becoming “unnecessarily partisan” lately, Simon said officials have an even greater responsibility to remain neutral.

“You have to, to some extent, leave your politics at the door,” Simon said. “It's more important than ever for Democrats and Republicans to be fair and impartial in their duties.”

Despite the extremism coming from the right, Anderson said officials in the Republican Party are just as concerned about the potential impact of election deniers on democracy.

“There are Republicans all over this country standing up and operating in a way that is for democracy and all voters,” Anderson said. "The exceptions are the ones that politicize this office.”

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What does a secretary of state do?

Leaving out partisan affiliation is also important in respect to other responsibilities of the office, said Cisco Aguilar, Democratic candidate in Nevada. There, the secretary of state is responsible for administering corporate filings, a job Aguilar says has a great impact on the state’s small businesses.

“I always say that a small business should never have to hire an attorney to deal with the secretary of state's office,” Aguilar said.

Business licensing and regulating nonprofits and charities are also among the duties for Colorado’s secretary of state. “It’s less of a political job and more of a leadership, management position,” Anderson said, adding that nonpartisanship in the office extends to not publicly taking a position on issues that may go before voters.

Some candidates make promises related to their party’s platform: Griswold, a “pro-choice” candidate, has campaigned on a promise not to extradite someone for violating another state’s abortion law.

In Georgia, Democratic nominee Bee Nguyen said the attention on the secretary of state race should go beyond election implications to the “totality” of the office’s responsibilities, which in her state include regulating nursing licenses.

“The question that Georgians have is if a nurse is implicated or caught up in the abortion ban, is our current secretary of state going to protect health care workers who may be subject to losing their licenses?” Nguyen said.

Her opponent and current Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the licensing division is the office's "number one thing" and that he hopes to address licensing reform next session if elected. However, he said protecting nurses' licenses would not be under the Georgia secretary of state's control, since the division is run by governor-appointed boards.

"She obviously doesn't understand what this office really does," Raffensperger said. "Our office handles the paperwork and follows the rules and regulations that are promulgated by the board members."

Kim Rogers, executive director at Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, said she sees the extremist candidates’ threats to democracy as “inextricably linked” to other rights her party is concerned about, including abortion and LGBTQ rights.

"We are running against folks who want to restrict the freedom to vote. And if they're willing to take away such a fundamental freedom, where are they going to stop?” Rogers said. “All of these things are under attack if we don't have a functioning democracy and representation at the ballot.”

The Democratic political action committee has invested around $25 million in their candidates across the country, Rogers said, including an $11 million television ad buy in Michigan, Minnesota and Nevada.

Andrew Romeo, communications director for the Republican State Leadership Committee, said the GOP can't match the spending by Democrats in these races, despite record-breaking fundraising this year.

"We need to prioritize protecting our incumbents who are working to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat," Romeo said, specifically mentioning Raffensperger, who is their "most vulnerable incumbent."

Lydgate and her group have been keeping an eye on polls across the country that suggest several of these races will be tight.

“Whatever issue you care most about, whether it's the economy, abortion, education, it depends on free and fair elections, and that depends on these state and local election officials,” Lydgate said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why these 27 secretary of state races may be most critical in midterms