Rep. Tom Emmer among 106 House Republicans backing legal bid to overturn election result
Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer is among 106 House Republicans who have filed an amicus brief setting out their support for a legal bid filed by Texas to overturn the presidential election result.
A lawsuit was filed this week by the Texas Attorney General – with AGs from 16 other traditionally Republican states joining the suit, including the Dakotas – is attempting to nullify 10.4 million votes cast in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Georgia.
The lawsuit alleges that these states had unlawfully expanded mail-in voting, arguing this should have been done via their respective legislatures.
Many states expanded mail-in voting this year because of the pandemic, including Minnesota and states won by President Trump, but the lawsuit is only targeting the four states that proved crucial to Joe Biden's win over Trump as Republicans seek to overturn the people's vote via the Supreme Court.
On Thursday, 106 House Republicans added their voices to the lawsuit, among them Minnesota's 6th District Representative Emmer, who is also the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
He is the only House GOPer from Minnesota to add his name to the amicus brief. Reps. Jim Hagedorn and Pete Stauber are not named in it.
It's been noted that the lawsuit only seeks to invalidate certain votes relating to the presidential election, not the results of the congressional elections, which saw the Republican Party reduce the Democrats' minority in the House, and could see them hold onto the Senate.
Dallas News reported Thursday that 21 states – including four led by GOP governors – had filed objections to the Texas lawsuit, calling it "unconstitutional, unfair, and outrageous."
At least two more have added their names since, including Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who said the suit from Texas AG Ken Paxton "depends on a misreading of the Constitution's Electors Clause – one that clashes with a century of precedent, denies states’ power to make their own decisions about election administration and oversight, and threatens to upend the basic notions of federalism and states’ rights."
"The people of America — including the people of Minnesota and these four other states — have spoken loud and clear: they have elected Joe Biden president, period,” Ellison said.
"Unfounded and frivolous challenges to the American people’s will have been thrown out in courts across the country. Now, the attorney general of Texas is making a last-ditch, evidence-free effort to undemocratically throw out the votes in states where he just doesn’t like the result — regardless of the fact that his own state took the same measures he wants the court to invalidate in other states."
He shouldn’t get to abuse our legal system in this way. I’ve joined this broad coalition to ask the Supreme Court to throw this unfounded case right out.”
Among those criticizing the effort to overturn the election is Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar.
"They are attempting a coup in broad daylight and it should not be treated as anything less," she said. "If it is about election integrity, why aren’t they questioning the Congressional elections that happened at the same time?"
