The Democratic group is setting up a legal fund to protect secretaries of state in key states from the flood of lawsuits expected after the election.
In plans first shared with NBC News, the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State plans to spend $5 million to support top election officials in Maine, Michigan, North Carolina and Nevada. Officials with the group said they may expand to other states if needed and spend more if fundraising is strong.
The group began aggressively fundraising and campaigning to elect Democratic secretaries of state to oversee elections in many states in 2020 after former President Donald Trump’s false allegations of voter fraud. Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs will deal with post-election litigation in 2022.
“This is us trying to help our people, but we’re also helping democracy,” said Travis Brimm, the group’s executive director.
“We have a bunch of pro-democracy secretaries of state that we want to support. We know many of them will be sued. We know that there will be many problems with the certification of elections, and we know that these are expensive endeavors.
The original four states were chosen in part because the group believes state laws will allow it to effectively send money to raise secretaries of state.
More than 50 lawsuits have been filed Within the country seeking to nullify the results of the 2020 elections. Ahead of this November’s election, Trump’s Republican allies have already filed a series of lawsuits targeting election administrators and various rules and procedures in swing states.
Michigan, North Carolina and Nevada are key battleground states in this year’s presidential election. Michigan and Nevada also host competitive Senate races, while North Carolina has a primary race for governor on the ballot.
Democratic-leaning Maine awards Electoral College votes to the state’s overall winner and the winner of each of its two congressional districts. Trump once again set his sights on Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, which he won in 2016 and 2020. Democratic Rep. Jared Golden also faces a tough re-election battle for the seat.