In House, Senate, gubernatorial and secretary of state races around the country, there are at least 268 Republican nominees who have denied or actively questioned the legitimacy of President Biden’s election, an NBC News analysis found.
This includes those running in competitive races, like Kari Lake, the Republican nominee for governor in Arizona, and those who are easily expected to win, like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
Candidates included in the NBC News analysis may not have directly called the 2020 election "stolen" or said the President Biden didn't win, but they may have cast doubt on the election results, refused to say Biden was legitimately elected or voted in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021 not to certify the results from certain states.
It’s against that backdrop that polls show Republicans losing faith in elections. And, it's the issue examined in-depth in this week's episode of Meet the Press Reports, where NBC News' Yamiche Alcindor traveled to Arizona to speak to voters with fears about election integrity.
A New York Times poll released earlier this week found that 29% of registered voters surveyed said that Donald Trump was the legitimate winner of the 2020 presidential election.
And, 28% of voters in the same poll said they trust "not too much" or "not at all" that the results of the upcoming midterm election will be accurate.
Groups like the Election Integrity Network and Turning Point USA have seized on this rhetoric and these voters to organize and recruit poll workers ahead of November's election.
For the latest episode of Meet the Press Reports, Alcindor spoke to some Arizona voters about why they plan to volunteer.
"I want to make sure that the elections done fairly and there’s no cheating going," one voter told Alcindor.
"If you're a precinct poll worker, if you work at the tabulating centers, if you're even just the transport person back and forth, you get an inside view of what's going on. Then you can gauge if it's okay," another voter said.
UPDATE: The Political Unit has updated the number of GOP candidates who have denied or actively questioned the legitimacy of Biden’s election. It is 268, down from 272.
To hear more from these voters and others involved in these efforts, tune in to the latest episode of "Meet the Press Reports" on NBC News NOW or Peacock.
