BY TEDDY WARNER
We’ve seen the Republican candidates for county council refuse to say who won the 2020 election repeatedly. The excuse they give is that “it’s a federal issue that is distracting from local issues”. If they were logically consistent, they would refuse to comment on anything that wasn’t a local issue. From looking at Gary Stradling and Reggie Page’s Facebook profiles (assuming they didn’t block you) and past comments, it is immediately obvious that this rationale is a lie. However, if we take them at face value, we can determine their definition of federal issues:
| Local issues | Federal issues |
| Constitutional convention | Who won the 2020 election? |
| US House debates | |
| Federal bills | |
| Supreme court | |
| Immigration | |
| Presidential speeches |
This is a strange categorization. What could the reasons be to avoid the 2020 election in particular? They have no problem in talking about other federal issues. Here’s some potential explanations:
- They believe in various election conspiracy theories.
- They believe it would cost them support from voters in category 1.
- They don’t know what “federal” actually means.
1 and 2 are equivalent for an elected official. Election deniers should not be put into any position of power. If Gary Stradling, Reggie Page, and Sharon Dry are not election deniers, they could have said so at any time. Clearly, they have not. Separately, 3 is inexcusable; if it is true, the Republican candidates should learn how the government works before running for office. If the Republican candidates would like to rule out all possibilities, they only need to simply state who won the 2020 election.