Claims of voter fraud, old as the republic, still work as weapons for Trump
Most elections are, at least in part, reactions to the results of the last election. Usually, that means they function as a referendum on the last election's winners and their performance in office.
It is unusual, if not unprecedented, for the midterm cycle to focus on the conduct of the last election — a kind of referendum on the legitimacy of the system itself.
By that standard, 2022 qualifies as unusual indeed.
Donald Trump and his followers, who now represent the activist core of the Republican Party, have insisted on making 2022 a do-over of 2020. Their essential argument is not that President Biden has failed or been a bad president, but that he was never legitimately elected president in the first place.
Trump has in fact this past week demanded he be "reinstated" as the "rightful winner" of the 2020 election or that the election be re-run "immediately" because Facebook had been advised by the FBI not to trust certain stories about Biden's son, Hunter, during the 2020 campaign.
Trump continues to insist, after 20 months, that he won an election that he lost by more than 7 million in the popular vote and by 306-232 in the Electoral College. Neither
