Wednesday, October 16

After a pair of devastating hurricanes caused unfathomable damage to states like Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, some Republicans are, of course, spreading conspiracy theories. While these false theories certainly can cause harm, they aren’t causing as much damage as some GOP lawmakers’ refusal to move their state’s voter registration deadline to accommodate those affected by the hurricanes. 

Also in this issue: what it means that right-wing lawyer Harmeet Dhillon is leading the RNC and the Donald Trump campaign’s Election Integrity team in Arizona. And Washington gubernatorial candidate Bob Ferguson talks Project 2025 and preparing for a possible second Trump administration.

As always, thanks for reading.

— Matt Cohen, Senior Staff Writer

How Republicans’ Hurricane Response is Hurting Voters

When Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) tweeted that “they” — unclear who — can control the weather and produce hurricanes, it drew such universal ire even members of her own party were outraged. But in the aftermath of the unfathomable destruction and loss of life caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Greene’s comments show that they aren’t just “looney tunes,” as one lawmaker said — they distract from the harmful actions that some of her colleagues are doing to potentially disenfranchise affected voters.

Because Greene’s comments are so deranged, wrong and insidious, it makes any Republican who condemns them — and there’s been many — seem not as bad in comparison. Take, for example, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who, in answering a question from a reporter about the swell of hurricane-related misinformation spreading online, said this: “We live in an era where if you put out crap online you can get a lot of people to share it and you can monetize that. That’s just the way it is,” he said, according to POLITICO. “But if you are hearing something that’s just outrageous — just know in the state of Florida none of that stuff would ever fly.”

Sure, DeSantis might sound completely reasonable here, but his actions say otherwise. I’m talking about his refusal to extend the state’s voter registration deadline for those who might’ve been affected by Hurricane Milton. It might seem like a reasonable request, but one that Republican lawmakers are against. Even after pro-voting groups and civic engagement nonprofits sued to try and get the voter registration extended in light of the dual hurricanes, judges in both Florida and Georgia denied the requests.

In denying the request in Florida, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle said that he hoped his ruling “didn’t come off as insensitive. … If they had evacuated, they still could have registered while evacuating.”

Harmeet Dhillon Leading Trump’s Arizona Election Integrity Team

Last week, former President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee announced a new Election Integrity team in Arizona, led by attorney Harmeet Dhillon. Readers of Democracy Docket might be familiar with Dhillon — back in February I published an exposè breaking down Dhillon’s history of conspiracy-fueled legal battles designed to undermine our democracy. 

It’s hardly surprising for Dhillon to lead this new team in Arizona. After all, she has a long history of representing right-wing interests in the court. In the past few years, Dhillon or her law firm has been involved in at least 16 different lawsuits across 7 states and Washington, D.C. challenging voting rights laws, redistricting, election processes or defending Trump. But what makes her recent appointment to lead an “election integrity” team in Arizona, of all states, is her history promoting election conspiracy theories and ties to right-wing groups like the Federalist Society and Turning Point USA. 

As a legal advisor to the Trump campaign in 2020, Dhillon went on Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs Tonight as votes were still being counted in key swing states, rattled off unfounded allegations of voter fraud being committed by Democrats and called on the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and help Trump win. “Meanwhile, we’re waiting for the United States Supreme Court, of which the president has nominated three justices, to step in and do something,” she said. “And hopefully Amy Coney Barrett will come through and pick it up.”

In the 2022 midterm elections, Dhillon’s firm was extremely active in various GOP efforts to overturn elections in key states and disenfranchise voters. Dhillon was hired by Kari Lake (R), the election-denying Arizona gubernatorial candidate who mounted a massive legal effort to overturn the state’s election results based on false claims of voter fraud. Her firm also represented Abraham Hamadeh, an election denier who ran for Arizona attorney general and contested the election results after losing. 

With such a rich history of spreading false allegations of election fraud and promoting harmful conspiracy theories, there’s no telling what sort of new conspiracies that Dhillon and the RNC might try to promote in November, should Trump lose the state. 

How Suing Trump Nearly 100 Times Prepared Bob Ferguson To Be Washington’s Next Governor

This election season, my Democracy Docket colleagues and I have been interviewing candidates up and down the ballots in November. From U.S. Senate candidates — like Angela Alsobrooks and Sen. Tammy Baldwin — to state attorney general and Supreme Court justice candidates, like Rochelle Garza and Melody Stewart. My latest interview is with Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who’s the Democratic nominee to be the state’s next governor.

In our wide-ranging conversation, we talked about how, as attorney general, Ferguson formed the state’s civil rights division and sued Trump almost 100 times during his administration. But I want to draw attention to the part of our conversation about Project 2025. As readers know by now, Project 2025 is the Heritage Foundation’s massive, step-by-step guide to transforming the executive branch into an authoritative administration. Democrats are, rightfully, ringing the alarm bells about Project 2025. Even so, it can be hard to get across just how severe something that only exists in the abstract can be — especially from a candidate running for statewide office.

Ferguson, as attorney general, didn’t just sue Trump a whole bunch, he led the Democratic attorneys general pushback against some of the administration’s worst policies, like the travel ban. “The reason why we were the first AG’s office to take him on is we spent time getting ready for a potential Muslim travel ban,” he said. “So we’ve been doing that and we’re not alone. We’ve been working with other democratic AGs across the country on exactly this. Making sure we have resources.” 

Our conversation highlighted how statewide lawmakers like governors and attorneys general will, in many ways, be leading the pushback against Project 2025’s most harmful policies, should they come to fruition. It’s something that Ferguson is making a point to talk about while campaigning. If there’s a second Trump administration, in a lot of ways it’s up to state leaders to resist whatever harmful policies it might bring. 

“I won’t be the attorney general next year, but if I’m the governor next year, I do believe that I’m as prepared — if not more prepared — than anyone running for statewide office right now to be ready to help take on a Trump administration,” he said.