The election denial movement has come a long way since Donald Trump’s first attempt to “Stop the Steal.” Ahead of Election Day, MAGA media personalities and a newly institutionalized network of far-right advocacy organizations are better prepared than ever to undermine trust in American elections.
Gone are the days of Rudy Giuliani’s dripping hair dye and hearings in the Michigan state Senate wild enough for an send-up on “Saturday Night Live.” Today, election conspiracists are on the front foot and holding a powerful microphone. Groups like Election Integrity Network, The Heritage Foundation and Turning Point USA have invested heavily in various election denial initiatives. Together, a supercharged network of professional right-wing election deniers have developed a three-prong strategy to convince the public Trump can’t lose and create a predicate for stealing the election.
Fox News and other like-minded outlets have gone all in on the idea that noncitizens will tip the election away from Trump.
These groups and their leaders, who both regularly appear throughout MAGA media and run their own media platforms, bring unique resources to the sprawling cause. Former Trump attorney Cleta Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network is the tip of the spear. Mitchell has used her stature and influence from her decades as a conservative movement lawyer to direct millions into funding a “permanent election integrity infrastructure.”
Mitchell claims to oversee a “volunteer army of citizens” involved as poll workers and within the Republican Party. The Election Integrity Network (EIN) has chapters across the country, including swing states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, where they have already worked to undermine the democratic process.
“We have a presence and we have eyes on the process that we really didn’t have in 2020,” Mitchell recently boasted. “We have so many volunteers who are trained who now know the election code better than most lawyers.”
The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, is also a central hub of the election denial movement. The right-wing powerhouse is behind voter suppression policies being pushed by election denial groups at the state level and is home to Hans von Spakovsky, another longtime “voter fraud” alarmist who frequently appears in right-wing media.
These groups and their MAGA media allies are collaborating to bring three complimentary tactics together as a comprehensive anti-democracy strategy.
The first prong is a messaging war. The powerful right-wing media creates a cocoon of voter fraud conspiracy theories that envelops their audience, fomenting a perpetual sense of grievance and outrage.
In 2024, “noncitizen voting” has become the most common form of fearmongering. Fox News and other like-minded outlets have gone all in on the idea that noncitizens will tip the election away from Trump. Of course, this idea is totally unfounded: Noncitizen voting is exceedingly rare. But though these conspiracy theories have serious consequences, the right is knitting together increasingly bloodthirsty xenophobia with Trump’s election denial to fuel distrust, perpetuate racial profiling and sow chaos ahead of this election.
According to Democracy Docket, election deniers have already filed 146 anti-voting lawsuits nationwide so far.
Right-wing media messaging has also focused on disenfranchising overseas voters. The conspiracy theory site The Gateway Pundit has spread the false notion that Democrats are weaponizing a law that allows military personnel and other Americans citizens living abroad to vote.








