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US Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) (Ken Cedeno / Pool via REUTERS / File Photo)
Republican Senator Josh Hawley pledged Wednesday to challenge Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s victory when Congress meets for an official recount of electoral votes, which could spark a lengthy Senate debate but has virtually no chance. to void the results.
Hawley, the Missouri junior senator who was elected in 2018, said in a statement that “some states, particularly Pennsylvania, did not follow their own state election laws.”
“At the very least, Congress should investigate,” he said in a statement.
Hawley did not provide any proof of his claims.
Several Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives have said they plan to oppose the election results, but Hawley is the first US senator to do so.
Biden beat President Donald Trump by a margin of 306-232 in the Electoral College.
Trump has refused to admit defeat and has repeatedly falsely claimed that the election was tainted by widespread fraud.
Under the Electoral College system, “electoral votes” are assigned to the states and the District of Columbia based on their representation in Congress.
Congress must make the Electoral College count official on January 6 in what is largely a ceremonial session.
“This time you have some theater with your ceremony,” said Justin Levitt, a constitutional law professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and a former assistant attorney general in the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
Hawley’s objection could trigger hours of debate and force a vote on the objection, Levitt said. That could put some Republicans in the uncomfortable position of rejecting Trump’s fraud accusations.
Despite Hawley’s defiance, senior Republican senators have said that Biden’s victory will remain in the Republican-controlled Senate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican, acknowledged Biden’s victory on December 15 and has urged other Senate Republicans to refrain from objecting on January 6.
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