Elections have consequences. That is why we must have free, fair, and secure elections.
In an effort to tee up another failed run for president, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie recently stated that everyone should move on from the 2020 election, criticizing former President Donald Trump and his supporters for focusing on it.
Christie is completely out of touch with voters. Trump is right to focus on election integrity. Election integrity is an important and winning issue for Republicans, especially after the sham election of 2020 and with the fast-approaching elections of 2022 and 2024. Without it, history will repeat itself, and we will lose our country as we once knew it.
The 2020 election was one of the most unfair, disgraceful events in U.S. history. And with H.R. 1, the Democrats are trying to make sure this becomes the new normal on a nationalized scale. Contrary to the Constitution, state officials ignored statutes passed by their legislatures and made last-minute, illegal changes to voting procedures. Millions of ballots were mailed to people who never even asked for them. With no voter ID laws in many places and inadequate signature matching and poll monitoring, it was a free-for-all.
Moreover, as was reported recently, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears to have spent hundreds of millions of dollars effectively to purchase public election administration offices and repurpose them as “get out the vote” arms of the Democratic Party.
The media ran fake news hit piece after fake news hit piece attacking Trump. Nothing was too salacious not to be fabricated and told as fact. From the Russia collusion hoax to labeling riots as “mostly peaceful protests” to calling any Trump event a “super-spreader” to the Atlantic’s widely debunked story about veterans, it was a daily onslaught of false attacks to ensure the media’s preferred candidate won the election.
Meanwhile, Big Tech and nearly every media outlet actively suppressed criticism of President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who is in photos and on tape committing crimes.
If the fight in 2020 were fair, Trump would still be the president. That means the U.S. public would not be suffering through the worst presidency in our history. We would not have witnessed the tragically flawed withdrawal from Afghanistan, the violence that resulted from it, and the violence likely to result from the terrorists now roaming free. Our leaders would not be standing idly by as our supply chains falter and inflation hits record highs. Our president would be fighting for patriotic education instead of vile and racist lessons being taught in our schools.
Trump has a unique ability to connect with voters. That is why I was on the Trump train early and never got off. Back in 2015, I was one of the first elected officials to support him and his “America First” agenda. I continue to support him now, including his efforts to fight for the integrity of our elections. We need voter ID laws, clear eligibility rules, and transparent poll monitoring policies to ensure every legal vote is counted and illegal ones are not. We need leaders like Trump to file lawsuits and push back against the Big Tech oligarchs who suppressed information from voters.
In addition to Christie, the media, and the Democrats, several of my Republican colleagues currently in elected office seem to be unaware, or unwilling to admit, that fair elections are the cornerstone to preserving our nation’s exceptional character. Some of them voted to impeach Trump to undo the 2016 election. Several have caved to the media mob by claiming to be uninterested in any accurate accounting of what happened in 2020.
And most recently, a cadre of them bailed out the radical left Democrats by providing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Biden with the votes they needed to pass the supposedly bipartisan infrastructure bill, which is an anti-American, socialist spending spree that will only create more inflation, create more debt for future generations, provide amnesty to illegal immigrants, and make our country less competitive in the world.
As we approach the elections of 2022 and 2024, we must elect leaders who support the America First policies that helped our nation thrive across the board. Christie didn’t understand what voters cared about in 2016. That is why his campaign failed and any future campaign will fail.
Trump does understand the people, and he isn’t afraid to talk about issues that make coastal elites uncomfortable. We need secure elections. We need secure borders. We need pro-worker trade policies. We need leaders who will put the United States first. As a candidate for U.S. Senate, I will always put Missourians and my fellow voters first — and that starts with ensuring their voices are heard at the ballot box.
Billy Long represents Missouri’s 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives and is a candidate for U.S. Senate.
