https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/09/13/congress/house-centrists-vow-to-certify-2024-election-00178945If he loses the 2024 presidential election, former President Donald Trump will likely lobby House Republicans to refuse to certify the results.
This was not as much of a problem in 2020 when Democrats held the majority of seats, but with Republicans now holding a narrow majority, it could become a legitimate issue.
However, Politico reports that a bipartisan group of House lawmakers have banded together to jointly pledge to certify the results of the 2024 presidential election, and the group so far includes six House Republicans.
This means that, should these six Republicans keep their pledge to certify a win for Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's allies would be unable to block the certification of the election given the current numbers in the House of Representatives.
The bipartisan group, which was organized by centrist Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Don Bacon (R-NE), also includes Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR), Nick LaLota (R-NY) and Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY).
Bacon said that the group's pledge was a reflection of traditional American values.
“In America we respect election results especially once the courts and appeals work through the process,” he said. “We fight hard to win during campaigns and then respect the results when the votes are counted.”
For more than two centuries, the United States enjoyed a peaceful transfer of power between presidential administrations until 2020, when Trump pushed his allies to refuse to certify the election results, lobbied the Georgia secretary of state to "find" votes for him, pressured his vice president to unilaterally reject certified election results, and then sent an angry mob to the United States Capitol, where they fought with police, broke into the building, and ransacked offices.
