The future of American democracy is at stake in the midterm elections | Andrew Gawthorpe

The majority of the Republican candidates for the House of Representatives are election-deniers - and a Republican-controlled Congress might attempt to sabotage the certification of the next presidential vote

Midterm elections are generally seen as less important than presidential elections. The stakes seem lower, which means fewer people turn out to vote. Most of the time the party controlling the White House takes losses, and this predictability can make midterms seem less important too: what can one voter do against the strength of the political tides? But occasionally there are midterms whose stakes rise beyond whether or not the president's party will be able to pass new laws, and instead concern the whole future of the American republic. This year is one of them.

That's because this year, the majority of Republican candidates running for Congress, governor's mansions, and other key statewide offices have denied or questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump's attempted coup failed in 2020 because officeholders at the federal and state level refused to go along with it. This year's midterm elections could change all of that, producing a set of Republican officials willing to extinguish American democracy.

Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States at Leiden University and host of the podcast America Explained