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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell after Senate Republicans weekly luncheon on Capitol Hill on April 5, 2022.Tom Brenner/Reuters

McConnell worried that angering Trump ahead of the Georgia Senate runoffs could cost his party the Senate.

He privately told Republicans to "stay focused on Georgia" even as Trump claimed he could overturn the presidential election.

"I've been calling folks in those states and they're with us," Trump boasted to senators in a December 2020 call.

Even as then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell avoided discussing his concerns about former President Donald Trump's baseless claims about the 2020 presidential election being stolen or fraudulent, he privately worried that Trump would cost their party control of the Senate by derailing two Georgia Republicans' run-off campaigns.

That's according to new details from "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future,"a forthcoming book from New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns, that were reported by CNN on Wednesday.

Trump reportedly told McConnell and other Republican senators in a December 2020 call that he'd personally been told by state officials in Pennsylvania and Michigan that they would take steps to keep him in power.

"I've been calling folks in those states and they're with us," Trump told the senators on the call, per Martin and Burns. He also reportedly believed that if he could pressure Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to de-certify President Joe Biden's election victory in Georgia, then other states would follow suit in a "domino effect."

That would've flipped Biden's 306-232 electoral college victory to a 284-254 victory for Trump, keeping him in the White House for a second term.

But McConnell was far more focused on the upcoming January 5 runoff elections in Georgia, where Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler faced close races with Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, respectively.

On the call, Burns and Martin report that Trump also claimed that Georgia voters wouldn't tolerate Kemp's assurances about the security of the election, and that Perdue and Loeffler should speak up lest they lose their races.

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That contention was reportedly met with silence from McConnell.

Then-President Donald Trump speaking with then-Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in Georgia ahead of a rally.Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

"We've got to stay focused on Georgia," McConnell told his colleagues right after the December 2020 call with Trump, according to Martin and Burns.

Ultimately, Ossoff and Warnock prevailed in an upset that many attributed to depressed Republican turnout due to Trump's false claims about the 2020 election.

The book also reported that McConnell sought to maintain a "strategic silence" about Trump's false claims in order to prevent him from sabotaging the party's chances in the runoffs.

"What it looks to me like he's doing is setting this up so he can blame the governor and the secretary of state if we lose," McConnell told the book's authors ahead of the 2021 runoffs. "He's always setting up somebody to blame it on."

A McConnell spokesman declined to comment to CNN, while Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich told the outlet that the former president "has been clear and consistent about the indisputable evidence of fraud in the 2020 presidential election and the need to hold those criminals accountable."

Trump and McConnell haven't spoken since December 15, 2020, when the Republican leader went to the floor of the Senate and declared that "the Electoral College has spoken."

Trump has since criticized McConnell in blistering terms while calling for him to be overthrown as the Senate Republican leader.

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McConnell told Republican senators they've 'got to stay focused on Georgia' immediately after Trump told them that he could overturn the 2020...

ITHACA, N.Y.Two candidates have filed enough petition signatures to run for the Republican nomination for Ithaca mayor, but one has challenged the others number of signatures, which could threaten their place on the ballot.

The two candidates are Ithaca conservative activist Zachary Winn, known for his vocal opposition to police reform and frequent condemnations of COVID-19 safety measures at local public meetings, as well as William Metro, best known for the phrase Do you want to see some magic? preceding his Magic Man routine on the Commons (as well as his public access television show).

Both submitted petitions for Republican mayoral runs earlier this month; their campaigns have not been previously reported. Similarly, both are expected to strike fairly hardline conservative stances during the primary: Metro is an avowed fan of former President Donald Trump and conservative icon Sean Hannity, while Winn has been seen in several confrontations with racial justice protesters in the last 18 months or so, especially in the lead-up to the 2020 election. He also runs the blog Ithaca Crime, which is about crime in Ithaca.

However, Winn has filed a General Objection with the Tompkins County Board of Elections, ostensibly contesting the validity of petitions that Metro submitted. Metro submitted 37 signatures on his designating petitions document; Winn submitted 61 signatures of his own. Board of Elections officials confirmed they are the only Republican candidates to submit designating petitions for the primary election, which takes place on June 28.

The specific nature of Winns complaint is unclear, though if he continues through the process he will have to specify his objections by next week. Signatories on petitions must be residents of the City of Ithaca and be a registered member of the same party as the candidatea glance at Metros petition shows that each of his signatures do indeed list Ithaca addresses. Some of the entries are difficult to read, though that is fairly common for designating petition submissions.

Winn, who ran for mayor at least one other time, in 2007, has not yet responded to a request for comment via email.

Winn submitted a General Objection yesterday.He now has 6 days to submit his specifications. He will need to submit his Specific Objections to our office by Monday, April 18th, said Republican Commissioner of Elections Tamara Scott.

According to the county Board of Elections, 37 petition signatures is the minimum threshold required to get on the ballot for Republicans, representing a certain percentage of the total number of registered Republicans within the City of Ithaca (for contrast, in the heavily Democratic city, 410 signatures are required for Democratic candidates). That means, technically, that if any of Metros signatures are thrown out, he will not have enough to get on the ballot unless he is granted more time.

Metro, in brief comments to The Ithaca Voice, said he does not know why his petitions would have been challenged.

Theyre all legit, Metro said. What reason does Zach have to challenge them? We are running in the same party. [] If he really wants to challenge me, he can do it on primary day at the ballot box.

Both candidates are running for the Republican nomination for Ithaca mayor, looking for the opportunity to face incumbent Democrat Laura Lewis, who is now serving as the acting mayor and is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Winn and Metro are likely to strike a very different tone from Lewis

Whoever is victorious in the November general election will serve one year to finish out former Mayor Svante Myricks term, and there will be another election in November 2023 to determine who will be the mayor for a full four-year term after that.

The last time a petition objection had a tangible impact on local politics was 2017, when Tompkins County Legislature candidate Keith Hannon was prevented from running as a Democrat because of an objection to his submitted petitions.

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Two new Republican candidates for Ithaca mayor already sparring over petition signatures - The Ithaca Voice

LANSING, MI A legislative panel heard testimony Tuesday about a bill package that would change Michigan election law to, among other things, require the secretary of state to update and replace the photo of a person applying for a renewal drivers license and upload the updated photograph to the qualified voter file.

The House Election and Ethics Committee met Tuesday afternoon to hear testimony about several items including House Bills 5585, 5886 and 5887, which are sponsored by Rep. Ann Bollin, R-Brighton.

House Bills 5586 and 5587 also would shorten the period when a person may renew his or her license or ID card by mail, before an in-person renewal visit is required, from 12 years to eight years.

The passage of Proposal 3 in 2018 gave Michigan voters no-reason absentee voting and same-day voter registration.

While advocates of the 2018 ballot proposal view its passage and implementation as a success with residents getting a greater opportunity to register and vote absentee, Republican lawmakers opposed it, arguing the changes would weaken the security of elections.

Having a strong voter turnout should be a common goal. However, with the passage of this proposal, Michigan voters never have to appear before a local clerk to verify their identity, Bollin said. What is concerning is that a voters photo ID may not be updated.

Bollins bills would make it so Michigan law requires an updated photo to be taken every eight years.

Ive heard some concerns about putting it into the QVF (Qualified Voter File), Bollin said, adding that shes also considering submitting photos to the electronic poll book.

Then it would make much easier access, she said. Voters wouldnt necessarily have to pull their photo ID, or clerks would have the photo ID in the clerks office as we move to a lot more voters voting in-person.

The legislation would bring an additional one-time cost to the Department of State to implement changes to the current functionality between its automated Customer and Automotive Record System (CARS) and the Qualified Voter File. There would also be additional ongoing data storage costs to DOS for maintaining digital photo records.

CARS currently transmits text data to the QVF, including name, address, date of birth, gender, and for drivers license recipients, drivers license number and signature. The ability to transmit photographs to the QVF would require additional information technology programming costs.

It is not known at this time what those costs would be, or whether they could be supported with DOSs current ongoing appropriations. The average cost for a state IT project is approximately $300,000, according to a legislative analysis from the House Fiscal Agency.

The House Fiscal Agency analysis states the bills would not have a fiscal impact on city and township clerks offices, but would have indeterminate fiscal impacts on the offices if photograph identification were required for voting in the future. If photographs were required to vote, the bills would provide personnel cost savings to local clerks offices by reducing handling time and staff hourly costs of processing provisional envelope ballots at precinct voting locations and clerks offices.

The bill did not receive a vote Tuesday during the committee meeting.

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Republican voter ID bills would cut license renewal period from 12 to 8 years - MLive.com

LANSING, Mich. (AP) State Police Capt. Mike Brown on Tuesday submitted nominating petitions to run for governor, saying he brings trusted leadership to what is expected to be a large Republican primary field vying to challenge Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Brownis the third GOP candidate to turn in signatures, joining chiropractor and grassroots activist Garrett Soldano and financial adviser Michael Markey. Contenders must file 15,000 to 30,000 signatures by next week to advance to the August primary.

Several top candidates have not yet submitted petitions.

I just bring trusted leadership and the ability to connect with citizens, whether its the country, the suburbs or the urban areas, Brown told reporters after turning in nearly 21,000 signatures. I frankly get things done. Weve seen total incompetence from this administration, just about every state department.

He added: Ive actually been a Republican my whole life. That was an apparent dig at ex-Detroit Police Chief James Craig, a former Democrat who is running in the GOP contest.

Brown, who had given his campaign about $120,000 as of late December accounting for most of his fundraising lags well behind financially compared with Craig, Soldano, former online news host Tudor Dixon and self-funding millionaire businessmen Perry Johnson and Kevin Rinke. That will make it difficult for Brown to get his message to the electorate.

He said, however, that wealthy candidates spending is not going to matter in this race. I dont sense a millionaire vibe out there for this race. We need a commonsense conservative that can lead the Republican Party. They dont have what it takes.

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Brown is 3rd Republican Governor Candidate to File Petitions - 9 & 10 News - 9&10 News

As a former Hamilton County Republican Party Chairman, I have a unique understanding of the way our local party qualifies candidates. Mike Dumitru is one of those candidates and I wholeheartedly support his candidacy for Circuit Court Judge, Division II.

Earlier this week, I received a mailer from the other candidate suggesting that Mike is not a true conservative and implying he voted in the Democratic primary in 2020. This is a patently false mischaracterization and is contradicted by Mikes voting record, which reflects that he voted in both Republican primaries in 2020. This type of campaigning is certainly troubling to me, especially in a judicial race. I have nothing against the other candidate as I do not know him and Im not sure I ever met him at our Republican party events through the years.

Just as troubling is the implicit statement that Mike is not a true Republican. I understand fully the values that make someone a Republican and Mike holds those values! He is a Republican under both the Bylaws and Rules of the Tennessee Republican Party but just as importantly in his actions and values. He is engaged in the local Republican party, has supported other local Republican candidates, and was seated as a voting delegate for his precinct in the last Hamilton County Republican Delegate Convention. Mike is a strict jurist who will enforce the law as written and passed by our elected representatives, will not legislate from the bench, and will rule narrowly. He will never be an activist judge. And his personal storyof a family who fled a communist country where the concept of small government was a mere fairy talehas colored the lens through which he views our government, including the judiciary.

But even setting aside his values, let me say this. I have personally known Judge Jeff Hollingsworth inside and outside of the courtroom for nearly 20 years. If you are looking for someone who will follow in the same footsteps, Mike Dumitru is your candidate. I have no doubt that he will bring to the position the same moral character, legal ability, and judicial temperament of Judge Hollingsworth while honorably serving our community as the Division II Circuit Court Judge.

I encourage all Republicans to join me and my family and vote for Mike Dumitru in the Republican primary for Circuit Court Judge during early voting or on May 3.

Tony SandersHamilton County Republican Party Chairman2013-2017

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I've always been involved in this community and I've met a lot of people during those years as a businessman and volunteer. Mike Dumitru cares about Hamilton County and he's committed to our citizens and the judicialprocess.

Mike has proven he has the knowledge and the temperament to be a great judge. His strong work ethic, understanding of the importance of responsive local government , and willingness to listen to community concerns makes him the best in this race.

If you don't know Mike, you need to meet him. You'll see what I mean; he's the real thing and Hamilton County needs him.

Manny Rico, Local Businessman and former City Councilman

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This Republican Is Supporting Mike Dumitru - And Response - The Chattanoogan