The States United Democracy Center Submits Bipartisan Testimony to House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol
Former Republican and Democratic Governors, State Attorneys General, and Secretaries of State Stress That Democracy is Still Under Attack in the States; Accountability is Critical to Move Forward
Published: 6.23.22
Washington, D.C. — The States United Democracy Center announced that a bipartisan group of former governors, state attorneys general, and secretaries of state submitted written testimony to the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. The announcement comes on the heels of the fourth Select Committee hearing, which focused on the pressure campaign on state and local officials.
The testimony was submitted by Christine Todd Whitman (R), former Governor of New Jersey; Steve Bullock (D), former Governor of Montana; Jim Hood (D), former Attorney General of Mississippi; Tom Rath (R), former Attorney General of New Hampshire; Trey Grayson (R), former Secretary of State of Kentucky; and Frankie Sue Del Papa (D), former Secretary of State of Nevada. Written in their capacity as members of the Bipartisan Advisory Board of the States United Democracy Center, the testimony centers on the sustained and coordinated effort to undermine our democracy, which started well before January 6 and which continues to this day in the states.
“The most recent Select Committee hearing crystallized for the American people that our state and local leaders are paramount to conducting free and fair elections. The powerful testimony from officials from Arizona to Georgia should serve as a warning to all of us of what we are facing in the states still today—continued attacks and threats to our elections and the trusted leaders who run them,” said former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, Co-Chair of the States United Democracy Center.
As former statewide officials with election oversight responsibilities, the States United Bipartisan Advisory Board provided key insight about former President Trump’s pressure campaign to have state officials alter election results in his favor, as well as the efforts in seven swing states to declare fake slates of electors who submitted false Electoral College certificates in an attempt to swing the election to Trump.
“The bipartisan Select Committee hearings are a compelling and hard look at what we faced in 2020 and what we are up against as a nation today: coordinated and continued threats to our free and fair elections,” said former Montana Governor Steve Bullock, States United Bipartisan Advisory Board member. “Just as our testimony outlines, these hearings send the message loud and clear that the January 6 attack was not an isolated incident, and that a powerful and robust response is necessary to prevent history from repeating itself.”
Key Excerpt from the Testimony:
January 6 was also merely a next step, not a final one. Events leading up to and following that day reveal a sustained and coordinated effort by the former president and his anti-democracy allies to suppress voting rights, delegitimize free and fair elections, and subvert the will of the voters by overturning election results deemed undesirable to their movement. As we explain in our testimony, many of the tactics used to produce the January 6 attack and many of the people who affirmatively helped make it happen are still hard at work undermining our democracy today.
States United has also published detailed state-by-state guides to the January 6 attack, describing the efforts in each state to undermine free, fair, and secure elections. You can read the state-by-state guides here.
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About the States United Democracy Center
The States United Democracy Center is a nonpartisan organization advancing free, fair, and secure elections. We focus on connecting state officials, law enforcement leaders, and pro-democracy partners across America with the tools and expertise they need to safeguard our democracy. For more information, visit https://statesuniteddemocracy.org/.