Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy has little to lose in joining with several other Republican U.S. senators to challenge the presidential election results in key swing states, a Louisiana political science professor said Monday.
“In this case, Kennedy knows that he can only be beaten in a future Louisiana election by a Republican challenger who is more conservative than he is,” G. Pearson Cross, a professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, told the Louisiana Record. “That being the case, joining the other senators (such as Ted Cruz of Texas) is strengthening his right flank against a potential challenge from the right.”
On Wednesday, members of Congress are scheduled to begin certifying the electoral votes stemming from the Nov. 3 presidential contest and the election of Joe Biden as president-elect.
The senators, including Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Mike Braud (R-Ind.), contend that there have been more allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election than any vote in recent memory. In a joint statement, the veteran senators and several others elected to the U.S. Senate in November are urging Congress to conduct a 10-day audit of the state election returns in question prior to certifying electors.
“Once completed, individual states would evaluate the commission’s findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed,” the statement says. “Accordingly, we intend to vote on Jan. 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not ‘regularly given’ and ‘lawfully certified’ (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed.”
Kennedy’s standing among Louisiana residents reflects sharply partisan lines, according to Pearson.
“As long as Republicans support him and as long as they hold the balance of power in Louisiana, he will suffer no injury to his election prospects from his action,” he said.
The senator has appealed to the more “radical” wing of the Republican Party while at the same time maintaining a degree of moderation on other issues, according to Pearson.
The professor also predicted that Kennedy would offer a split view on President Trump’s efforts over the weekend to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to turn up enough Republican votes to flip the state back from blue to red in the presidential race.
“He will argue that it was wrong to suggest that Raffensperger should ‘find votes’ while defending the president's ‘right’ to challenge the results,” Pearson said. “This will satisfy no one, but Kennedy is too smart and experienced not to have thought out all the political ramifications.”
Louisiana’s other U.S. senator, Republican Bill Cassidy, took the opposite view by signing a statement with a bipartisan group of senators on Sunday.
“The 2020 election is over,” the group’s statement states. “All challenges through recounts and appeals have been exhausted. At this point, further attempts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election are contrary to the clearly expressed will of the American people and only serve to undermine Americans’ confidence in the already determined election results.”