Republicans who questioned the 2020 results are bringing back an old norm: Admitting defeat

WASHINGTON — The losers of this year’s midterm elections are winning praise for doing something that would be entirely unremarkable in another era — admitting defeat.

From Maine to Michigan, Senate to state legislature, Republican to Democrat, most high-profile candidates who fell short in the 2022 midterm elections are offering quick concessions and gracious congratulations to their opponents. They include candidates who earned endorsements from former President Donald Trump by embracing his false claims that elections are rigged against Republicans.

“I know it’s a low bar, I really do, but: I am heartened by the number of defeated Republicans who are conceding and congratulating their opponents,” tweeted Josh Chafetz, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown University.

Of course, dozens of Republican candidates who questioned the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s election won Tuesday and will end up in Congress, including J.D. Vance of Ohio, who won a Senate seat. And some, like Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, haven’t seen their races called yet and have hinted at invoking baseless claims of fraud.

But most of those who lost ended up not following Trump’s playbook.

Democracy watchers are breathing a sigh of relief, especially because many feared Trump had set a precedent that Republicans might use to deny ever losing another election.

“Democracy depends on losers acknowledging the legitimacy of their defeat,” said Brendan Nyhan, a Dartmouth political scientist who co-founded Bright Line Watch, a watchdog group that monitors the status of American democracy. “Donald Trump and the denialism that has spread through the GOP have shredded that norm. That’s why it’s heartening to see candidates conceding — we need to celebrate these acts of grace.”

Celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, who won Trump’s endorsement and his GOP primary with it by saying things like “we cannot move on” from the 2020 election, extended an olive branch in conceding the Pennsylvania Senate race to Democrat John Fetterman.

“We are facing big problems as a country, and we need everyone to put down their partisan swords and focus on getting the job done,” Oz said Wednesday. “I wish him and his family all the best, both personally and as our next United States senator.”

Last year, Dan Cox helped arrange tour buses to take Trump supporters to Washington on Jan. 6 and attended the rally that preceded the deadly insurrection at the Capitol….