Nevada’s Republican Party voted to censure the GOP Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske for failing to investigate evidence of widespread voter fraud in the state during the 2020 presidential election.
Members of the central committee voted to approve the censure on a 126-112 vote on Saturday during the party’s spring meeting in Carson City, sources told The Associated Press.
“The Nevada Republican Party holds our elected officials to a high standard,” the party said in a statement. “As such, this weekend the party sent a clear message that our officials must work for the people and we demand that our representatives at all levels of government uphold their Oath of Office.”
A cover letter obtained by The Nevada Independent reiterates that the state party brought forward four boxes of what they claim to be evidence of widespread voter fraud. But, Cegavske said after reviewing the reports, there were only 3,963 Election Integrity Violation reports submitted, some of which were already under investigation by her office.
Cegavske, who has been overseeing elections in the state since 2014, has repeatedly defended the results as reliable and accurate despite attacks from Donald Trump and other Republicans, AP noted.
President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the state by 2 percentage points, or nearly 34,000 votes.
Cegavske, the only statewide elected Republican in Nevada pushed back on the censure by her own party in a statement on Sunday.
“Regrettably, members of my own political party have decided to censure me simply because they are disappointed with the outcome of the 2020 election. While I have been loyal to the Nevada Republican Party during my over two decades as an elected official, I have been unwavering in my commitment to oversee elections and administer Nevada’s election laws in a neutral, nonpartisan manner,” Cegavske said.
“My job is to carry out the duties of my office as enacted by the Nevada Legislature, not carry water for the state GOP or put my thumb on the scale of democracy. Unfortunately, members of my own party continue to believe the 2020 general election was wrought with fraud — and that somehow I had a part in it — despite a complete lack of evidence to support that belief,” she added.
Cegavske is among a handful of Republicans who have been censured by their own party in recent months either for defending the election or by supporting his second impeachment. State Republican parties in North Carolina, Louisiana and Alaska voted to censure U.S. Sens. Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy and Lisa Murkowski for their votes to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial, and the Wyoming GOP censured Republican conference chair Rep. Liz Cheney for voting to impeach Trump. Arizona’s Republican Party in January voted to censure Sen. John McCain’s widow Cindy McCain and former Sen. Jeff Flake for endorsing Biden, and Gov. Doug Ducey, who signed a certification of Biden’s victory in that state.
