Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) on Sunday said he will accept the outcome of the 2024 presidential race “if it’s a free and fair election” regardless of whether his preferred candidate wins.
The Ohio Republican, who is an ally of Donald Trump and reportedly one of his vice-presidential contenders, told CNN’s “State of the Union” that Republicans, though, need to be prepared to challenge the results if they identify any potential issues.
“We have to be willing, as Democrats did in 2000, as Democrats have done in the past, and certainly as Republicans did in 2020 … if you think there were problems, you have to be willing to pursue those problems and try to prosecute your case,” Vance said.
Following now-President Joe Biden’s win in November 2020, Trump refused to accept defeat, pushed false claims of voter fraud, and launched numerous failed legal challenges over the result.
Vance has previously said there were “problems” in the 2020 election.
He told CNN’s Dana Bash that Trump will ultimately emerge victorious in this year’s presidential contest and said he would accept a Biden win only if he considered the election to be legitimate.
“Certainly, if we have a free and fair election, I will accept the results,” Vance said.
Vance’s comments illustrate a new tactic by Republican lawmakers, who are now placing conditions on accepting election results.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), another supporter of Trump, echoed Vance, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday he will accept the outcome of November’s race if “there’s no massive cheating.”
“I accepted 2020,” Graham said. “Here’s what I would say: President Trump is poised to win.”
Ten days after the 2020 presidential race, Graham called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to ask him whether he had the power to toss out mail-in ballots in some counties in the state. Trump lost Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes.
While Graham was not indicted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in her Georgia election interference probe, a special grand jury in the state had recommended the senator be criminally charged over his actions.
Graham promoted Trump’s election interference theories, but he ultimately accepted Biden as the winner in January 2021.
Earlier this year, Vance told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos he would have delayed certifying the 2020 election if he were in then-Vice President Mike Pence’s shoes.
“If I had been vice president, I would have told the states, like Pennsylvania, Georgia and so many others, that we needed to have multiple slates of electors and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there,” Vance said in February. “That is the legitimate way to deal with an election that a lot of folks, including me, think had a lot of problems in 2020.”
The Ohio senator has also downplayed the threat posed to Pence’s life when a mob of Trump supporters entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, angry over his decision to refuse Trump’s request to block the certification of electoral votes.
Vance, who prior to running in the 2022 Ohio Senate race had been very critical of Trump and once referred to him as “America’s Hitler,” has since claimed he was “wrong” about the presumptive Republican nominee.
“I didn’t think he was going to be a good president,” Vance told CNN. “And I was very, very proud to be proven wrong.”
