Wittman says he'll join GOP challenge of electoral college vote declaring Biden's victory

Rep. Rob Wittman will join dozens of other congressional Republicans in objecting to the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college victory Wednesday as part of President Donald Trump’s continued effort to overturn his re-election defeat. 

Wittman said Monday morning on social media that he is “in full support of objecting to electors in order to debate and examine election results in states where Constitutional questions have been raised.” 

Wittman represents Virginia’s 1^st Congressional district that includes parts of Prince William County. 

Biden won 306 electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election compared to Trump’s 232 electoral votes, and all 50 states certified their election results by Dec. 9. Congress is set to certify the election results on Jan. 6 during a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives. 

But a growing number of Republican U.S. representatives and U.S. senators have announced in recent days that they will object to the certification of the electoral college victory, a move that will likely delay the certification. 

“Like many of my constituents, I have concerns that several states failed to follow the Constitution in conducting elections and deserve scrutiny to ensure a fair and free election,” Wittman said.

Wittman has not yet responded to questions about what those concerns are, and whether he is also concerned about the votes cast in hundreds of other elections, including federal, state and local contests, that were also held on Nov. 3, 2020. 

The U.S. Department of Justice, led by Attorney General William Barr, has so far declined to appoint any special investigation regarding the President’s unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud. And courts have rejected or denied dozens of post-election lawsuits filed by the Trump administration and Trump allies seeking to overturn election results, according to Politifact.

Wittman previously joined House Republicans in sending an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in December in support of Texas’ effort to overturn Biden’s victory. The case was quickly denied by the court for lack of standing on Dec. 11.

Wittman defended his decision to support the lawsuit in an op-ed for Prince William Times. He alleged that the constitutional authority of state legislatures “was simply usurped by various governors, state courts, state election officials” and that “state election laws were deliberately changed in certain states without the approval of the states’ legislatures.”

Rep. Gerry Connolly, who represents the 11^th congressional district, which also includes part of Prince William County, said on social media Monday that congressional Republicans attempts to undermine the election on Jan. 6 “is a direct attack on our democracy.”  

“For Members of Congress to engage in this absurdity is to betray the constitutional oaths they swore just yesterday,” Connolly said. “It is an act of sedition.”

Reach Daniel Berti at dberti@fauquier.com