Weston Wamp is featured in The New Yorker trying to convince Republican colleagues to trust election process

Feb. 8—Hamilton County mayoral candidate Weston Wamp is warning about the dangers of casting doubt on the election process as he and other Republicans head into the May 3 primary election.

Wamp has recently received national attention for his mission to convince his fellow Republicans to trust the election process and dismiss any notions that elections are unsecure.

Last week, he was featured in The New Yorker, which noted Wamp's "conviction that facts matter," citing comments he's made that President Joe Biden's victory in 2020 was legitimate.

"I would remind Republicans that when we win across the board later this year, as I expect we will, that we don't want Democrats with no evidence claiming it was fraudulent," Wamp said in a Tuesday phone interview. "This is really a no-win proposition to undermine the integrity of the election system, which has proved very durable due to decentralization."

Wamp said national political discourse has no place in local elections.

Hamilton County politics isn't as hyperpartisan as some other areas of the nation, he said, and therefore sweeping allegations about rigged or stolen elections aren't as common.

The Republican specifically compared the county to North Georgia, a portion of which is represented by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the most ardent supporters of former President Donald Trump's ongoing claims that the 2020 election was rigged against him, even after his own administration, the states, the courts, the Electoral College and eventually Congress rejected the idea of widespread voter fraud.

In Greene's district, Trump won by 48 percentage points in 2020.

Wamp on Tuesday said doubting the election results can have big consequences in elections, as was the case when Democrats won both runoff U.S. Senate races in Georgia last year as some of Trump's high profile supporters told Republicans to stay home rather than participate in a flawed balloting system.

Hamilton County, though, is significantly more moderate.

In 2020, Trump won Hamilton County with about 53% of the vote, beating out Democrat Joe Biden by roughly 9 percentage points.

In the New Yorker article about Wamp, the author quotes the candidate from a series called "Truthtellers" posted to the Issue One YouTube page.

Wamp is a contracted political strategist with the Washington, D.C.-based group that describes itself as a "crosspartisan political reform group" with the goal of strengthening democracy.

"With its modest production values, 'Truthtellers' has a homemade vibe that reflects Wamp's conviction that facts matter," the article states. "Unlike the efforts of Republican Never Trumpers, such as the Lincoln Project, which released a series of videos during the 2020 election season that delighted in making fun of the president and his minions, the tone is earnest, often credulous."

In the Jan. 24 Issue One video featured in the article, Wamp says debates about the 2020 election results have "gone off the rails" despite the outcome being clear.

Although Wamp noted both parties have questioned election results, whether it be Democrats alleging Russian interference in 2016 or Trump and his supporters making allegations of election fraud four years later, Wamp on Tuesday said Hamilton County's elections are undoubtedly secure.

When specifically asked about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, Hamilton County Commission chair Sabrena Smedley, an Ooltewah Republican facing Wamp in the primary election, did not directly answer the question.

She did, however, agree with Wamp's claims about the security of local elections.

"Unfortunately, both parties have encouraged distrust in our election process throughout the years, and in some places, there may be a real problem, but Tennessee has some of the strongest election integrity laws in the nation, including a voter identification requirement and plenty of time for early voting," Smedley said in a statement.

In addition, she said, those laws are one reason why the federal government should play no role in local elections.

When asked the same questions, Republican challenger Matt Hullander avoided the topic completely in a Tuesday statement.

"I'm not focused or concerned about what any of my opponents are doing or saying," Hullander said. "I'm focused on listening to the needs of voters and sharing my vision on public safety, education, infrastructure and economic development."

While candidates in Hamilton County express full confidence in the local electoral process, a December University of Massachusetts Amherst poll of more than 1,000 respondents showed Republicans still overwhelmingly challenge Biden's victory at the national level.

The poll showed 71% of Republicans find Biden's victory either "definitely not legitimate" or "probably not legitimate," compared to 31% of independents and 4% of Democrats. The poll had a 3.1% percentage point margin of error.

A poll of 1,000 Tennessee residents conducted last spring by Vanderbilt University's Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions showed similar trends at the state level.

The Hamilton County Election Commission has made it a mission to win the trust of voters and ensure elections are secure, with officials saying the upcoming primary will be the most secure election in the county's history.

This election cycle will be the first time the commission includes a new watermark on absentee ballots as an added safeguard for valid voting, and to soothe concerns among voters.

The commission already conducts signature verification for absentee ballots and requires a state or federal photo identification for voters.

Hamilton County residents wishing to register to vote in the May 3 primary must do so by April 4.

Early voting will run from April 13 and April 28, and the absentee ballot request deadline is April 26.

Contact Logan Hullinger at lhullinger@timesfreepress.com or 814-319-5158. Follow him on Twitter @LoganHullinger.