7 Republicans Who Were In DC On Jan. 6 Won Elections This Week

Another seven Republican candidates who went to Trump’s rally on Jan. 6 or marched to the Capitol lost their races.

Seven Republicans who went to Washington, DC, on Jan. 6 to prop up former president Donald Trump’s bogus claims of voter fraud won their own elections on Tuesday night.

Among the winning candidates are three members of the Virginia House of Delegates, two incumbents who won reelection and a newcomer who will join the legislature next year. The other four candidates won local races in Idaho, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.

BuzzFeed News previously identified 13 Republicans seeking elected office this year who had traveled to Washington on Jan. 6 to participate in Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election and has since learned of a 14th. All of them have denied entering the US Capitol or not addressed their activities that day, and none of them has been charged. But they participated in Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally and many of them — including five who won elections on Tuesday — went to the Capitol, where Trump’s supporters mobbed the building to try to stop Congress from certifying his loss.

Another seven Republicans who were present on Jan. 6 lost their elections Tuesday night, including one who is already echoing Trump’s rhetoric and calling for an investigation. Steve Lynch, who went to the Capitol on Jan. 6 and later suggested some of the insurrection was “staged,” lost his race for executive of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, by about 12 percentage points, according to unofficial results from the county. In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Lynch said the results only invigorated him “to eviscerate the swamp creatures in our county and their evil deeds,” calling on “Patriots” to “suit up,” and adding, “They have no idea who they messed with!” In response to a comment suggesting that his Democratic opponent may have cheated, Lynch wrote, “This will all be investigated!”

Virginia Dels. Dave LaRock and John McGuire will return to the House of Delegates, joined by new Republican Marie March. LaRock and McGuire both went to the US Capitol on Jan. 6. LaRock has said he left once he saw people scaling the building, but also baselessly blamed the violence on “anitfa,” while McGuire has said he didn’t see any of the action. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported on a photo of McGuire standing near the police barricades where Trump supporters were confronting officers; he has not responded to multiple requests for comment. March, however, has said she left during Trump’s speech and did not go to the Capitol. March has defended her presence at the rally and ran in a heavily Republican district.

In New Jersey, Susan Soloway, director of the Hunterdon County Board of Commissioners, won reelection after facing calls for her resignation in January for going to the Capitol. Soloway had posted a selfie in front of the building, which has since been deleted, and said that she and her group left once the Capitol attack was underway. She has blamed “thugs” for the violence, saying they used Trump’s rally as a pretense. In Watchung, New Jersey, Christine Ead won a seat on the borough council after blaming “antifa” and “anarchists” for the Capitol riots in a series of now-deleted posts in a community Facebook forum, which were made public by the Echoes-Sentinel. Ead posted that she went to the Capitol but did not cross any police barriers, and repeatedly suggested without evidence that the election was stolen.

In Nampa, Idaho, voters elected Natalie Jangula to the city council. Jangula still has several photos on her Facebook page of rioters storming the Capitol, including some of herself and others smiling and posing in front of the mob. She said she did not go into the Capitol and told the Idaho Press, “My intentions were 100% not insurrection by all means.” She also posted a compilation video to her Facebook page she called “the other side of the story,” featuring her own footage from Jan. 6, some set to the song “God Bless the USA (Proud to Be an American).”

And in Manheim Township, Pennsylvania, voters elected Mary Jo Huyard to the board of commissioners in a Republican sweep. Huyard was on the National Mall on Jan. 6 and was photographed standing in front of the Washington Monument holding a US flag in a photo posted to Instagram by a friend. The Manheim Township Democrats used the photo, which was posted to a now-private account, in an ad and shared copies with BuzzFeed News. Huyard’s friend captioned the photo, “Standing up for our true president today with one of my best friends!!! Stop the steal!!” It’s unclear if Huyard went to the Capitol. She has not spoken publicly about her involvement in Jan. 6 and did not respond to BuzzFeed News' request for comment.

The losing candidates are:

  • Edward Durfee Jr., a member of the far-right Oath Keepers who said he worked security for the group on Jan. 6 outside the Capitol. He lost his race for a seat in the New Jersey General Assembly.
  • Charles Ausburger, a member of the Mansfield, Connecticut, town council who described the violence he witnessed outside the US Capitol to the town council in January. He lost reelection.
  • Maureen Brody, who posted on Gab that she was in a crowd hit with tear gas outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 but otherwise hasn’t said much about her actions that day. She lost her race for a heavily Democratic seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.
  • Philip Hamilton, who posted multiple videos from the Capitol steps as it was being mobbed. He lost his race for a heavily Democratic seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.
  • T.J. Honerlaw, a member of the Mason, Ohio, city council, who told Fox19 that he got “pretty darn close” to the Capitol doors but also that he didn’t witness violence. He lost reelection to the city council.
  • Monica Manthey, who has defended her presence at the "Stop the Steal" rally, but said she did not march to the Capitol. She lost her race for Annapolis, Maryland, city council.
  • Steve Lynch lost his race for Northampton County, Pennsylvania, executive.

UPDATE

This story has been updated after BuzzFeed News learned of another Republican who went to Washington on Jan. 6.

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