CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — During the special session on Sunday, several West Virginia delegates introduced a resolution requesting that the state legislature “not recognize an illegitimate presidential election.”
The resolution, House Concurrent Resolution 203, was introduced by delegates Bill Ridenour (R-Jefferson), Margitta Mazzocchi (R-Logan), Henry Dillon (R-Wayne), Todd Longanacre (R-Greenbrier) and Elias Coop-Gonzalez (R-Randolph).
HRC 203 states that the “Democrat-led regime, has utterly failed, and continues to fail, in a suspicious manner, in its absolute duty to adequately protect the Republican nominee for president” before the resolution states that if there is “abundant evidence that non-citizens have been and are being registered to vote in the national election of 2024,” among other “suspicious” acts, the state will not recognize the elected president in 2024.
The resolution continues by stating that West Virginia will not recognize any Democrat candidate for President if the Republican candidate is assassinated, injured during an assassination attempt, incarcerated, or in any way barred from any state ballot.
This piece of legislation comes after the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, faced two assassination attemptsthis year and was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsified business records in May in connection to hush money payment made to adult film actress, Stormy Daniels, in during his successful 2016 presidential campaign.
Lastly, the resolution said that if the state Attorney General, Secretary of State and the state legislature, in which Republicans currently hold a supermajority, determine that the Republican president or vice-presidential candidates are illegally eliminated from the race by fraud or interference, the governor will call a special session to “protect the will of the people.”
The West Virginia Democratic Party released a statement Monday expressing its “outrage” by the introduction of the resolution, which it said aims to prevent anyone but Donald Trump from being recognized as the winner of the election.
“The West Virginia Democratic Party stands firmly against this undemocratic resolution and any attempts to subvert the electoral process by preordaining an election outcome,” the statement said. “We call on all West Virginians to reject these un-American efforts and hold their elected officials accountable for undermining the foundation of our democracy.”
HRC 203 echoes similar rhetoric that Trump has used to question the legitimacy of the 2020 election results which saw him defeated by the Democratic nominee, now president, Joe Biden. Meanwhile, aCourt filing from special counsel Jack Smith and his team on Wednesday determined that Trump “resorted to crimes” after losing his second bid for the White House.
Trump is currently facing several pieces of litigation due to this rhetoric around election legitimacy, notably in Georgia where he he was indicted on 13 charges over an attempt to overturn the election and in Washington D.C. where the court questions the former president’s role in Jan. 6. riot at the United States Capitol.
