“The core belief of the MAGA movement is we won the 2020 election.”

— Steve Bannon, quoted by Democracy Docket.

“Republicans are pouring money into ⁠more than three dozen U.S. House races previously considered ‘safe’ after internal polling showed they could be vulnerable in the November 3 election, according to three Republican operatives familiar with the party’s thinking,” Reuters reports.

“The shift is already starting to show in advertising reservations and campaign finance filings. Since September 1, major Republican groups and megadonors have begun spending in at least 39 congressional races where they haven’t previously deployed money this cycle, a Reuters review of spending by some of the largest Republican political groups shows.”

Bloomberg: Midterm fight expands into Republican strongholds.

“A federal judge blocked a grand jury subpoena for information about 2020 election workers in Georgia, a rebuff to the Justice Department’s investigation into how the election was handled in the Atlanta-area,” CNN reports.

“The FBI is ramping up its investigation into the 2020 election results in Fulton County, Georgia, by ordering field offices across the country to send investigative analysts to Atlanta to help evaluate thousands of records,” CBS News reports.

Reuters: “President Donald Trump has repeated his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him at least 107 times in the last six months, keeping the grievance front and center even as he faces new political risks from the war with Iran and looming midterm elections.”

“Trump devotes near-daily attention to ​the issue.”

“A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the U.S. Department of Justice does not have to return 2020 election ballots seized by FBI agents to Fulton County,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

Rick Hasen: “Although this ruling is a disappointment in that it allows the federal government to continue to hold on the ballots when the allegations in the search warrant were based on discredited conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, I do want to point to a part of footnote 26 that I consider very important in the event that the federal government tries to seize ballots in an election that is not already final and beyond a contestation period: ‘Importantly, the seizure at issue in this case did not interfere with the State’s ability to conduct the 2020 election or certify election results, nor have Petitioners shown that it will hinder the State’s ability to conduct future elections.'”

“These issues are key: it’s a much more serious matter if a federal seizure of materials would interfere with the state’s ability to conduct elections or certify election results.”

President Trump on Friday called for the 2020 election to be “permanently wiped from the books” if the Southern Poverty Law Center is convicted of making fraudulent payments totaling $3 million to members of white supremacist groups the organization claimed to fight, the New York Post reports.

Wall Street Journal: “That effort is now unfolding on multiple fronts. Attorney General Pam Bondi last week quietly authorized Dan Bishop, a U.S. attorney in North Carolina, to pursue election-related probes across the country…”

“Bishop, a former congressman who voted against certifying Biden’s 2020 win, will also examine voter-roll data the Justice Department has been collecting from states in an effort to determine whether noncitizens have illegally registered or cast ballots.”

Politico: “Former special counsel Jack Smith’s office sought to map a vast web of contacts between President Donald Trump’s most vocal Republican allies in Congress and key players in his bid to subvert the results of the 2020 election, according to newly released records of the Smith-led investigation.”

“Emails from January 2023 circulated among Smith’s deputies show how top GOP lawmakers communicated directly with individuals later identified by Smith as Trump’s co-conspirators in his election interference plot, including attorneys Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.”

Politico: “Conversations with nearly a dozen GOP state and county chairs and strategists reveal a party largely eager to move on from relitigating Trump’s election grievances, which they’re worried may detract from an economic message that actually motivates voters. But the president won’t let it go, subpoenaing 2020 election records and putting pressure on lawmakers to pass legislation to overhaul voter registration laws.”

“As Republicans stare down a treacherous midterm landscape, there’s a growing view inside the party that focusing on ‘stolen election’ claims and voter fraud will kneecap them in the general election: That messaging might play well with the MAGA base in the primary, but it could alienate moderates tired of rehashing an election from nearly six years ago.”