More on Ginni Thomas and the 2020 Election

She advocated that AZ overturn its election.

WaPo reports: Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court justice, pressed Ariz. lawmakers to help reverse Trump’s loss, emails show.

The emails, sent by Ginni Thomas to a pair of lawmakers on Nov. 9, 2020, argued that legislators needed to intervene because the vote had been marred by fraud. Though she did not mention either candidate by name, the context was clear.

Just days after media organizations called the race for Biden in Arizona and nationwide, Thomas urged the lawmakers to “stand strong in the face of political and media pressure.” She told the lawmakers that the responsibility to choose electors was “yours and yours alone” and said they had “power to fight back against fraud.”

Thomas sent the messages via an online platform designed to make it easy to send prewritten form emails to multiple elected officials, according to a review of the emails, obtained under the state’s public-records law.

This is all a combination of somewhat pathetic and profoundly troubling.

The pathetic part is, along lines that both James Joyner and myself have written, using some form letter system to pester legislators makes her seem more like some random cable news viewer than someone who has had a decades-long career working in Washington, let alone the spouse of one of the most powerful members of the US government. This is not a power move, and on one level I suppose can be dismissed.

Still, this should not take away from the fact that this is just another example of Ginni Thomas advocating to overturn the results of the 2020 election, an attitude made truly concerning given the influence she has over her spouse of over thirty years (who, as I may have noted, is an extremely powerful individual).

Part of this simply makes Ginnin look gullible and unsophisticated. But it also is a sobering reminder of how thoroughly the Big Lie and partisan-motivated thinking have penetrated American life.

FILED UNDER: 2020 Election, Supreme Court, US Politics, , , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. gVOR08 says:

    somewhat pathetic and profoundly troubling.

    As is so much of modern Republicanism.

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  2. Sleeping Dog says:

    Clarence is upset for the wrong reasons why Americans have lost confidence in the SC. It would be a good thing for the SC if one or more of the other justices called him out on participating in decisions on elections and election procedures.

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  3. Jay L Gischer says:

    James and Steven, and also a few commenters are academics, or have an academic background. This describes me. We think analytically. We don’t like to repeat ourselves.

    Meanwhile advocacy involves constant repetition. This is especially so when you are pushing the boundaries of truth. One does not have to be particularly smart to do this. One does not have to think analytically.

    The American Dream is often thought of as “work hard, make lots of money”. There’s nothing in there about being smart or thinking analytically.

    The principles of Ginni and Clarence Thomas and people like them seem to be:

    * Popular votes don’t matter.
    * Norms don’t matter.
    * Settled law doesn’t matter.
    * Legislation passed by large majorities don’t matter.
    * The official results of designated election officials don’t matter.
    * Only my own feelings matter.

    The appointment of Thomas was pretty much the only policy decision that GHW made that I didn’t like. Nothing that has happened since then has changed my mind.

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  4. gVOR08 says:

    @Jay L Gischer:

    The American Dream is often thought of as “work hard, make lots of money”. There’s nothing in there about being smart or thinking analytically.

    As I get older I’m more and more impressed with the truth of that. And that egoism and a degree of sociopathy help. The world would work better if we lost the Calvinist belief that wealth reflects virtue.

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  5. Franklin says:

    Part of this simply makes Ginni look gullible and unsophisticated.

    Repeated for emphasis.

    As dishonest and hypocritical as I think Clarence Thomas is, he must have a good 40 IQ points over his wife. Marriages like that usually don’t last this long.

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  6. Sleeping Dog says:

    @Franklin:

    You’d think, but you probably don’t consider women, second class citizens. Having a dumb F wife is probably reassuring for someone as insecure and self hating as CT.

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  7. gVOR08 says:

    @Sleeping Dog: And the money she pulls in by capitalizing on his SCOTUS seat is probably joint property.

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  8. Gustopher says:

    @Franklin: Makes you wonder whether you are underestimating her or overestimating him.

    They’re either functionally separated, despite living in the same house, or they’re on the same wavelength on the subject of brain worms and whether their brains would be a delicious and fertile snack for said brain worms.

    I see no reason not to think that he’s about as far gone as she is.

    We’re not seeing any off the record, background stories of how Clarance is tragically and stoutly dealing with his wife’s brain worm issues. Typically these things are open secrets, like Diane Feinstein having no idea what is going on around her.

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  9. Kathy says:

    This woman reminds me of Imelda Marcos.

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  10. CSK says:

    @Franklin:
    Maybe that’s her appeal for him. Some men prefer stupid women.

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  11. CSK says:

    @gVOR08:
    “Wealth reflects virtue…”

    Indeed. Look at that tiresome old saying: “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?”

    Being rich can involve a willingness to do any sleazy, immoral, unethical, and illegal thing for cash. Look at Donald Trump. And he’s proof you don’t have to be smart to be rich, either. Just a crook.

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  12. Hal_10000 says:

    My biggest concern for our country right now is that Biden wins a close re-election in 2024 and Republican legislatures overturn it. It’s becoming more possible by the day.

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  13. Scott F. says:

    @Hal_10000: We’ll know by November 2022. The constitutional crisis you describe is more likely than not if Mastriano wins the governorship in PA (where the Gov names the SecState) and if they elect a Republican Secretary of State in Michigan.

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  14. Jen says:

    I was busy yesterday and didn’t have time to comment, but this needs to be highlighted:

    using some form letter system to pester legislators makes her seem more like some random cable news viewer than someone who has had a decades-long career working in Washington,

    I’ve mentioned before that I do public affairs communications work, and I can assure you that there are extensive communications programs that use form letter systems. They are deployed across a range of campaigns, from your run-of-the-mill “Congress is considering X” type programs to federal docket submissions on any topic you can imagine. If a federal or state agency is considering a rule change, and if that rule change will have an impact, you should assume that someone, somewhere has initiated a pressure campaign of some sort. They vary in levels of sophistication. Some are “click here” formats, that just send a pre-written email, while others prompt users to modify the the automated letter.

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  15. @Jen: Oh, I get that. My point was about Ginni Thomas herself filling out the form.

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  16. DK says:

    In a just world Ginni Thomas would be arrested for treason.

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  17. Chris says:

    Extremism in the betrayal of liberty is now the GOP norm. As such, a lot of liberals are surely missing the likes of Barry Goldwater these days.