Miami Republican backs long-shot Texas lawsuit to invalidate ballots in four states

Miami Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart was among 106 House Republicans who filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting a Texas lawsuit alleging “unconstitutional irregularities” in four swing states in a last-ditch effort to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

Diaz-Balart signed the the “friend of the court” brief as part of the lawsuit led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, which was sent to the Supreme Court on Thursday. The 106 House Republicans on the document represent just over half of the 196 Republicans in the House.

The brief said it represents the concerns of members of Congress “shared by untold millions of their constituents, that the unconstitutional irregularities involved in the 2020 presidential election cast doubt upon its outcome and the integrity of the American system of election.”

Legal experts and some Republican politicians have dismissed the case as a publicity stunt.

“I’m no lawyer but I suspect the Supreme Court swats this away,” Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse said in a statement on Thursday.

Diaz-Balart said he signed onto the lawsuit because “there are valid questions as to whether or not there were constitutional violations by a number of states, and this lawsuit intends to clarify the validity of these claims.”

The lawsuit argues that elections in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin suffered from “voting irregularities” due to voting changes made to accommodate the coronavirus pandemic. Paxton argued that the rule changes tainted the presidential results to the point that those state’s legislatures should be left to choose how their state votes in the electoral college.

Republicans control all four of those state legislatures and the combined electoral votes of all four states would be enough to hand Trump victory, essentially giving GOP politicians the choice to overturn Biden’s win if the lawsuit is successful.

There has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 election or evidence voting irregularities that would change the result. Multiple federal officials, including Attorney General William Barr, have said there is no evidence of voting irregularities that could have turned a potential Trump win into a Biden win in the presidential race.

The brief was signed by nine of Florida’s 14 House Republicans currently in office. Incoming Miami Republicans Maria Elvira Salazar and Carlos Gimenez did not immediately respond when asked if they supported the lawsuit.

The brief signed by Diaz-Balart comes a day after Trump and 18 Republican attorneys general, including Florida AG Ashley Moody, announced their support for Paxton’s lawsuit.

Some Republican elected officials who support the president have distanced themselves from the lawsuit. Democrats have uniformly criticized the effort.

“I read just a summary of it, and I frankly struggle to understand the legal theory,” Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn said to CNN on Wednesday. “Number 1, why would a state — even such a great state as Texas — have a say-so on how other states administer their elections?”

Sasse went further on Thursday, suggesting that Paxton — who is under FBI investigation for alleged bribery and abuse of office — filed the lawsuit to curry favor with the president for a last-minute pardon.

“From the brief, it looks like a fella begging for a pardon filed a PR stunt rather than a lawsuit – as all of its assertions have already been rejected by federal courts and Texas’s own solicitor general isn’t signing on,” Sasse said.

Diaz-Balart was unopposed in the November election in a Hialeah-based district that swung sharply in favor of Trump in 2020.

All 50 states have certified their election results and the Electoral College will meet on Monday to finalize the results.

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said earlier this week that the Electoral College meeting on Monday will solidify Biden’s victory.

“I think every indication is that unless something dramatic changes, the Electoral College is going to elect Joe Biden next week,” Rubio said. “At that point, I would expect the president to acknowledge that even if he doesn’t agree with the way we got there.”