Category: State Election Denier (defeated 2022 secretary of state candidate)
Role: Former Nevada state legislator; 2022 GOP nominee for Nevada Secretary of State
Priority: P1 (State-level election denial leadership)

Role

Jim Marchant was the 2022 Republican nominee for Nevada Secretary of State, seeking to control Nevada’s election administration. Though he lost the general election, he organized the America First Secretary of State Coalition coordinating election deniers across swing states.

Background

Marchant is a former Nevada state legislator and unsuccessful 2020 congressional candidate. He won the Nevada GOP secretary of state primary on June 15, 2022, with 38% of the vote, defeating businessman Jesse Haw and former judge Richard Scotti.

Documented Actions

1. Explicit Refusal to Certify 2020 Election (2022)

SourceThe Washington Post, “Jim Marchant, who has said he would not have certified Biden’s victory in Nevada, advances to November general election,” June 15, 2022; NBC News, “Election denier Jim Marchant wins Nevada Republican secretary of state primary,” June 2022Evidence: Marchant explicitly stated he would not have certified Biden’s 2020 Nevada victory had he been secretary of state at the time. He claimed “it’s almost statistically impossible that Joe Biden won” Nevada, despite Biden’s approximately 34,000-vote victory that was approved by the state’s Supreme Court. When interviewed, Marchant did not rule out advocating for alternate Trump electors if Trump were on the 2024 ballot.

Pattern: Pre-commitment to reject legitimate election results; alternate elector scheme advocacy

2. America First Secretary of State Coalition (2022)

SourceNBC News, “Election denier Jim Marchant wins Nevada Republican secretary of state primary,” June 2022; NPR, “Jim Marchant is the Nevada GOP pick for secretary of state,” June 15, 2022Evidence: Marchant organized the America First Secretary of State Coalition, which includes election-denying candidates in swing states like Arizona (Mark Finchem), Michigan (Kristina Karamo), and Georgia. This coalition represented a coordinated effort to place election deniers in control of swing state election administration—creating infrastructure for overturning future elections.

Pattern: Coordinated multi-state election denial infrastructure; swing state election subversion planning

3. Elimination of Voting Access Proposals (2022)

SourceCNN Politics, “Nevada secretary of state: Jim Marchant, vocal proponent of election lies, will win GOP primary, CNN projects,” June 15, 2022Evidence: Marchant’s stated priority was to “overhaul the fraudulent election system in Nevada.” He proposed eliminating electronic voting machines, mail-in voting, and early voting in favor of a “traceable paper-ballot-only” system with hand counts. These proposals would dramatically reduce voting access, particularly for rural voters, military/overseas voters, and working families.

Pattern: Voter suppression through voting access elimination

4. Defeated in General Election (November 2022)

SourceWikipedia, “2022 Nevada Secretary of State election”Evidence: Marchant faced Democratic candidate Cisco Aguilar in the November 2022 general election. Aguilar won with 496,569 votes (48.95%) to Marchant’s 473,467 votes (46.67%), preventing Marchant from becoming Nevada’s secretary of state and gaining control over Nevada election administration.

Pattern: Election denier defeated; prevented from controlling swing state elections

Pattern Analysis

This profile documents election denial, refusal to certify legitimate results, coordinated multi-state election subversion planning, and voter suppression proposals—within the scope of the public-corruption-ombudsman skill.

Related profiles: mark-finchem-profile (Arizona America First coalition member), kari-lake-profile (Arizona election denier), mike-johnson-profile (congressional election denial)

Related skills: fourteenth-amendment-legal-expert (Section 3 disqualification), fifth-amendment-legal-expert (due process in election certification)

Severity Assessment

Immediate harm: Moderate (defeated; did not gain election control)
Democratic erosion: High — Organized multi-state election subversion infrastructure
Authoritarian marker: Pre-commitment to reject legitimate elections; alternate elector scheme; coordinated swing state takeover attempt

Accountability Status

Current status: Defeated (not in office)

Legal exposure:

• Fourteenth Amendment Section 3: Potential disqualification for election subversion planning
• Conspiracy: Coordinating with other states to overturn elections

Public accountability:

• Nevada voters rejected Marchant’s election denial
• America First coalition members mostly defeated in 2022

Cross-References

Skills: public-corruption-ombudsman, fourteenth-amendment-legal-expert, fifth-amendment-legal-expert
Related profiles: mark-finchem-profile, kari-lake-profile, mike-johnson-profile
Topics: Election denial, Nevada secretary of state, America First Secretary of State Coalition, election certification refusal, voter suppression, mail-in voting elimination, alternate electors

Investigative trail pointers (public records)

Education only — verify independently. Absence of hits is not proof.

Use public-records-research-specialist, corporate-intelligence-investigator, and public-corruption-ombudsman evidence tiers.

Factual correction requests: If you believe information in this profile is incorrect, please contact factcheck@patriot.university with your name (optional), the specific claim, and any supporting documentation. We review all submissions and correct verified errors promptly.

For Trump Supporters: Questions Worth Considering

Marchant explicitly stated that he would not have certified Biden’s 2020 Nevada victory had he been Secretary of State — despite Biden winning by 34,000 votes, approved by Nevada courts. He organized the America First Secretary of State Coalition to coordinate election deniers across swing states — Arizona (Finchem), Michigan (Karamo), Georgia — creating a networked infrastructure to place election deniers in control of swing state election administration before the next presidential election. He proposed eliminating electronic voting machines, mail-in voting, and early voting in Nevada. He lost the general election by about 23,000 votes.

Here’s a question worth sitting with: Marchant did not just deny one election — he pre-committed to not certifying future elections if he didn’t like the outcome, and he built a network across multiple swing states to coordinate that approach. If Marchant and his coalition had won Secretary of State races in Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, and Georgia in 2022 — the four states with the closest 2024 presidential margins — what would the 2024 certification process have looked like? Marchant wasn’t hiding his intentions; he said publicly he wouldn’t certify 2020 and wouldn’t commit to certifying 2024. Nevada voters stopped him. Is the outcome — that the people who would have refused to certify lost the elections they needed to control — the same as the system working? Or does the existence of a coordinated multi-state strategy to pre-position election deniers in swing state electoral infrastructure represent a structural risk that doesn’t go away because they lost in 2022?

Sources

1. The Washington Post, “Jim Marchant, who has said he would not have certified Biden’s victory in Nevada, advances to November general election,” June 15, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/jim-marchant-2020-election/
2. NBC News, “Election denier Jim Marchant wins Nevada Republican secretary of state primary,” June 2022. http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/election-denier-jim-marchant-wins-nevada-republican-secretary-state-pr-rcna33638
3. CNN Politics, “Nevada secretary of state: Jim Marchant, vocal proponent of election lies, will win GOP primary, CNN projects,” June 15, 2022. https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/15/politics/jim-marchant-nevada-secretary-of-state
4. Wikipedia, “2022 Nevada Secretary of State election.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Nevada_Secretary_of_State_election
5. NPR, “Jim Marchant is the Nevada GOP pick for secretary of state,” June 15, 2022. https://www.npr.org/2022/06/15/1104965309/nevada-secretary-of-state-election-results

Last Updated: May 11, 2026
Profile Status: Defeated candidate; monitoring for future election activity
Next Review: Annually