In the wake of the 2020 election, focus sharpened on the 41 state secretaries of state that manage elections; a once obscure position has become a battleground.
State secretary-of-state elections were of little interest before 2022, except for those most engaged in statehouse politics. Even the name has a cement reverb.
But former President Donald Trump’s adamant position about the legitimacy of the 2020 election thrust these usually obscure contests into the spotlight. Several of the 27 secretary-of-state races in 2022 illustrated sharp divides in elections administration between Republicans and Democrats and exposed fault lines within the GOP.
Midterm state secretary-of-state races suddenly became acutely partisan with the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State and Republican Secretaries of State Committee collectively funneling more than $75 million into the campaigns, three times more than in 2018.
GOP candidates who backed President Trump’s election fraud allegations formed the America First Secretary of State Coalition. Financially bolstered by Conservatives for Election Integrity PAC, it endorsed 17 candidates. Ten were defeated in primaries and just one, Diego Morales in Indiana, won the general election.
In November, voters in seven states will decide who will fill these consequential secretaries of state seats.
Of the seven races on the November ballot, four are currently held by Democrats: North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, and Vermont. Three are held by Republicans: West Virginia, Montana, and Missouri.
Nationwide, there are now 26 Republican secretaries of state and 21 Democrats. Alaska, Hawaii, and Utah don’t have the position.
Not all state secretaries of state are equal. In Arizona, Oregon, and Wyoming, the secretary of state is next in succession to the governorship.
Voters elect state secretaries of state in 35 states. Lawmakers in Tennessee, New Hampshire, and Maine appoint them, while the governor does so in nine states. They serve four years in 41 states, and two years in six.
Secretaries of state generally oversee business and corporate licensing and promote the state in recruiting jobs and investment. They also maintain state records, certify official documents, and regulate charities, securities, and notaries public.
By John Haughey
