Former U.S. President Donald Trump holds a rally in Mendon, Illinois, U.S. June 25, 2022. REUTERS/Kate Munsch
WASHINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) - Republican voters in Colorado and Illinois will weigh former President Donald Trump's false claims of a stolen presidency on Tuesday as they select candidates for the November elections that will determine control of Congress and many state governments.
Republican candidates who support Trump's denial of his 2020 election loss have already won several high-profile nominating contests in other states this year, prompting concern among Democrats and independent observers that U.S. democracy could be at risk.
Those concerns are acute in Colorado, where county clerk Tina Peters is seeking the Republican nomination to be the state's top election official, even though she has been indicted for election tampering and barred from overseeing voting in her home county this year.
Peters is among dozens of Republican candidates this year who have rejected Trump's defeat by Democrat Joe Biden and are now seeking to oversee state elections.
Her leading Republican rival, Pam Anderson, does not support Trump's fraud claims. Anderson is endorsed by several state Republican officials, including past election officials.
Despite arguing that Trump's claims undermine democracy, Democrats have interfered in some Republican contests to boost his allies, calculating that those candidates will prove too extreme for voters in November.
In Colorado,...
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