Beware: Aspiring Governor Thinks Weapons Are Needed In Response To Election Results

Conrad Allen, who aspires to be future Ohio Governor, says that acknowledging Biden won the election is surrender, encourages his followers to ready their weapons instead, and has encouraged murder of political rivals. He attributes his call to arms to the President’s claims of election fraud. We don’t need weapons, Mr. Allen, we just need to count the votes.

Election Disinformation and Call to Arms

On 11/7/20, hours after the Associated Press and other news stations projected Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election, Conrad Allen posted on Facebook “The President said fraud is rampant. [Ohio Governor] DeWine wants you to capitulate. I want you to arm.”

We do not need weapons to conclude this election, we just need to count legally cast votes and allow the legal challenges to resolve and the states to certify the results. If there are instances of voter fraud, the perpetrators should face consequences under the law, not through vigilantism. We do not need misinformation perpetuated by President Trump, who drastically exaggerates the extent of voter fraud and recklessly delegitimatizes our election process, nor do we need people like Conrad Allen perpetuating these falsehoods.

Days earlier, when the election results were not yet known, Allen had prematurely claimed Trump was the winner, and urged that “we defend against theft”, as legally cast votes were still be counted, many of them mail-in ballots.

On 11/9, two days after Biden was projected winner, Allen posted a photo of himself holding a homemade “Trump Won” flag, along with the caption: “Trump won. Unlike DeWine/Husted….I congratulate Biden and his supporters on nothing.” This flag was added to his rotation of flags he carries as he walks around the entire perimeter of Ohio in support of his views.

Trump did win the State of Ohio’s 18 electoral college votes, but did not win enough nationwide to retain the presidency. While Allen would be within reason to celebrate the victory of his preferred candidate at the state level, his organization goes well beyond that, denying that Biden won the national election and spreading unfounded, conspiratorial allegations.

Allen’s Political Committee Further Spreads Conspiracy Theories

Allen is the executive director of the Committee for a Better Ohio, a 501(c)4 non-profit which has 10,000 followers on Facebook. His Committee has posted a meme mocking Biden being called the presumptive president-elect, suggesting Biden’s win was not valid. They also stated that Kamala Harris cheated. They’ve even asserted the unfounded conspiracy theory that Dominion Software was used to enact “purposeful manipulations orchestrated by election officials”, in this post from 11/15:

Jeff Louderback from CFABO gives empty assurance that their posts are “satire” designed to “provide a laugh”:

It is clear that CFABO’s followers do not see their serious allegations of election fraud to be merely satirical or humorous, with comments like, “It’s a shame our country has come to cheating in our elections” and “This is Nothing more than the Swamp colluding to Keep Trump from exposing more of their corruption!” CFABO’s posts are being shared hundreds of times.

It is condemnable for Conrad Allen and his Committee members to spread unfounded allegations of “rampant” voter fraud without evidence of the scale of fraud they allege, and for encouraging preparations for violence in reaction to the results. We’ve already seen two armed men arrested for traveling across state lines to a Philadelphia vote counting center acting on suspicions of voter fraud. We do not need more of that.

Allen’s Committee is also spreading misinformation about the coronavirus and has suggested the extreme idea of issuing a state-wide bounty on supporters of Black Lives Matter.

Today, the Committee reaffirms Allen’s intention to run for Ohio State Governor in 2022:

Allen’s Increasingly Violent Rhetoric (11/29 Update)

On 11/29/20, Allen suggests that Facebook temporarily banned him for posting something that violated their terms, and that this only “made him worse”. He then escalated his violent provocations, saying “if we don’t shoot communists & socialists in the face, where then?”

He went on to encourage politicians to “speak against socialists in brutal and violent terms” saying that those who don’t have “chosen sides against you”.

Allen’s Committee has been clear that they consider communists and socialists to be Black Lives Matter, Democrats and even moderate Republicans.

Allen’s incitement to political violence demonstrates his far-right extremism.

Allen’s Committee Supported Lawsuit To Discard 20 Million Votes (12/11 Update)

On 12/9, Allen’s political Committee urged Ohio Attorney General Yost to join the Texas lawsuit designed to overturn the election by invalidating all votes in 4 states, 20 million votes in total.

Dave Yost instead filed an amicus brief against the Texas lawsuit, and the Supreme Court ultimately denied the lawsuit for lack of standing.

Persistent Undermining of Election and Bus Trips to Capitol to “Stop the Steal” (1/12 Update)

On 12/13, after all 50 states certified their election results, CFABO posted “A new 2020 term “ILLEGITIMATE PRESIDENT ELECT”.”

On 1/6, Congress accepted the certified results and confirmed Biden’s victory, amidst a violent breach of the Capital building by Trump supporters which left several dead and over 100 police injured.

The next day CFABO posted that a Democrat will be “occupying the White House”, phrasing that stops short of acknowledging that Biden was legitimately elected President. Regarding the Capital breach, they posted, “Not a fan of the activities that caused a mob to invade the capitol building,” without naming which activities they believe caused it. They then referred to the invaders as “patriots”, saying, “It is a sad day when patriots are driven so far that they feel they need to participate in these types of actions to be heard.”

Multiple Committee followers replied that they or their family members had attended rallies in Washington that day. CFABO top-level member and Ohio Board of Education member Kirsten Hill organized a bus trip there.

Perhaps CFABO should reflect on their complicity in encouraging this violent insurrection by spreading the “stolen election” lie and supporting Conrad Allen and his violent rhetoric. Consider these words from the second Impeachment Resolution against Trump proposed by House Democrats, “He willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged–and foreseeably resulted in–lawless action at the Capital”.

Conrad Allen’s Facebook and Twitter accounts are no longer publicly available. Update: CFABO indicated on 2/14 that Allen may have been blocked by Facebook for violating their terms again.

Allen did not run for Governor in the 2022 elections.