#WriteInTrump Trending On Twitter – But Are Republicans Really Behind It?

Despite no evidence to the contrary, President Donald J. Trump has continued to claim that the 2020 election was ripe with fraud. Now it seems some opponents of the President could be lending credence to that claim. In the past week a movement to #WriteInTrump for the Georgia Senate runoffs in January is making its rounds on social media.

The Peach State’s Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are facing off against Democratic opponents in a special runoff election on January 5, after no candidate earned a plurality of votes in November.

In recent weeks President Trump’s attorney Lin Woods suggested that Perdue and Loeffler did not deserve support because they failed to get behind the President’s “voter fraud.” Since then there have been increased efforts to use those words against the Republican candidates.

Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona), contributing editor to The Daily Beast and founder of The Contemptor, shared Wood’s word in a tweet, “Here’s Lin Wood telling Georgia Republicans NOT to vote for Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue next month.

‘They have not earned your vote. Don’t you give it to them. Why would you go back and vote in another rigged election for god’s sake! Fix it! You gotta fix it!'”

Others have pushed the message via the hashtag #WriteInTrump. This included American actor Daniel Newman (@DanielNewman), who has suggested dozens of times that conservatives should write in Trump’s name instead of actually casting a vote for the Republican Senators. He tweeted, “All my REPUBLICANs!! We have 2 Options to Save #America!! 1. STAND WITH TRUMP & #WriteInTrump NAME for the GEORGIA SENATE #RUNOFFS!!

3. Or, #Boycott #Runoff Elections all together to stand United! Biden Cheated! #MAGA #NobodyLikesKelly”

Other myths and misinformation were also spreading. Among these @Eleven_Bee offered the misleading, “If you write in Trump’s name, it will count toward his Presidential Vote total. Help flip Georgia for Trump. WRITE IN TRUMP! Show you’re SUPPORT!”

While it could be suggested that much of this is in humor, others seem to believe that such efforts could impact the election outcome in January and determine which party holds the control of the U.S. Senate. The aptly named @WeaponziedVoter posted, “I’m thinkin’ of taking a page out of Putin’s playbook: To start an account just for spreading disinformation, and to seriously encourage those idiots to write in Trump’s name. I want to amplify the #WriteInTrump campaign.”

User @wphamilton was among the users on Twitter who seemed to support the President, and he tweeted, “Senator Donald Trump. Sounds good 2u? He’d straighten out Georgia right quick, and then the enemy of the people. That turncoat Sec of State, and the enemy fake news media. Write in Trump for both of them. He’d get twice the votes that way and be a shoe-in #WriteInTrump #MAGA”

Of course it is easy to tell this same user wasn’t serious as days earlier he always posted, “I want my vote to count in the GA Senate elections. I know the Republicans will cheat, so here’s my plan:

• https://ballotrequest.sos.ga.gov request a ballot

• Photocopy my vote for my own records

• Hand deliver (NO USPS)

• Track the status: http://mvp.sos.ga.gov/MVP/voterDetails.do”

There is some serious irony in the fact that someone can post that he believes the other side will “cheat” and then essentially do something that could sway some voters in a dubious and dishonest way!

Dubious looking memes also suggest that an actual conservative movement is behind this push is also making the rounds. This has included tweets by ReallyAmerican (@ReallyAmerican1), a website that has actively supported the Democratic candidates, and offered such taglines as “They Didn’t Fight For Trump. Don’t Fight Them,” and “Georgia Republicans didn’t fight for Trump.”

It is hard not to see this for what it is, a disingenuous way to convince voters not to back the Republicans. Some users on social media have seen the hypocrisy of such efforts. @hootdada ponded, “Ok, not saying don’t do it and I’m sure I’ll be slammed fir this, but how exactly is this different from @GOP tactics to suppress minority votes?”

Another user, @paigerpenland suggested, “This mess is going to backfire and get them elected. Stop it. Either you are a fool, a grifter, or working for the GOP. I’m in GA, know many, many MAGAs and have a very bad feeling about this. If you’re just a fool, bless you but STOP.”

On the flip side some have shown that the Republican candidates have shown that Republican candidates didn’t actually let Trump down. Among those was Alex Bruesewitz (@alexbruesewitz), CEO of XStratgies and advisor to conservative politicians. He posted, “Senator @KLoeffler has a ONE HUNDRED PERCENT voting record with

@realDonaldTrump, anyone questioning her support of President Trump or the MAGA movement should go take a quick look at her voting record.”