Alarm as Trump backs ‘big lie’ candidates for key election posts in Michigan

Donald Trump has endorsed rightwing Republican candidates who support his baseless claims of a stolen election for key posts in Michigan, raising the prospect of a Trumpist takeover of how the key battleground state might run its elections.

Trump and his allies are backing numerous candidates in the coming midterm elections across the US, including in other vital states like Arizona and Georgia.

But his intervention in Michigan raises particular eyebrows due to its role in helping Trump to win in 2016, before flipping back to the Democrats in 2020 and helping oust him from office.

The former US president and his close ally Mike Lindell, the My Pillow CEO, are giving strong backing to a Michigan lawyer and key promoter of debunked election fraud charges who is seeking the Republican nod to be the state's next attorney general.

Trump plans to hold a fundraiser for lawyer Matthew DePerno on 8 March at his Florida Mar-a-Lago club, where Lindell told the Guardian he will speak to boost DePerno's chances to be the Republican to take on Michigan's Democratic attorney general, Dana Nessel.

Kristina Karamo, a community college professor who also peddled conspiracy theories about election fraud, and who never held elected office, has received Trump's backing to be the Republican secretary of state candidate to challenge incumbent Democrat Jocelyn Benson in the fall elections.

The secretary of state plays a crucial role in overseeing elections, and Trump loyalists are investing heavily to capture several of these posts this year.