[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 87 (Wednesday, May 19, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H2548]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ELECTION CONTEST DISMISSED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Illinois (Ms. Underwood) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. UNDERWOOD. Madam Speaker, last week, we passed a resolution 
dismissing the last House election contest of the 2020 cycle, in the 
14th District of Illinois.
  Before this resolution came to the floor, the Committee on House 
Administration approved it with unanimous bipartisan support.
  I am incredibly honored that my community chose me to represent them 
in Congress again, and I look forward to a productive term.
  But I am not here to take a victory lap. This is an important moment, 
not because of which candidate won, but because the constitutional 
rights of my constituents were upheld, despite my opponent's efforts to 
disenfranchise the very people he sought to represent.
  Much like the previous President, my opponent ignored voters' voices 
by declaring himself the winner days before the results were in. Once 
the votes had been tallied, he again joined the former President in 
making baseless allegations of fraud and conspiracy.
  After a careful consideration of the merits of his case, the 
committee found that my opponent's many arguments about supposed 
irregularities failed to add up to a credible claim to the result he 
wanted.
  Exhibiting the utmost disrespect for his own would-be constituents, 
he even went so far as to attempt to invalidate thousands of ballots, 
under a technicality that the Illinois Supreme Court had already deemed 
invalid under both the State and Federal Constitutions.
  Specifically, the court warned that the standard my opponent sought 
to apply in this case would allow corrupt officials to deliberately 
toss out ballots of voters whom they had reason to believe voted 
otherwise than they desired, which is exactly what he attempted to do.
  By passing the resolution dismissing this baseless contest, the House 
upheld the results that were verified by seven county clerks, including 
four Republicans, and certified by the State of Illinois.
  On behalf of my constituents whose voices were heard despite these 
efforts to silence them, I want to thank the many election officials 
and volunteers who safely and successfully administered the highest-
turnout election in history, during a pandemic.
  I also want to thank the House Administration Committee and its 
hardworking staff for faithfully carrying out the Federal Contested 
Elections Act by rejecting this attempt at disenfranchisement.
  Unfortunately, the contest in my district was just one battle in a 
war that is still ongoing, a war on democracy, on voting rights, and on 
truth itself.
  It will take more than a resolution to defeat the big lie: a 
seditious effort to delegitimize the 2020 election and every future 
election.
  As the so-called debate about widespread fraud that did not occur 
raged on, I have been shocked and horrified by the willingness of so 
many people to tell dangerous, flat-out lies, people who should know 
better, including, terrifyingly, elected officials at every level of 
government.
  I desperately hope for a future where the fabric of reality itself is 
no longer under attack, because there can be no compromise here. There 
is nothing to compromise on. The choice is simple: truth or lies.
  In the meantime, Madam Speaker, let me tell you about the reality 
that others have left far behind. The reality is that the American 
people chose Democrats to lead the House, the Senate, and the White 
House. In reality, Americans voted for healthcare, for childcare, and 
for a safe climate and environment.

                              {time}  1030

  In reality, Americans chose historic numbers of women, people of 
color, and LGBTQ people to represent them in this Chamber.
  There are people who refuse to face this reality, like my erstwhile 
opponent, the former President, and far too many others in positions of 
great responsibility. Their denial of the truth is incompatible with 
the democracy we all swore an oath to defend.
  A few months ago, we endured a violent insurrection here in this 
building, an all-too-real manifestation of this widespread assault on 
reality. We survived the attack, but we are still in the midst of an 
insidious erosion of norms and policies that threatens our democracy, 
including by sowing distrust of our elections and our democratic 
institutions.
  Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in rejecting these 
attacks on our democracy by living as though the truth were true.

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