Trump rally showcases Frank LaRose's voter fraud tightrope in Ohio secretary of state race

Since 2020, Secretary of State Frank LaRose has maintained a careful balance between champion of Ohio elections and skeptic of how other states conducted voting. 

Nowhere was that more evident than former President Donald Trump's rally in Delaware County on Saturday. Hours after accepting Trump's endorsement for his reelection bid, LaRose listened as Trump and his allies cast doubt on the 2020 outcome and criticized practices like early voting still used by Ohio today.

"In 2016 and 2020, we won Ohio in a landslide," Trump told the crowd. "We won it by a lot of votes. Probably should've won it by more than that."

Trump won Ohio in 2020 by 8 percentage points, and LaRose touted the state's elections that year as a model for others. Earlier this year, his office referred 62 potential cases of voter fraud to law enforcement, which included just 0.0005% of ballots cast in the 2020 election.

Still, LaRose has ramped up his rhetoric about potential irregularities in other states – further evidence to his critics that he's angling for higher office in 2024 and beyond.

Shifting rhetoric on voter fraud

Trump announced his endorsement of LaRose hours before he spoke at the Delaware County Fairgrounds. In some ways, the move wasn't surprising: LaRose supported Trump in 2016 and served on the team handling logistics for his 2017 inauguration.

But the boos LaRose received on Saturday highlighted his unpopularity among Republicans who believe the 2020 election was rigged. LaRose acknowledged President Joe Biden as the winner shortly after the election and criticized both Republicans and Democrats for disputing outcomes they don't like, Cleveland.com reported at the time.

Since then, LaRose has dismissed any claims of wrongdoing in Ohio's elections, and his office has little patience for conspiracy theorists who falsely say Trump won Ohio by a larger margin. One of them – MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell – took the stage at Saturday's rally and echoed a similar claim.

But LaRose has also espoused a sense of urgency around voter fraud in recent months, tweeting that the 62 alleged cases his office announced were "ONLY THE BEGINNING."

"I think it's also fair to discuss that there were things that happened in other states that shouldn't have happened," LaRose said in an April interview. "Would that have changed the results? I don't know. It's probably an unknowable thing. Could it have changed the electoral count? Who knows."

Nationwide, claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election have repeatedly been debunked. An Associated Press review of potential voter fraud cases in six battleground states found fewer than 475, which would not change the election outcome. 

Trump rails against Ohio voting procedures

LaRose faces a GOP primary challenge in the May 3 election from former state legislator John Adams, who has disputed Biden's victory and criticized LaRose for postponing the March 2020 election because of COVID-19.

In his endorsement statement, Trump said LaRose is dedicated to secure elections and ensuring all votes are counted on Election Day, among other policies. In Ohio, absentee ballots can be counted after Election Day as long as they were postmarked by the proper deadline.

Ohio also uses practices derided by Trump during Saturday's rally: early voting, electronic ballots and absentee mail-in voting.

"We want one-day elections," Trump said. "We want paper ballots and no mail-in fake ballots."

LaRose campaign spokesman Adam Rapien declined to answer specific questions about Trump's comments but said LaRose secured his endorsement because "Ohio's elections are well-run and run with integrity."

"Ohio voters have confidence in our elections because, unlike other states, we're not changing rules at the last minute," Rapien said in a statement. "When Democrats outside of Ohio used the courts in the final days of the election to make significant changes, it opened up a Pandora's box, allowing voters to question the validity of the results. That didn't happen in Ohio."

Not long after LaRose received Trump's endorsement on Saturday, he announced his endorsement of Trump's chosen U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance.

Democrats say LaRose is positioning himself to run for higher office in 2024 – potentially a run for U.S. Senate. Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown will be up for reelection that year. 

"Ohioans can’t trust Frank LaRose to care about anything but himself and a Senate race he’ll lose in two years," Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Matt Keyes said in a statement. "Rather than do his job and stand up for election integrity or pass fair maps, LaRose is busy falling in line behind Republican politicians who lie about elections being stolen and attack Ohioans’ right to vote."

Haley BeMiller is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.