Republican Senator announces plan to object to election result certification on 6 January

Josh Hawley joins long-shot GOP challenge to toss out electoral votes as states certify results and find no evidence of fraud

Republican Senator Josh Hawley announced he will object to the certification of electoral votes for president-elect Joe Biden on 6 January, when both chambers of Congress meet to formally approve the results of the 2020 presidential election.

He joins GOP members of the House who have also pledged to object, forcing lawmakers to debate and vote on their objections, though their protests won’t change the outcome.

Senator Hawley is the first among several Republican senators to formally announce his objection after suggesting they would join efforts among GOP lawmakers in the House to stage an effective congressional coup by overturning election results. He claimed that Pennsylvania did not follow state election laws and said the “unprecedented effort of mega corporations” like Facebook and Twitter interfered with the election to support Biden.

He also urged Congress to investigate allegations of voter fraud, despite no widespread evidence, after several lawsuits, vote audits and reports from Donald Trump’s own campaign and administration failed to prove its existence.

The Missouri senator compared his objections to Democrats in Congress who objected to votes in 2004 and 2016 elections. Then-Senator Barbara Boxer was the only senator to object to George W Bush’s re-election victory during the vote tally process in that election. Several House Democrats objected to electoral votes in several states leading to Donald Trump’s victory.

"For these reasons, I will follow the same practice Democrat members of Congress have in years past and object to the certification process on January 6 to raise these critical issues,” Senator Hawley said in a statement.

A group of House Republicans led by Alabama’s Mo Brooks have launched a long-shot plan to object to the results and force a debate in an effort to overturn the election by tossing out electoral votes in contested states.

If they succeed, it will be the third time Congress has debated an objection since 1887.

Mike Pence, who presides over the process, has declined to sign on to a challenge by Arizona congressman Louie Gohmert and Arizona’s 11 Republicans electors to give Pence broad authority to determine which electors would count, signalling the vice president’s unwillingness to break from the current rules.

Senator Hawley – vying for populist leadership by backing the president’s demands for $2,000 coronavirus relief payments and indulging his effort to overturn election results – has defied Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s warnings to his GOP members to avoid engaging in a challenge, setting up a potential vote that would force senate Republicans to vote against the president’s demands.

The senate leader reportedly warned senators that a dispute would cost a “terrible vote” for Republicans.

On the Senate floor this month, he said: “Many of us had hoped the presidential election would yield a different result … But our system of government has the processes to determine who will be sworn in on January 20. The Electoral College has spoken.”