Sen. Patty Murray’s (D., Wash.) campaign last week slammed her opponent for raising concerns about election integrity that are "way out of line with the truth." But the senator expressed identical concerns after John Kerry’s failed Democratic presidential run in 2004.
A Murray spokeswoman last week slammed GOP Senate candidate Tiffany Smiley for raising questions about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election. But in January 2005, Murray released a statement saying she agreed with Democrats "who have raised questions about voting irregularities" in the 2004 presidential election. Murray called for "election reform" as a "top priority" in response and said legislators should work to protect voters’ confidence in the electoral process.
Smiley campaign spokeswoman Elisa Carlson told the Washington Free Beacon Murray was "a hypocrite and has no business attacking anyone over protecting democracy."
"She questioned the integrity of a presidential election 18 years ago, supports Democrat efforts to boost election-denying candidates, and opposes common-sense laws like voter ID requirements," Carlson said.
The Murray campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Democrats have challenged the results of presidential elections following every Republican victory since 2000. In 2004, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) joined 31 House Democrats to vote against certifying Ohio’s electoral votes, alleging a "significant disenfranchisement of voters." Kerry lost the election by 34 electoral votes and the popular vote by around three million votes.
Boxer said her 2005 vote against certification was "the right thing to do" and had "cast the light of truth on a flawed system which must be fixed now."
Smiley’s campaign website had said that the "2020 elections raised serious questions about the integrity of our elections" and "courts have an obligation to give all evidence of voter fraud a fair hearing." Those comments have been removed since August, Axios reported.
Smiley told CNN in September that elections should be "hard to cheat and easy to vote."
Murray has also said she supports Democrats’ million-dollar efforts in 2022 to boost election-denying GOP candidates in primaries, even after referring to the candidates as a threat to democracy.