State Rep. Michael Schietzelt, a Republican from northern Wake County, promoted “stolen election” lies under the X (formerly Twitter) handle @mike_schietzelt as Donald Trump attempted to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss. In the weeks after the election, Schietzelt questioned the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s victory, argued that state legislatures could choose Trump electors despite the popular vote, and called the election “stolen,” while supporting legal challenges to the results.
Now, as Schietzelt seeks reelection in an increasingly blue district, those posts offer a record of how the North Carolina lawyer and former state Supreme Court clerk responded to Trump’s attempt to remain in power after losing.
Every election cycle, Wake County continues to trend towards Democratic candidates.
Of the six state Senate and 13 House members, only Schietzelt in the northern end of the county and Rep. Erin Paré in southern Wake are Republicans. Every member of the Wake County commission is a Democrat.
Two years ago, Schietzelt was elected to the House in District 35, defeating Democrat Evonne Hopkins by 1,820 votes. The two are facing off again this year in a rematch of the 2024 election.
On Nov. 3, election night 2020, Trump began to sow doubt about the validity of the vote-counting process almost as soon as it started.
As mail-in ballots were being tabulated across the 50 states and a winner had not been declared, Trump said he had won the election.
“Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump said.
Two days after the election, on Nov. 5, Trump sent out two tweets on X, then-Twitter, saying “STOP THE COUNT!” and “ANY VOTE THAT CAME IN AFTER ELECTION DAY WILL NOT BE COUNTED!”
Schietzelt, a Duke Law graduate and a former law clerk to former North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Martin, defended Trump’s remarks in tweets, asking if a critic of Trump’s had an issue with “maintaining integrity in elections?”
In later posts on Nov. 19, Schietzelt argued Legislatures could award their electoral votes to Trump even if the majority of voters in the state had voted for Biden.
“A state can take back its power to choose electors at any point. Popular vote means nothing,” Schietzelt posted.
After Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election, Trump and his allies filed dozens of lawsuits to challenge the results of states Biden had won.
On Dec. 8, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit with the US Supreme Court against Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, all states won by Biden, arguing pandemic-related changes to election procedures were unconstitutional.
Schietzelt expressed support for the Texas lawsuit in a post on Dec. 10 and referred to the election as “stolen.”
“There is something rotten in the United States,” Schietzelt wrote. “I’m willing to lose honorably, but there is no honor in conceding a stolen election. I fully support the #TexasLawSuit and *fighting* honorably.”
Cardinal & Pine asked Schietzelt’s campaign whether he stood by his past claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and his assertion that a state could reclaim its power to choose presidential electors, but the campaign did not respond.
The Supreme Court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, denied Texas’ request to file the lawsuit, ruling that Texas lacked standing.
Twenty-seven days after Schietzelt’s post, the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol occurred. As members of the US House and Senate met in a joint session to count the electoral votes, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, and the certification of the election, presided over by then-Vice President Mike Pence, was suspended for several hours.
About 140 law enforcement officers were assaulted during the attack, and Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died the following day.
In the lead-up to the attack, Trump consulted with former Martin about overturning Biden’s victory.
According to reporting from The Intercept, Trump worked closely with Martin. Apart from clerking for Martin, Schietzelt followed him to Regent University School of Law when Martin became dean.
Martin was dean at the time he was assisting Trump’s legal effort, and the Jan. 6 Committee’s final report references his involvement in advising Trump that Pence could impede the electoral vote count.
Trump and Martin spoke by phone after the attack on the Capitol and before the resumption of the electoral vote count, but it is unclear what was discussed.
In the days and weeks after the 2020 election, Schietzelt cast doubt on the validity of Biden’s victory, and supported legal challenges to it, but there is no evidence he supported or encouraged the Jan. 6 attack.
Cardinal & Pine has reached out to Schietzelt about these old Tweets but had not heard back at the time of publication.
