Five Republican candidates who questioned or tried to block Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election have lost their races to become governor in key US battleground states.

Congressman Andy Biggs lost in Arizona, Congressman John James in Michigan, State Treasurer Stacy Garrity in Pennsylvania, Congressman Tom Tiffany in Wisconsin, and billionaire Rick Jackson in Georgia. All five lost on Tuesday 3 November, in the midterm elections.

In Arizona, incumbent Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs soundly defeated Biggs, winning a second term; the race was called within an hour of the first results being posted. Hobbs took 56.3 per cent of the vote to Biggs's 42 per cent, according to the Associated Press.

Their 2020 records

What linked the five candidates was their stance on the 2020 election. In January 2021, Biggs and Tiffany voted in the House of Representatives to overturn the results, and both signed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all states Biden won.

James was not in Congress when the 2020 results were certified. He acknowledged Biden's victory in 2022, but reversed his position in June this year, telling a podcast the election was "rigged and manipulated". Garrity spoke at a Pennsylvania rally on 5 January 2021 urging state lawmakers to decertify the results, a day before Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol.

Since the vote, Tiffany, Garrity and Jackson have acknowledged that Biden won. Biggs and James have not, and neither has responded to requests for comment.

Why it matters for 2028

Governors shape voting access, election administration and redistricting, and all five states are battlegrounds that will matter in the 2028 presidential race.