what else can i tell you about karamo? she's never held elected office.posite the teaching of evolution, maybe that's why she has called public schools, quote, government indoctrination camps. no, i'm not getting! and she alleges that insurrectionists at the capitol on january 6th where anti-for, meaning posing as right-wing trump supporters. and i'm not saying that karamo was the only extreme republican in the race to be on the ballot for michigan secretary of state in november, which is the only one with a quarter million dollar or just of the only one preferred by trump, which catapulted her to the front of the pack, along with fellow election denied republican nominee, matthew deperno. he's running for state attorney general, the tax lawyer has also never heard elected office, and wants to lock up the current attorney general, dana nessel. charming! their rapid rise, karamo and deperno's turn the michigan gop apart, the smallest violence in the world. with the parties old guard distinct where the party is heading. one prominent michigan republican qui

>> reporter: her opponent kristina karamo endorsed in a michigan rally by none other than former president trump. >> hello, michigan the presidential election was rigged and stolen kristina, come up, she's a true america patriot. >> president trump you inspired so many people to run for office, to stand up and fight back >> reporter: karamo declined requests for interview, her podcast lays out some of her positions. >> our election cycle in 2020 has been a robbery. secretary of state is the one should be under investigation. she should be going to jail. >> reporter: this year, voters in 24 states will decide who should run their elections. nbc news reached out to all of them in 14, an election denier is on the ballot, including in key battleground states >> the big lie is not just spreading but it's deepening its hold on the american people. >> reporter: next week's primary in georgia is of particular interest as republican secretary of state bra raffensperger who famously stood up to president trump's demand he find 11,800 votes is running against election denier jodie heiss. >> we need t

we are seeing candidates -- we have candidates like republican kristina karamo, she's running in michiganput the lie to the election results. you see this proliferating around the country now. what can be done about that? >> that's of great concern. when i was campaigning in 2018, i had the field almost to myself. i understood the importance of secretaries of state and what it meant for the redistricting process. republicans have seen the power of secretaries of state and local election officials and how they blocked what the trump folks tried to do in the 2020 election. they are trying to put in place people so come 2024 if it's a close election again, maybe they will be more successful. people have to run for these seats. people need to ask questions of people running for these important local as well as state level seats, whether or not they believe the big lie. if they cannot say that they don't -- if they cannot say that joe biden is the lawfully elected president, it seems to me they are unqualified to serve in those important and what are supposed to be non-partisan, neutral positi

the same thing happened in michigan where republicans picked election denier kristina karamo to be their secretary of state. the new york times just released an exhaustive report finding that at least 357 current republican legislators in battleground states have actually used the power of their office to discredit or try to overturn the results of the election of the 2020 year. but, congressman clyburn's fears go beyond the election denialism, as bad as that is. in the wake of the mass shooting in buffalo where black people were targeted and killed, because of their race, republican congressman -- women list cheney who has become a pariah in her own party tweeted, the house gop leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy and antisemitism. gop leaders must renounce and reject those use and those who hold them. that's an important statement to make. no doubt about it, but one that has actually fallen on deaf ears. the buffalo shooter allegedly used the racist great replacement conspiracy to justify his attacks. the conspiracy mainstream and spread by republicans and conserva

. >> your opponent, christina karamo said in the past she felt as an overseer in 2020, an observer, sheou should go to jail. she accused you of election corruption, awe know. what are the conversations happening right now on the ground in michigan? >> the conversations i'm having are with our election officials, with law enforcement, with lawmakers, are about how we can protect our democracy, and how we can protect those who run it in times like these. i myself allocated $8 million in security funding for our local election officials and clerks so that they can invest in improvements to the security of our processes, and our staff, and i've also called on our state legislature and lawmakers to increase the penalties for those who threaten election officials, because, again, this has to stop, there is no place for rhetoric like this in our democracy and we should be talking about issues that affect our state, the american people, as opposed to continuing to spread conspiracy theories and lies about the 2020 election and about the security of our processes. >> michigan secretary of state