Election Deniers: From Trump to Norma, Some People Just Can’t Take an L

Election Deniers - Trump (Left), Chavez (Right)

Even now, well into his second term, Donald Trump remains incapable of doing one simple thing: admitting he lost an election.

Recently in Iowa, Trump got into it with a reporter and once again insisted that the 2020 election was rigged and that he was the real winner. This, despite dozens of court cases, countless investigations, and repeated opportunities to provide actual evidence. Every time he went looking for proof, all he found was another judge telling him to go sit down somewhere.

The problem isn’t evidence.

The problem is ego.

Trump simply cannot bring himself to admit that he lost to Joe Biden because his ego won’t allow him to acknowledge something millions of Americans figured out years ago: sometimes you lose.

And while I’m talking about Donald Trump, I could just as easily be talking about Norma Chavez.

If you recall, a few years back, around the same time Trump was busy trying to overturn reality, Chavez was running against Congresswoman Veronica Escobar in yet another attempt to revive her political career. Even some of her most loyal supporters, including Eddie Holguin, reportedly told her it was a mistake.

They were right.

The result was arguably the most embarrassing political beatdown of her career.

And just like Trump, Chavez couldn’t bring herself to admit she lost fair and square.

Instead, she claimed the election was rigged.

It was painful to watch.

Another aging politician with a questionable hairstyle and an oversized sense of self-importance insisting that everyone else was wrong and only they knew the truth.

To this day, I’d wager Chavez still hasn’t admitted to herself that she lost. Never mind that she dragged people through court proceedings and repeatedly got told she had no case.

It’s the same sad story we’ve seen throughout history.

People who are long past their political prime but still can’t accept that the crowd has moved on.

Now it appears she’s passed that affliction on to her latest candidate, Lucilla Najera.

Following her narrow loss to former El Paso County Democratic Party Chair Dora Oaxaca in the Justice of the Peace race, Najera has requested a recount after the votes have already been canvassed.

Unfortunately for Najera, this recount doesn’t appear to be about her.

It’s about Norma Chavez.

More specifically, it’s about Norma Chavez’s inability to acknowledge defeat.

Because this isn’t just a recount.

It’s another installment in the ongoing rehabilitation project known as “Norma Tries To Restore Her Credibility.”

The problem is that if her political career were a person, it would’ve checked into rehab more times than Lindsey Lohan.

At some point, you have to stop blaming everybody else and look in the mirror.

What’s particularly interesting is that I was with Norma the day she lost her State Representative seat to Naomi Gonzalez. In fact, she called Gonzalez to concede using my cell phone.

And to her credit, she was classy.

She accepted the result.

She moved on.

Which is exactly why I was almost certain Najera would eventually be talked into demanding a recount.

Because somewhere along the way, Norma stopped accepting losses and started inventing conspiracies.

The last meaningful conversation I had with Chavez was at the Democratic Convention earlier this year. We talked extensively about Cesar Chavez in the days following revelations regarding his behavior. As two of the very few people who actually knew him personally, we shared a similar perspective.

Believe victims.

Stand against misogyny.

Hold the line.

Those weren’t complicated principles.

But apparently they were temporary ones.

Because only weeks later, Najera’s campaign found itself associated with Sammy Carrejo, a Republican wannabe influencer with a well-earned reputation for misogynistic behavior and hostility violence toward women.

Carrejo showed up at a polling location and harassed Dora Oaxaca.

Not only Oaxaca, but another woman in her seventies.

A grandmother.

The same people who wanted to have conversations about misogyny suddenly found themselves standing shoulder to shoulder with a guy whose public brand is built around attacking women.

And here’s the part Chavez and Najera can never explain away.

They had every opportunity to distance themselves from him in real time.

They didn’t.

After Congresswoman Veronica Escobar publicly reposted video of the incident and called on Najera to disavow Carrejo, the response should have been immediate.

Najera said nothing.

Now, I want to be fair here and tell you exactly what the right move was, because it wasn't complicated. All Najera had to do was say: I had nothing to do with this. I don't support it. Threatening and intimidating women has no place in politics. She could have gone further — offered to cooperate with any law enforcement investigation, said no woman should feel threatened while running for office — and in doing so, she might have actually come out of it looking like the bigger person.

That was the smart thing to do. That was the classy thing to do. That was the right thing to do.

Done.

Crisis over.

That would’ve been smart.

That would’ve been classy.

That would’ve been leadership.

But Najera said nothing. And I'll tell you why: because Norma probably told her not to, on the theory that disavowing Carrejo would somehow amount to an admission of guilt. That is the kind of advice that only makes sense if your consultant's primary concern is their own ego rather than their client's best interest.

The same woman who sat with me and talked about the plight of women in political spaces - who was clear and passionate about believing victims and holding the line against misogyny - was running a campaign that couldn't find the words to condemn a known abuser of women attacking a candidate and a seventy-something grandmother at a polling location.

I don't have a punchline for that. I just have disappointment.

And if you’ve followed Norma Chavez’s political career long enough, you’ve seen this movie before.

The refusal to admit mistakes.

The refusal to acknowledge reality.

The belief that every setback is somebody else’s fault.

The recount will happen.

The ballots will be counted again.

And when the result comes back unchanged, as recounts overwhelmingly tend to do, Lucilla Najera will be out a significant amount of money chasing a political ghost.

Not because the voters got it wrong.

Not because democracy failed.

Not because there was some grand conspiracy.

But because Norma Chavez still can’t do what most adults learn in little league.

Sometimes you lose.

You shake hands.

You congratulate the winner.

You go home.

Instead, we’re about to watch another expensive exercise in denial.

And when it’s over, it will become just one more chapter in a story El Paso knows all too well.

Norma being Norma.