Christian group recruits ‘Trojan horse’ election skeptics as U.S. poll workers
A Christian political operative has teamed up with charismatic preachers to enroll election skeptics as poll workers across the country, using a Donald Trump-aligned swing state tour to enlist support in the effort.
Joshua Standifer, who leads the group called Lion of Judah, describes the effort as a “Trojan horse” strategy to get Christians in “key positions of influence in government like Election Workers”, which will help them identify alleged voter fraud and serve as “the first step on the path to victory this Fall”, according to his website.
Standifer has been on the road with a traveling pro-Trump tent revival featuring self-styled prophets and Christian nationalist preachers that has made stops in key swing states including Michigan, Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin.
He describes himself as a former Republican opposition researcher who struck out on his own after receiving a message from God to involve Christians in politics.
“[God] said, ‘start a group called the Lion of Judah. Start a 501c4, get out there, and help my body come together as one,’” Standifer told a crowd at the Courage Tour in Wisconsin earlier this month. According to Tennessee business records, Lion of Judah was incorporated there in 2021 as a non-profit organization.
The group’s website, which prominently features Trump and his false claim that the 2020 election was rife with fraud, promises to “release the ROAR of Christian Voters across America” by getting them directly involved with the electoral process. The Lion of Judah’s election worker training program, which the Guardian has reviewed, features a series of modules titled “Fight The Fraud: How To Become An Election Worker In 4 Easy Steps!”
Standifer’s project has so far largely flown under the radar.
Matthew Taylor, a researcher with the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies, described the effort in a post on X as a “urgent & unrecognized hazard to our democracy this fall” and said he worried it had the potential to sow chaos during the election. “All it takes is one or two of those people coming forward and saying, ‘Hey, I found election fraud’ and presenting dubious evidence to throw an amazing amount of sand in the gears of the vote counting process,” he told the Guardian. [Continue reading…]