The GOP flopped in Tuesdays midterm elections, but they did increase their presence on Capitol Hill in one way: More than 170 Republicans will be in Congress in 2023 who have either denied or cast doubts on the legitimacy of Joe Biden s presidential win in 2020.

Some will be at the highest levels of House leadership, setting the agenda for the chamber for the next two years. Some are seasoned U.S. senators with presidential ambitions. Two dozen of them will be new to Capitol Hill.

But what these people all have in common is that they made the political calculation that it benefited their career to fuel the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump because of widespread voter fraud.

Theyve done it in different ways. Some have bluntly claimed the election was stolen. Some joined lawsuits to try to throw out the results of the 2020 election. Some have tried to have it both ways, by saying, of course, Biden is the president while refusing to address the validity of the election, a common dog whistle among Republicans afraid of upsetting Trumps base of supporters by admitting Biden beat him in 2020, fair and square.