Mike Lee:  Senator from Utah

History of election denial

Lee was deeply involved in exploring ways to keep Trump in power following Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

Lee's involvement is documented through his text messages to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, obtained by the January 6 committee. His efforts to assist Trump began the day networks called the race and included early support for Sidney Powell, whom he tried to help get a White House meeting to lay out a strategy to put states back in play. He asked Meadows for direction, at one point writing “Please tell me what I should be saying,” and sent a message urging Trump to keep fighting and exhaust every legal and constitutional remedy.

His most significant role was promoting the “alternate electors” idea. On December 8, 2020, he texted Meadows that if a small handful of states had their legislatures appoint alternate slates, “there could be a path.” Cleta Mitchell later told the January 6 committee that the proposal to send alternate slates to Congress “was actually Mike Lee's idea.” By January 4, he told Meadows he had been spending “14 hours a day” trying to unravel a path for Trump.

As Powell's claims collapsed and no evidence of decisive fraud emerged, Lee lost confidence in both Powell and the elector scheme, and eventually voted to certify Biden's victory. This pullback from the most egregious actions taken by some Republicans in service of election denial conspiracies has allowed Lee to attempt to obscure the depth of his involvement, giving the impression he was merely researching “rumors” despite his texts showing he actively promoted the elector strategy.

Lee has also attempted to minimize the January 6 insurrection and hinder investigations. He has claimed that an undercover FBI agent may have been involved in the insurrection, and said that Trump should be given a “mulligan” for his inflammatory speech that instigated the violence. In May 2021, Lee voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the riot.

Influence in the current administration

Lee is Utah's senior senator and, since January 2025, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Lee has used this influence to advance Trump's energy and public-lands agenda and to confirm his nominees at what Lee himself called a “breakneck pace.” A former chief of staff described Trump and Lee as having a “good working relationship,” with Lee feeling more empowered with Trump in office. He is also, notably, next in line to lead the Senate Judiciary Committee in the next Congress following the death of Lindsey Graham, which would make him a central figure in judicial confirmations.

Lee is the Senate sponsor of the SAVE Act, which would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, unfairly burdening eligible citizens without easy access to required documents and potentially disenfranchising millions of American women. In late January 2026, Lee and House sponsor Chip Roy went further, introducing an expanded “SAVE America Act” that keeps the proof-of-citizenship registration requirement while adding a photo voter-ID mandate for casting a ballot, a change Roy and Lee said Trump had pushed for.

Lee has tied the effort closely to Trump and to electoral politics. After Trump promoted the measure at his 2026 State of the Union, Lee claimed that Americans “demand” the bill and publicly connected its passage to Republican prospects in the 2026 midterms, saying it would “enhance the GOP’s odds of winning elections in November.”