Manufacturing January 6: How Republican County Parties Mobilized Anger to Promote #StopTheSteal

Abstract

The #StopTheStealMovement, which culminated in the January 6 attack, was part of a coordinated, months-long campaign to convince the public that the 2020 election was stolen through fraud and that Donald Trump had won. The dominant narrative of how this movement emerged is a national one, with Donald Trump at the center. However, we show how state and local political institutions, events, and actors—in this case, county Republican parties on Facebook—were instrumental in paving the way for January 6.