ATLANTA — Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen remain a recurring theme in Republican politics, but many GOP voters say they would rather hear candidates discuss the future as the 2026 midterm elections approach. In Georgia, Republican Senate nominee Mike Collins has continued to say Trump was the rightful winner of the state in 2020. Collins made election denial a centerpiece of his first congressional campaign, launched months after Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find enough votes to overturn Trump’s loss. A campaign advertisement from that race falsely said Trump won Georgia and showed Collins firing a long gun into a container labeled “voting machine.” As a Senate candidate, Collins has repeated his view that the election was stolen and voiced support for compensating some people prosecuted for taking part in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment. The position has unsettled some Republican voters. Lynn, a lifelong Georgia Republican who asked that her last name not be published because she feared social backlash, said Collins’ focus on 2020 concerns her and could affect her vote. She said she might support Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff rather than Collins. At a farmers market in Alpharetta, Republican voter Austin Sapp said he believes election fraud can occur and supports stricter voter identification requirements. But he also said Trump and Republican candidates should stop revisiting the 2020 contest. “Beating a dead horse serves no purpose,” Sapp said. “What is your platform? What are you going to do for me?” A September New York Times-Siena College poll found that only 1% of voters identified election integrity as the top issue shaping their choice in November. Gabe Sterling, a veteran Georgia elections official who publicly rejected Trump’s claims after the 2020 election, said the issue remains far more prominent among political activists and media figures than among most voters. “Regular humans have given this up a long time ago,” Sterling said. That does not mean election denial has disappeared from the Republican Party. Activists who continue to promote the claims hold seats on some state and local election boards and are especially influential in Republican primaries, where turnout is lower and more ideologically committed voters often dominate. Sterling said he defended Georgia’s election system repeatedly while campaigning for secretary of state this year. His message that the state has highly accurate voter rolls drew boos from some Republican audiences, he said, but he continued presenting data about how the election was administered. He lost the Republican primary. Candidates in other competitive states have also shifted their positions. Michigan Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers, a former congressman who once described Trump’s pressure campaign in Georgia as “more gangster than presidential,” declined in 2024 to say who won the presidential election. At a Republican gathering last year, he alleged that late-arriving ballots in Detroit cost him a Senate race, a claim not supported by evidence. Rogers later thanked Trump publicly after the president revived debunked allegations about election vulnerabilities. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Jason Roe, a former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party, said many Republican officials repeat the claims primarily to maintain Trump’s backing and satisfy party activists rather than because they genuinely believe the allegations. “Most of the elected officials that still talk about it, it’s not necessarily a sincerely held belief,” Roe said. “It’s usually at a Republican central committee meeting, throwing red meat to the base.” Roe said he does not expect campaigns to spend heavily on election denial in the general election, particularly in a closely contested state. But Trump’s continued focus on the issue is shaping who receives Republican support. In Georgia, Trump declined to endorse a Republican alternative favored by Gov. Brian Kemp, citing that candidate’s acknowledgment that Trump lost the state in 2020. In Texas, Trump backed Attorney General Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn, who had urged Republicans to concentrate on current issues and said, “I think we should talk about 2026 and not 2020.” Paxton defeated Cornyn in the primary. Trump has said he will do “anything necessary” to ensure what he calls honest elections. His demands for expanded voting restrictions, including provisions in the proposed SAVE America Act, helped bring congressional business close to a standstill earlier this year as Republicans fought over funding for the Department of Homeland Security. He has also sought greater federal control over election administration. A University of California San Diego poll in September found that 49% of Americans expected the 2026 midterm elections to be free and fair, a decline from before the 2024 election. Sterling said Trump’s repeated warnings may also provide a ready-made explanation if Republicans lose control of Congress. “If Republicans lose, claims that the election was rigged could find an audience again,” Sterling said. For now, the issue presents Republicans with a familiar trade-off: repeating Trump’s claims may strengthen support among primary voters and activists, while alienating general-election voters who want candidates to address the economy, public services and other immediate concerns.