Over the last four years, former President Donald Trump and his supporters have repeatedly spread the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen. What became known as the “Big Lie” has been promoted by numerous prominent Republicans, while right-wing figures have continued to spread election misinformation in 2024. But some of the election denial movement’s most helpful allies have gone under the radar: supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

The collaboration began right after the 2020 election, as Trump surrounded himself with conspiracy theorists seeking to overturn his loss. These included Sidney Powell — who relied on QAnon-connected claims and figures in her election lawsuits and has since pleaded guilty for her role in trying to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in Georgia — and Patrick Byrne — the former Overstock CEO who admitted that he got at least some of his claims from QAnon’s “digital soldiers.” Byrne continued to collaborate with QAnon figures in promoting his election denial activities after Biden’s inauguration.

The collaboration only ramped up during the 2022 midterm elections:

• QAnon influencer Wayne Willott, known online as “Juan O. Savin,” partnered with an election denier running for Nevada secretary of state and helped with recruitment and strategy for a coalition of “like-minded” candidates running for election administration positions.

• Election denial organization True the Vote, which was involved with the debunked film 2000 Mules, began a partnership with the QAnon community — going on QAnon shows, praising the community, inviting multiple influencers to an event seemingly dedicated to pushing claims of election fraud, and suggesting they could pass along supposed evidence from the “anons” to law enforcement (and later implying that they did). 

This continued collaboration could cause new problems during the 2024 election. One of True the Vote’s leaders has hyped that the “anons” of the QAnon community are supposedly more “engaged” on “election integrity” in 2024 than it was in 2020, and another election denier has expressed amazement that “there’s so many influencers” in the QAnon community who “can reach so many people.”

Going forward, this real and frightening collaboration — which Media Matters breaks down in this video — could spread misinformation about this election, undermine the results, and contribute to the delegitimization of our elections.