Lawfare Archive: David Clements, the Evangelist of Election Refusal, with Anna Bower and Ben Wittes

David Clements, a former law professor turned 'election refusal evangelist,' has become a central figure in the movement to challenge the legitimacy of U.S. elections through coordinated, religiously framed trainings across the country. His Gideon 300 strategy—named after the biblical 300 men who defied a massive army—teaches citizens how to disrupt local election certification meetings by mass attendance, prolonged speaking, and surrounding speakers to block law enforcement removal. What makes Clements dangerous isn’t just his rhetoric, but his ability to blend civil disobedience with legalistic justification, drawing parallels to abolitionists and revolutionaries while openly praising January 6th rioters and claiming the Capitol attack was a false flag operation. Despite his claims of peaceful protest, his tactics—like simulating the removal of speakers and encouraging arrest readiness—cross into legally ambiguous territory. The real threat lies not in his direct control, but in the thousands he’s trained, whose actions could spark chaos, violence, and widespread disinformation during future elections. Even if Trump wins, Clements’ movement may still attempt to disrupt certification, not out of loyalty to a candidate, but out of a deep-seated belief that voting machines are inherently corrupt and that the entire electoral system is a form of modern slavery.