North Dakota Senators Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven have joined the growing number of elected Republicans calling for the official transition to the Biden administration to begin. Their calls come two weeks after Joe Biden was projected as the winner. Since then, Biden’s popular vote lead has expanded and states have certified results on a bipartisan basis.

Snuck in between damaging conspiracy theories and baseless allegations of fraud, Cramer declared the transition should have already begun. During his Sunday appearance on “Meet the Press” Cramer said he has instructed his staff to cooperate with any attempted contacts from the Biden transition team. He called on the current administration to do the same while at the same time attempting to plant doubt in the official results.

A little over 24 hours later, Hoeven made it known he too thinks the transition to Biden’s Presidency should get underway. It is unclear whether Hoeven was keeping tally marks of how many Republican colleagues came forward first and we met the threshold or if he was simply waiting for Cramer to provide him cover in our red-voting state. Unsurprisingly, his prepared statement leaves wiggle-room as to not upset those refusing to accept math.

These two career politicians know better. They have lived this process routinely over their adult lives. Elections are their business. This delay to acknowledge reality while simultaneously spreading conspiracy theories and speaking in questioning terms is damaging to our democracy. Perhaps they simply don’t care about their damaging behavior. Regardless, reality welcomes all comers.

Tyler Axness