SEVENTEEN months after the US Capitol assault, Donald Trump’s crusade to overturn the 2020 election has morphed into a rallying cry for Republicans seeking an edge at the polls and to drive more of their supporters to vote.

Ahead of the midterm elections – in which the Democrats’ fragile hold on control of the Senate hangs in the balance, and with it the future of Joe Biden’s presidency – millions of American still support the crusade against what Trump and his supporters claim, against all evidence, was “massive fraud” in 2020.