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No.

Iran has not endorsed a candidate in the 2024 presidential race.

Former President Donald Trump claimed Oct. 1, 2024, in Milwaukee that Iran had endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I have seen no evidence of officials in Tehran openly and explicitly showing preference for Harris or Trump,” Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, told Wisconsin Watch.

Rutgers University professor Hooshang Amirahmadi, founder of the Center for Iranian Research and Analysis, said Iran has never endorsed a U.S. presidential candidate. The Iranian government hopes Harris will win because it believes Trump “will be tough with Iran,” he said.

Three Iranians employed by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard were charged Sept. 26 with hacking computer accounts of Trump’s campaign, U.S. officials and journalists “to stoke discord (and) erode confidence in the U.S. electoral process.”

Iranians also tried unsuccessfully to hack Harris’ campaign.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Politico: Trump blasts Harris on Iran, says Biden administration is ‘leading us to brink of World War III’

Right Side Broadcasting Network: FULL SPEECH: President Trump Gives Remarks in Waunakee, Wisconsin – 10/1/24

Google Docs: Alex Vatanka email 10/2/24

Google Docs: Hooshang Amirahmadi email 10/5/24

Associated Press: Iranian operatives charged in the US with hacking Donald Trump’s presidential campaign

U.S. District Court: Iran hacking indictment

CNN: US concludes Iran is behind hacking attempts targeting Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns

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Tom Kertscher joined Wisconsin Watch as a full-time reporter in October 2024. He started as a fact checker in January 2023 and contributes to our collaboration with the The Gigafact Project to fight misinformation online. Kertscher is a former longtime newspaper reporter, including at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He is a contributing writer for Milwaukee Magazine and sports freelancer for The Associated Press.