Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance has told a rally of supporters that he believes former United States President Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 election.

During a question-and-answer period with reporters in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, Vance was asked what kind of message he is sending to independent voters by not answering questions on whether he believes the results of the 2020 election.

Trump, Vance’s running mate and the Republican nominee for the 2024 race, has long maintained that his loss in 2020 to Democrat Joe Biden was the result of widespread voter fraud — a false claim.

Vance has sidestepped the question in the past but told reporters it is clear to him what happened in the last election.

“On the election of 2020, I’ve answered this question directly a million times: No. I think there were serious problems in 2020. So did Donald Trump lose the election? No, not by the words that I would use,” Vance told the Williamsport crowd.

Exhaustive investigations have found no evidence of fraud in the 2020 race. Still, Trump has continued to sow doubt in the election result — and has indicated that he may be unwilling to accept the outcome of this year’s race too.

“If everything’s honest, I’ll gladly accept the results,” Trump said in May, adding he expects to win “very big”.

He has also threatened to imprison those he perceives as threats to the victory he anticipates for his campaign.

“WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again,” Trump wrote on social media in September.

Vance has been reticent about contradicting Trump’s false election claims. During the October 1 vice-presidential debate, moderators asked Vance, “Would you again seek to challenge this year’s election results?”

His reply was indirect. “We’re focused on the future,” he responded.

That was a theme he reprised on Wednesday in Williamsport. There, Vance told reporters that he is less worried about 2020 and more concerned about what could happen if Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, the US vice president, wins in November.

“You know what I care a lot more about than what happened three and a half years ago? Is what Kamala Harris has done in the last three and a half years in office and what she is going to do if the American people give her four years in office,” he said.

Vance says he’s focused on listening to voters struggling to deal with the rising cost of living.

“The past two weeks I think I’ve been asked eight or nine questions about 2020. But how many questions have I been asked about why Pennsylvanians can’t afford gasoline?”

Pennsylvania is considered one of the seven crucial battleground states that could determine the outcome of the US election.