OHIO — Sen. Rob Portman won't be among Republicans challenging electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election, he announced in a statement Monday.

"The Constitution created a system for electing the President through the Electoral College that ensures the people and the states hold the power, not Congress. I cannot support allowing Congress to thwart the will of the voters," Portman wrote.

A group of Republicans has announced plans to challenge some states' electoral votes on Wednesday when Congress meets to certify the votes, hoping to overthrow the election and keep President Donald Trump in office. 

Some Ohio GOP lawmakers will be a part of the challenge, including Holmes County Rep. Bob Gibbs. In a statement, Gibbs referred to election fraud allegations presented by Trump. Starting before the election and through the end of the year, Trump claimed fraud was the reason President-elect Joe Biden won, such as poll workers throwing out ballots or hiding ballots. He also stated nobody was watching poll workers. No evidence has been found to back his claims, and experts say poll watchers observed voting sites just as they have in previous elections.

Gibbs said the allegations must be addressed in court. Trump and his advisors tried to challenge many states' election results in court, which many of which were shot down with many judges saying there is no evidence of election fraud. 

“The Constitution gives state legislatures the authority and power to set elections, and I believe state judiciaries and state executive offices overstepped their authority in a handful of states. Based on my reading of federal code, Congress has the authority to deem whether electors were appointed in accordance with state election law," Gibbs wrote in a statement. 

Other Ohio Republicans like Rocky River Rep. Anthony Gonzalez released a similar statement to Portman's, saying there's no reason to overturn the election. 

“There is simply no legal basis for Congress to throw out the the certified electoral vote and overturn the results of this election,” Gonzalez wrote.

Gov. Mike DeWine backed Portman in an interview on CNN Sunday. The governor said fraud did occur but not in a way that he thinks swung the outcome of the election. 

“We have not seen anything that rises to the level that would have changed the outcome of the election," DeWine said.

The governor praised an idea from Portman to create a commission to study voter security. 

"Are there some problems in the system as far as potential fraud or fraud that occurred? Yeah, but we’ve not seen anything that rises to the level that would’ve changed the outcome of the election. I think Sen. Portman has a good proposal and that proposal is to get two very distinguished people in this country, Democrat and Republican, have a commission, and to take a hard look at voter security. We have a lot of people in this country who are very concerned about it," DeWine said during the interview. 

CNN Jake Tapper pushed back against DeWine, saying the only reason American people are questioning election security is because of Trump's claims. 

DeWine rebuttled and said it's not that simple.

"Let’s stay at the big picture — the big picture with changes in technology, potential hacking — all of these things. We need to have a commission, as Sen. Portman says, that takes a long look at this. Not something you can do in 10 days, but to take a look at this. Why is this important? If for no other reason than to — there’s are a lot of people out there who are questioning this election, people need to have confidence in the system," DeWine said. 

Biden won the election with 306 electoral votes to 232 votes for Trump. Although it is unlikely the election results will be overturned, there could be political backlash against Republicans who are not joining the challenge, such as Portman. 

Trump called on Republicans over social media earlier this week to help overturn the election and block Biden's win. One of them is Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who represents Georgia, one of the states where electoral votes were into question. Georgia is at the center of the election dispute after audio from a call was leaked earlier this week with Trump pressuring Georgia's secretary of state to "find" him votes to help overturn the election. 

But many Republicans are condemning the effort, calling it a disregard for the Constitution. 

On Sunday, seven GOP lawmakers from Kentucky, California, Texas, North Dakota, Colorado, Wisconsin and South Carolina released a joint statement opposing their conservative colleagues' actions. 

"The text of the United States Constitution, and the Twelfth Amendment in particular, is clear. With respect to presidential elections, there is no authority for Congress to make value judgments in the abstract regarding any state’s election laws or the manner in which they have been implemented. Nor does Congress have discretion to disqualify electors based on its own finding that fraud occurred in that state’s election. Congress has one job here: to count electoral votes that have in fact been cast by any state, as designated by those authorized to do so under state law," the statement reads in part. 

More than 100 leaders from some of the country's largest businesses released a joint statement, urging Congress to certify the results. Signatures included Brad Smith of Microsoft, Albert Bourla of Pfizer, and John Zimmer of Lyft.

Despite the calls for the effort to end, Trump and other Republicans are still planning to challenge some electoral votes.