A Republican lawmaker in Pennsylvania has come out against his colleagues’ “forensic” audit of the 2020 election, becoming the party’s first statewide official to publicly call for an end to the effort and warn of electoral consequences.

In an op-ed Thursday, state Sen. Dan Laughlin says that moves to investigate Donald Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden in the state are being made “absent credible evidence of fraud” and won’t change the outcome, as some voters hope.

“The current attempt to discredit the 2020 election results runs headlong into an unmistakable truth,” wrote Laughlin, a center-right Republican from Erie County. “Donald Trump lost Pennsylvania because Donald Trump received fewer votes.”

His comments mark a rare public rebuke of Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano from within his party. Mastriano has been arguing for a comprehensive “forensic” investigation involving the inspection of voting equipment, modeled on a contentious partisan probe in Maricopa County, Ariz.

Mastriano, who has promoted Trump’s stolen-election claims, launched the investigation this month with requests to Tioga, Philadelphia and York counties for access to voting machines. Mastriano has said he would subpoena the counties if they did not comply by July 31.

Tioga and York have indicated they would not comply after the state’s top election official said she would decertify their voting equipment if they were handed over to a third party, triggering large costs for taxpayers. Philadelphia is also expected to reject Mastriano’s request after debating the issue at commissioners’ meeting Friday.