Key GOP officials in Arizona still maintain that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and continue to spread misinformation about purported election fraud.
During its annual convention in April 2024, the Arizona GOP selected two election deniers—one of whom is an indicted fake elector—to represent the state on the Republican National Committee. Party leaders also passed a resolution to censure both former Vice President Mike Pence and former Trump administration official and 2024 presidential candidate Nikki Haley for “their dereliction of duty [for] refusing to support” Trump.
In addition, the party has chosen not to remove its December 14, 2020 video from Twitter/X showing Arizona’s fake electors signing the document they submitted to Congress and has called the state’s recent indictment of those electors an “unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial power [that is] clearly designed to silence dissent and weaponize the law against political opponents.” This pattern of behavior has led at least one GOP strategist to note that holding “a fealty to election denialism… now [defines] the state Republican Party in Arizona,” according to NBC News.
- Gina Swoboda | State Chair
In January 2024, the Arizona Republican Party ordained this avid Trump follower and “favorite” as its new leader. Gina Swoboda worked for Trump’s 2020 campaign and is now executive director of the Voter Reference Foundation, a nonprofit “resource for voter fraud activists” that has made unfounded claims of discrepancies in voting records in a number of states. Her frequent tweets also promote skepticism about the legitimacy of elections in the U.S. - Jake Hoffman | National Committeeman
In April 2024, the Arizona GOP chose State Senator Jake Hoffman, an indicted fake elector, as Arizona’s new national committeeman on the Republican National Committee (RNC). A contractor with Turning Point USA who is known for leading disinformation campaigns, he’s also a member of the state legislature’s ultraconservative Freedom Caucus. Hoffman was selected as a committeeman just days after an Arizona grand jury issued an indictment against him and other Trump allies based on their efforts to subvert the 2020 election (charges the senator dismisses as “political persecution”). On January 5, 2021, Hoffman sent a detailed letter to Vice President Mike Pence urging him to insist that Arizona’s electors not be decided by popular vote but rather by members of the state legislature. - Liz Harris | National Committeewoman
In April 2024, the Arizona GOP chose this former state representative as Arizona’s new female representative on the Republican National Committee (RNC). In 2023, fellow members of the Arizona legislature expelled Liz Harris after she invited an election denier to make outrageous and wholly unsubstantiated allegations at a televised legislative hearing on elections. “These are not just your run-of-the-mill election deniers,” a Republican strategist in Arizona said of Harris and Hoffman after the state GOP elected them to the RNC. “They are leaders in the whole experiment of election denialism.” - Branden Turley | Assistant Sergeant at Arms
A firearms expert and veteran of the Phoenix Police Department, Branden Turley serves as the party’s assistant sergeant at arms. After the 2020 election he took to social media to express his distrust of the results, and in 2021 he and his wife founded America Pack, an extremist group dedicated to fighting the “sadistic evil” permeating American society due to “liberals, progressives, and RINOs [who] seek to dismantle and subvert our country.” In a holiday fundraising message, America Pack made a pitch for support from “like-minded individuals with constitutional conservative values, who [are] also scared and lost… and searching for the TRUTH!” - Debi Wise | Cochise County Chair
As chair of the Cochise County Republican Committee, Debi Wise frequently reposts tweets from Trump evangelists/election deniers such as Kari Lake and Michael Flynn. On March 13, 2024, she reposted a tweet suggesting outrage when State Representative Justin Heap refused to answer whether the 2020 election had been stolen. In December 2023, Wise signed a letter calling for state party unity and “better election integrity” to ensure that Republicans win in 2024. - Gary Morris | Gila County Chair
As chair of the Gila County Republican Committee, Gary Morris hosted a luncheon in June 2023 with a trio of right-wing election deniers: U.S. Representative Eli Crane (R–AZ–2), Representative Matt Gaetz (R–FL–1), and Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, who lost his bid for the U.S. Senate in the 2024 GOP primary. Lamb presents himself as a tough guy “American Sheriff” who has openly supported Arizona’s Stop the Steal efforts and suggested that Trump bears no responsibility for the violence at the Capitol and disruption of Congress on January 6, 2021. Morris signed a letter in December 2023 calling for state party unity and “better election integrity” to ensure that Republicans win in 2024. - Craig Berland | Maricopa County Chair
As chair of the Maricopa County Republican Committee, Craig Berland and the committee called on the Arizona GOP to opt out of state-funded primaries and run their own, with ballots counted by hand. He and other Maricopa County Republicans still claim that the 2020 election was stolen and often tweet about election fraud on the committee’s X page. - Steven McEwen | Santa Cruz County Chair
As chair of the Santa Cruz County Republican Committee, Steven McEwen sued county election officials in July 2022 over ballot verification procedures, demanding to be inside the room as ballots are counted and complaining that watching from a window does not allow for signature verification. In December 2023, he signed a letter calling for state party unity and “better election integrity” to ensure that Republicans win in 2024.