Arizona: Election Denial in Races for Election Administration Positions

Below, we compile quotes from campaigns’ ads, websites, social media posts, and state­ments repor­ted in the media that illus­trate endorse­ment or oppos­i­tion to elec­tion denial — claims that the process or result of the last pres­id­en­tial elec­tion was ille­git­im­ate. Each of the candid­ates is running for an office that will play a role in admin­is­ter­ing future elec­tions in Arizona. Inform­a­tion about the finan­cing of these campaigns and those in other battle­ground states can be found here.

Steve Gaynor

Busi­­ness owner Steve Gaynor (R) appeared at a Trump rally in the summer of 2021 where elec­­tion denial was raised by several speak­­ers. Gaynor said, “This has to be fixed. This can’t happen again — there are a million Repub­­lic­ans in our state who believe the elec­­tion was rigged.” His campaign ran a Face­­book ad in support of Arizona legis­lat­ors’ partisan audit.

Katie Hobbs

As the current Arizona secret­ary of state, gubernat­orial candid­ate Katie Hobbs (D) has defen­ded the way the 2020 elec­tion was conduc­ted. In Janu­ary, she tweeted that Trump “spewed lies about the 2020 elec­tion and encour­aged the ongo­ing and danger­ous attacks on our demo­cracy," predict­ing that her oppon­ent, Kari Lake, “will reject the will of the people in future elec­tions.” In an email to support­ers, the Hobbs campaign describes her oppos­i­tion to “sham audits," “misin­form­a­tion,” and “anti-demo­cratic extrem­ism” and warns that “proponents of the Big Lie are running to over­see elec­tion results in statewide and local offices.”

Kari Lake

Former TV news anchor Kari Lake (R), who has emerged as a fron­trun­­ner in the Repub­­lican primary, has said she would not have certi­fied the 2020 elec­­tion. In an inter­­view featured on her campaign website, Lake said the sham ballot review in Arizona revealed evid­­ence of fraud­u­lent votes, conclud­ing, “Joe Biden did not win.” She has said the lead­ing Demo­cratic candid­ate, Secret­ary of State Katie Hobbs, should be imprisoned for how she ran the 2020 elec­tion. A campaign TV ad has Lake talk­ing about the “rigged elec­tion of 2020” over darkened foot­age of people using ballot drop boxes, taken from an elec­tion fraud conspir­acy docu­ment­ary by conser­vat­ive comment­ator Dinesh D’Souza.