PHOENIX — A recent report says Arizona stands out nationwide with the amount of so-called “election deniers” at the state legislature. The nonprofit States United Democracy Center released the study, analyzing the seven states that were focal points in the effort to overturn the 2020 election.
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In Arizona, 31 sitting legislators – who supported former President Trump and election conspiracies – meet the nonprofit’s criteria of election deniers. They account for 34% of the state legislature, the highest percentage of any state.
“Election deniers in state legislatures have the potential to undermine the will of the voters,” said Kelly Rader, Research Director for the nonprofit. “We also think there is a connection between the election denier rhetoric, the conspiracy theories about our elections, and the potential for violence in and around elections.”
States United Democracy Center was founded by former Republican White House official Christine Todd Whitman after the 2020 election. Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods, now deceased, was a founding member of the bipartisan advisory board. The nonprofit’s stated mission includes safeguarding democracy, protecting elections and “holding democracy violators accountable.”
“I want to be clear I’m not talking about people who in good faith initiated legal audits right after the 2020 election,” Rader said.
Several state senators who spoke with 12News who are on the “election denier” list say they’ve made legitimate efforts to address election security. They disagree with the term “election denier” altogether.
“I consider myself an election integrity legislator. I focused on election issues because that’s the right thing to do,” said Senator Jake Hoffman of Queen Creek.
They also say what’s happened since 2020 is not different from Democrats who have questioned past elections.
“The lie on the left is just that, it’s a media narrative that if you question the election you are some kind of denier,” said State Senator Anthony Kern.
Kern and Hoffman joined other legislators and legislators-elect in December of 2020 who signed a joint resolution calling on Congress to either give Arizona’s electors to Trump or allow the Republican-controlled legislature to conduct an audit and determine the winner. In addition, Kern and Hoffman participated in the “fake elector” scheme that is currently under investigation by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
Republican Matt Salmon, a former congressman from Mesa, is part of a faction of Republicans pushing back against election denialism in his party.
“One of my favorite quotes ever is facts are stubborn things. And the more facts that have come out regarding the election, it’s been a lot of egg on the faces of a lot of these election deniers,” Salmon said. “The American people aren’t served by opening old wounds that weren’t even real.”
Watch Part 2: Why two lawmakers are under investigation for fake elector scheme
The Department of Justice recently warned about “rabbit holes” of disinformation that lead to false beliefs about elections. During a Phoenix news conference last month, they announced ongoing investigations of dozens of threats to politicians and elections workers tied to the last two elections. The agency has prosecuted 20 people for death threats, including 7 who threatened Arizona officials.
“This new era in which elections officials are scapegoated, targeted and attacked is unconscionable,” said John Keller of the agency’s election threats investigative unit.
Comparisons between the 2020 and 2016 elections are distinct.
On the national level, seven Democratic House Members and no Democratic Senators voted against certification of Donald Trump’s victory in 2016. Hillary Clinton conceded the day after the election. By comparison, in 2020, 139 Republican House members and 8 Republican Senators objected to certifying Joe Biden’s victory. Trump became the first sitting president to resist a peaceful transfer of power.
Locally, a flurry of conspiracies promoted by legislators and the state GOP after the 2020 election led to an unprecedented partisan audit at the Arizona legislature. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office also dedicated 10,000 hours of investigations to election fraud tips. Brnovich’s criminal division submitted two dozen charges against individuals but found no evidence of coordinated efforts to corrupt elections.
“Horse sh--. And that’s what it is, most of it is horse sh—and I’ve been trying to scrape it off my shoes for the last year,” Brnovich said in September of 2022.
Kern, who was also at the January 6th protests in Washington D.C., also told 12News that attempts to tie Trump to Russia after the 2016 election are ignored by those who criticize today’s Republicans as election deniers.
There were four major investigations into Russian intervention of the 2016 presidential election. A bipartisan report released by the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded the Trump campaign’s communications with Russian operatives during the 2016 election posed a “grave” threat to U.S. counterintelligence efforts. The Mueller special counsel investigation resulted in seven criminal convictions of people associated with the Trump campaign and 25 indictments of Russian nationals.
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