Election denial looms large in Arizona contests for governor, AG and secretary of state

WASHINGTON – Republicans angling to replace Arizona’s governor, attorney general and secretary of state all have a history of amplifying President Donald Trump’s disproved claims about fraud in the 2020 election.

One frontrunner for governor led the charge in Congress to overturn the election. A candidate for attorney general recently gave the FBI state Senate records related to a post-election “audit” in Maricopa County.

One contender for secretary of state led a lawsuit claiming there were at least a half-million illegal names on state voter rolls, while her rival defended the state’s “fake electors” in court.

On the Democratic side of those races, the incumbents have all fought against election denialism.

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Attorney General Kris Mayes has been trying since 2023 to prosecute the Arizona Republicans and Trump aides involved in the fake electors scheme. Secretary of State Adrian Fontes says he’d rather go to jail than turn over the state’s voter files to federal authorities. Gov. Katie Hobbs was the state’s top election official in 2020 and has firmly rejected allegations of fraud.

All of which ensures that election integrity will be central to yet another campaign season in Arizona. And a shift in power would have real consequences, transforming the state from one that resists the Trump administration’s efforts to rehash 2020 into one that cooperates enthusiastically.

“If that means turning over certain voter files, then so be it,” said Stan Barnes, a conservative political consultant. “I do think they will stay within the bounds of the law, but cooperate more fully with the Trump administration and the FBI.”

Governor

In the governor’s race, Reps. Andy Biggs of Gilbert and David Schweikert of Fountain Hills are vying for the nomination in the July 21 GOP primary. The winner will face Hobbs, who defeated election denier Kari Lake in 2022.

On Jan. 6, 2021, the day a mob swarmed the U.S. Capitol hoping to overturn Trump’s defeat, Schweikert voted to reject the electoral slate from Pennsylvania, where Trump trailed Joe Biden by 80,555 votes out of more than 6.9 million in the final official tally.

Unlike Biggs, Schweikert did vote to certify Biden’s win in Arizona, where the official final tally showed Trump lost by 10,457 votes out of more than 3.3 million.

Even so, as recently as Feb. 13, Schweikert refused to acknowledge that Trump lost Arizona. “All I know is from my district,” he told 12News.

Schweikert’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Biggs has been far more outspoken in questioning the 2020 results. He has perpetuated right-wing conspiracies. At a House hearing 11 months after the election, he asserted that “we don’t know” who won Arizona.

Hobbs has needled him about his denialism, suggesting she won’t debate him unless he commits to accepting the results of his own 2026 race.

On April 3, Biggs told Capitol Media Services, “Of course, I will accept the results of the election.” He said he is confident the election will be fair because Republican Justin Heap, the choice of the Arizona Freedom Caucus, is now the Maricopa County recorder, replacing Stephen Richer, a fellow Republican who defended the security of Arizona’s elections.

Drew Sexton, Biggs’ senior campaign advisor, said the congressman has higher priorities than rehashing 2020, though he didn’t dispute that Biggs remains dubious about the outcome.

“We’re focused on this 2026 election and saving Arizonans from the disastrous effects of three years under the weak and ineffective Katie Hobbs,” Sexton said by email.

Hobbs has staunchly defended the integrity of Arizona elections and dismissed election conspiracies of wrongdoing in 2020, when she was the secretary of state.

After the FBI subpoenaed records from 2020 in early March, Hobbs denounced the investigation as an effort to relitigate false allegations that were long-settled.

“Arizonans are tired of election conspiracies and lies that undermine our democracy,” she said in a statement.

Paul Bentz, senior vice president of research and strategy for HighGround Inc., an Arizona public relations firm, said Biggs learned from Lake’s loss to Hobbs that election denial isn’t a winning stance.

Lake often brought up 2020 fraud conspiracies during the 2022 race. She has still refused to concede defeat to Hobbs or, two years later, to Ruben Gallego in the Senate race.

Lake fought the gubernatorial outcome in court and lost repeatedly. Richer, the former Maricopa County recorder, sued her and her husband over their false claims about fraud in 2022. The case was ultimately settled.

“Biggs sees the pitfalls that Lake fell into and is trying to avoid those, and so far, he’s been much more successful,” Bentz said. “He’s been a better Republican candidate than Lake was four years ago.”

Attorney general

Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen of Queen Creek is the frontrunner in the GOP primary for attorney general.

He would face Mayes, who obtained felony indictments in April 2024 against 11 fake electors – the Republicans who signed a certificate claiming that Arizona’s 11 electoral votes belonged to Trump – and seven Trump aides who worked with them.

In November, Trump issued a pardon of fake electors in Arizona and other states, though these were only symbolic because presidents cannot issue clemency for state-level charges.

In May 2025, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge threw out the charges on grounds that prosecutors didn’t give the grand jury the complete text of the relevant statute.

Mayes has appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court in hopes of reinstating the charges.

Petersen has spent years denying the 2020 results and making claims of widespread fraud. He drew headlines March 9 by turning over records to the FBI from the state Senate’s review of Maricopa County’s 2020 election results.

With 2.6 million registered voters – about 60% of all Arizona voters – Maricopa County is the nation’s second largest voting jurisdiction after Los Angeles County.

The subpoena indicated that a federal grand jury is conducting a criminal investigation.

Petersen said he was happy to comply.

On April 7, Petersen made a referral to the DOJ, accusing Mayes and Fontes of “obstruction of justice and tampering with a witness,” after they asked what he had handed over to the FBI.

Mayes said her rival’s actions go beyond 2020 conspiracies.

“This is about laying the groundwork to deny the results of the 2026 election if they don’t go their way,” she said in a press release.

Petersen was a major force behind the Senate’s inquiry into the Maricopa County results from 2020. A private security firm called Cyber Ninjas, which had never conducted an election audit, reviewed more than 2 million ballots and ultimately confirmed Biden’s victory – by 360 more votes than originally reported.

Even so, the report contended that the county’s procedures were flawed. The county issued a scathing rebuttal.

As these issues loom over the election, Bentz, among others, sees no chance of a Republican sweep at the top of the ticket, given the political headwinds related to Trump’s unpopularity.

“There’s a shot, but the shot seems to be dwindling every day that gas prices stay at $5 in the state,” he said.

Secretary of state

Fontes and Mayes signed onto a lawsuit with 23 other states to fight a March 31 executive order from Trump that would vastly expand the federal government’s involvement in elections.

Under the Constitution, nearly all election procedures are set at the state and local level, including registration and vote counting.

Congress sets a uniform federal election day and could set some nationwide rules on voter eligibility and other procedures. But it’s questionable whether the president has that authority.

In the GOP primary for secretary of state, state Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, faces Gina Swoboda, a former chair of the Arizona GOP.

Swoboda was the Trump campaign’s statewide Election Day director of operations in 2020. She led a lawsuit asserting the state had illegally allowed 500,000 to 1,270,000 ineligible voters to remain on the rolls.

A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in December 2024, ruling there was no evidence of widespread voting by ineligible individuals – even if the rolls included relatively few.

Kolodin has also peddled 2020 election conspiracies.

He was one of the attorneys on the so-called “kraken” lawsuit pursued by the Trump team in the weeks after his loss. A judge tossed out the effort to invalidate all mail-in ballots in Arizona, finding an utter lack of evidence to support claims of widespread fraud.

The state bar received numerous complaints regarding Kolodin’s work on election-related cases – including a fake electors case. In December 2023, the state bar put him on probation for 18 months for violating rules barring attorneys from presenting baseless claims.

Fontes has battled in court repeatedly with the Trump administration.

In early January, the DOJ sued his office for access to Arizona’s voter file, which includes sensitive and personal data on every voter in the state. The case is ongoing.

“They’re going to have to put me in jail if they want this information,” Fontes told the Democracy Docket. “It would be illegal of me to release the information to the Department of Justice as they have requested it. Period. They’re asking me to break the law.”

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.