Arizona veterans slammed state Rep. Alexander Kolodin (R-Scottsdale), who is running to be the next secretary of state, as “unfit and unqualified” to hold the office at a Monday press conference hosted by Secretary of State Adrian Fontes’ reelection campaign.
Much of the press conference focused on Kolodin’s 2025 vote against the Stolen Valor Act, a Republican-sponsored piece of legislation that increases penalties for people who impersonate veterans to get government benefits.
Kolodin pointed out that the felony provision in SB1424 specifically includes those who misrepresent their veteran status “in furtherance of a campaign for political office,” arguing it risked penalizing politicians for false campaign promises.
He argued it set a bad precedent—that it’s for voters to decide whether it matters, not the courts. Kolodin added that the current system worked, pointing to a candidate in the 2024 GOP primary for a state House seat, Steve Slaton, who claimed military experience he did not have, and later lost.
“This bill, for the first time in Arizona law, makes lying in the context of an election a criminal offense,” Kolodin said when explaining his vote. “We cannot open the door to allowing our courts to judge political speech within the context of criminal law.”
Veterans didn’t see it that way.
Selina Cardenas, a Marine Corps veteran and organizer with Common Defense, a veterans advocacy group, said it showed Kolodin couldn’t be trusted with veterans.
“Military service is not a costume, it’s not a campaign prop, it’s not a credential,” Cardenas said. “Public trust has to mean something. Our call today is simple: protect the meaning of service, protect the integrity of military honors, and hold people accountable when they deliberately exploit the sacrifices of veterans for their personal gain.”
State Rep. Aaron Marquez (D-Phoenix), who served in the US Army, said he worked on the bill to ensure respect for veterans, arguing Kolodin’s “no” vote proves he’s unfit.
“Alex Kolodin is unfit and unqualified to serve as secretary of state, and for a number of reasons. The most important reason is his lack of respect for the individuals standing behind me that have served Arizona, that have served our nation, and worn the cloth of the uniform to represent our armed forces,” Marquez said.
Fontes, a Democrat seeking reelection and a Marine Corps veteran, criticized Kolodin as a “betraying voice.”
“One person stood against every single veteran who ever wore this nation’s uniform and wrote this country a blank check payable with their lives,” Fontes said. “That one betraying voice came from my opponent, Alexander Kolodin, a person who never wore the uniform, but enjoys the freedoms and liberties that veterans have provided him and his family every single day.”
The measure passed the House 54-1 with Kolodin as the sole dissenting vote before it made its way to the state Senate, where only state Sen. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek) opposed it. It was later signed into law by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in April 2025.
In an email statement, Kolodin said Fontes is using the vote history for “political gain.”
“Adrian Fontes’ desperation to hide his record of failures and the fact that he’s stooped to exploiting our men and women in uniform for his own personal political gain is disgusting,” Kolodin wrote in a Tuesday email. “My record speaks for itself: I have fought to protect the voting rights of our overseas military members and to make sure service members get the benefits they have earned.”
Who is Kolodin?
Kolodin, a far-right state lawmaker and election denier, earned the GOP nomination for secretary of state, beating Gina Swoboda in the July 21 primary. He has run on a platform of election denialism and loyalty to President Donald Trump, which later led to him being sanctioned by the State Bar of Arizona in 2023 for his role in lawsuits challenging the 2020 elections.
In an August PBS debate, Kolodin was asked three times if he was an election denier. Kolodin answered “no,” and when asked by reporters after the debate, he wouldn’t say if he trusted the 2020 election results.
“Joe Biden was the president,” Kolodin said. “Congress said that Joe Biden won.”
As a lawmaker, Kolodin has made repeated attempts to make voting harder in Arizona.
Most recently, Kolodin sponsored what is now Proposition 144, a legislative ballot referral that would require voters to show government-issued ID to cast a ballot, including by mail. The referral, however, does not offer a clear mechanism for how the more than 80% of Arizona voters who vote by mail would submit their ID alongside their ballot. Voting rights groups like Our Voice Our Vote warn it risks disenfranchising state voters, while Kolodin and other Republicans say it’s a necessary move to root out voter fraud.
But local investigations say otherwise.
On Monday, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, a Republican, unveiled the first of her findings into noncitizen voting: just eight noncitizens voted illegally in Maricopa County from 2012 to 2025. The county is working with Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes to investigate 147 additional claims of noncitizens on the voter rolls, Mitchell said.
“There may be some issues with our systems, but there is no widespread illegal voting in Arizona or anywhere in the United States of America,” Fontes said. “It is an overblown falsification that people like Alex Kolodin will continue to try to capitalize on to divide us one from another and to make it harder for Americans to vote.”
The two will face off in the general election on Nov. 3. Early voting opens Oct. 7.
