A Trump-backed conspiracy theorist is making progress to secure the chief election position in Arizona in one of the most tightly divided battleground states in the United States.
Finchem, a poster child for election deniers following the 2020 presidential election, is an Arizona state lawmaker who is running with former President Donald Trump's endorsement in Tuesday's Republican primary for secretary of state.
Arizona State Primary
The candidate has support from a coalition of other like-minded candidates running to be election administrators in their own states. The group has gained traction in several other close 2020 swing states. But Finchem has a significant edge in a rare public poll of the secretary of state race published on Friday.
If Finchem wins on Tuesday, he will become the latest member of the "America First Secretary of State Coalition" to secure the Republican nomination in a key battleground. This would put them a general election win away from running the 2024 presidential vote in their states.
The situation comes four years after they worked to subvert President Joe Biden's election win and falsely claimed that the vote was marred with fraud. The founder of the coalition, Jim Marchant, is the Republican nominee in Nevada, while Kristina Karamo is the de-facto GOP pick in Michigan, as per Politico.
On the other hand, in Pennsylvania, the governor picks the state's chief election official and coalition member Doug Mastriano is the GOP candidate for that position. In Arizona, GOP state legislators have embraced Trump's fictitious claims and financed investigations into the 2020 vote count.
Trump's Conspiracy Theorists
Supporters of the former president are "gunning for secretary of state," said Mike Noble, the chief of research and managing partner at the Arizona-based polling firm OH Predictive Insights. He said that the situation is definitely one that they have really put a priority on.
Despite his advantage, Finchem faces significant opposition in the primary, including from Beau Lane, a businessman who was endorsed by GOP Gov. Doug Ducey. However, if the latest polling is any indication, Arizona Republicans are poised to elevate someone who has relentlessly sought to undermine confidence in state elections as their pick to run future elections.
According to Vox, State House Speaker Rusty Bowers will have a severely challenging primary election. Furthermore, the race to challenge Sen. Mark Kelly features five Republicans, including state Attorney-General Mark Brnovich. He is whom Trump supporters are still hounding to challenge election matters and Trump-backed election denier Blake Masters.
On the other hand, Finchem, along with Kari Lake, have made Trump's election fraud claims a centerpiece of their campaigns for secretary of state and governor, respectively. The two offices are known to have the most direct influence on elections.
Finchem also traveled to Mar-a-Lago for the premier of a documentary advancing the specious notion that the 2020 presidential election was a fraud. During a campaign stop, he said that during the premier, Trump took 20 minutes with him where the former president allegedly said that the Arizona secretary of state race was the most important race in the United States, the New York Times reported.
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