SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — A Phoenix man is suing GOP Rep. David Schweikert of Arizona for defamation over a “homophobic” ad by the congressman allegedly meant to out primary challenger Elijah Norton ahead of the Aug. 2 primary.
The man, Leslie Hammon, has been featured in mailers and street signs standing next to Norton, who is running against Schweikert for the Republican nomination in Arizona’s newly configured 1st Congressional District.
Hammon met Norton through Norton’s then-girlfriend. In the picture used in mailers and street signs by Schweikert’s campaign, Hammon’s face is pixelated, and the men have their arms around one another. The photo was taken at a club four years ago. But Hammon said in legal documents that he never gave his permission to use the photo, nor was he ever sexually involved with Norton, as the ads seem to suggest.
The text on the mailers, purportedly sent to 50,000 district residents, reads, “Elijah Norton isn’t being straight with you,” while a street sign reads, “Elijah Norton Unfit for Congress.”
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The lawsuit, filed this week in Maricopa County Superior Court, also names as a defendant the pro-Schweikert PAC Americans for Accountability in Leadership.
“Schweikert’s advertisements are intended to convey, and clearly do convey, a message that gay people do not belong in Congress or any other public office,” the lawsuit claims. “They also clearly convey the patently false assertion that Hammon and Norton are currently or have previously been in a romantic or sexual relationship. Pandering to homophobic narratives in the hopes of being re-elected is truly despicable and demeaning to the congressional office.”
Schweikert’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment from the Washington Examiner.
But Tim La Sota, a lawyer for Americans for Accountability in Leadership, said in a letter included in the lawsuit that the organization is within its rights to use the picture because it was taken in a public setting.
“If your client … is concerned about privacy, I would suggest he not pose for photographs in public places such as bars,” La Sota wrote. “My client will not be deprived of its First Amendment rights.”
The lawsuit recalls a decade-old campaign episode in which Schweikert’s campaign allegedly tried to weaponize sexuality in a political fight. In 2012, Schweikert was running in his first reelection bid after beating an incumbent Democratic House member in the 2010 Republican wave. But redistricting, with maps drawn by Arizona’s independent commission, effectively threw Schweikert into a new, suburban Phoenix district with another House Republican freshman from Arizona, Rep. Ben Quayle.
The GOP primary campaign quickly turned nasty, and one Schweikert email said Quayle “goes both ways,” suggesting he is bisexual. Schweikert defended the mailer, saying it was meant to show Quayle’s flip-flops on a range of public policy issues. Schweikert ended up beating Quayle in the Republican primary, 53% to 47%.
A couple of years later, Schweikert sent out an email invitation to supporters to a “garden party” fundraiser, with the subject line, “Politics Is Not For ‘Pansies’!”
Schweikert, Norton, and Josh Barnett are running in Arizona’s Aug. 2 Republican primary to represent the state’s new 1st Congressional District, which includes parts of central Phoenix, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, and Fountain Hill.
The district is considered highly competitive, and the winner in the general election could determine which party wins a majority in the House of Representatives. Republicans need to win five seats in the 435-member chamber to win back the majority they lost in 2018.
Aside from gay innuendos, Schweikert’s reelection campaign has also cast Norton as a drunk whose vehicle warranty business has fleeced the poor. Norton’s camp has painted Schweikert as a corrupt politician who has racked up ethics violations. In 2020, the House Ethics Committee ordered Schweikert to pay a $50,000 fine and reprimanded him after finding “substantial reason to believe” he broke 11 House ethics rules. That included campaign finance violations and errors in reporting by his campaign committees as well as pressuring staff members to perform campaign duties. The House Ethics Committee also knocked Schweikert for his “lack of candor and due diligence” during the two-year investigation.
Separately, CarGuards, a company Norton maintains a sizable ownership stake in, filed a lawsuit against Schweikert and his campaign consultant Chris Baker, claiming they have “repeatedly and falsely characterized CarGuard as a “scam” that sends out “illegal robocalls.”
Schweikert’s campaign has sent mailers and created a website making those claims, the suit said.
CarGuard’s CEO, Trevor Smith, slammed Schweikert for the sanctions he received from the House of Representatives.
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“David Schweikert — a two‐time certified corrupt politician is a disgrace and embarrassment to the people of Arizona,” Smith said. “CarGuard is headquartered in his district, and the fact that he would continue to make up lies about his own constituent (that employs numerous people in this district) after numerous warnings only reinforces the fact he is unfit to represent us.”
