Former President Barack Obama on Wednesday night warned of dire threats to democracy if election deniers running for office in Arizona win.
“If you have an election denier serving as your governor, as your senator, as your secretary of state, as your attorney general. Then, democracy as we know it may not survive in Arizona as we know it. That’s not an exaggeration, that is a fact,” Obama said at a rally in Phoenix for Democratic candidates.
Kari Lake, the GOP nominee for governor, Mark Finchem, running for secretary of state, and Abraham Hamadeh, the attorney general nominee, have earned former President Donald Trump’s support by spreading falsehoods about the 2020 election. All three roles play a central part in administering or certifying elections. There was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election, according to federal officials, and dozens of lawsuits challenging the results were tossed out.
Obama mentioned Finchem, a current state representative, was on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021.
“I want Arizonans, Republicans, ask yourself — that’s the guy you want in charge of your elections? Someone who was part of an insurrection and thinks it’s OK to arm people to intimidate folks next to ballot boxes? That’s how America’s democracy is supposed to work? Doesn’t that override party labels,” Obama questioned.
Obama warned the crowd in Phoenix about the dangers of backing candidates who promote Trump’s unproven claims of election fraud.
Blake Masters, the Republican nominee for Senate running against incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (R-AZ), removed a statement from his campaign website that proclaimed Trump would be in the Oval Office if the 2020 election had been “free and fair.” In a recent debate, Masters said that Joe Biden was “the legitimate president” and that he hadn’t seen evidence of fraud in 2020. But, a clip in a Fox documentary revealed a phone call between Trump and Masters at some point after the debate, where the former president encouraged Masters to lean into the unfounded election claims.
Kari Lake tries to turn kingmaker by backing Blake Masters, other GOP hopefuls in Arizona
“Mark’s opponent has been pushing conspiracy theories too. He’s getting a little more nervous about it. During the primary, his website had all kinds of lies about how the election was stolen and then, poof, vanished. Along with his extreme views on abortion, poof,” Obama said.
Obama also revealed that Lake interviewed him in 2016 when she was a news anchor at a local Phoenix station. He attempted to compare her background to Trump’s.
“If we hadn’t just elected somebody whose main qualification was being on TV, you could see maybe giving it a shot,” he said.
“Turns out, being president or governor is about more than snappy lines and good lighting. It’s about more than having a good anchor voice. It’s about understanding what people are going through.”
The Senate and gubernatorial races in Arizona are tightening. Polling shows a dead heat between Democratic incumbent Kelly and his Republican challenger Masters, while Republican Lake inches slightly ahead of her Democratic rival, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, in their bid to replace outgoing Gov. Doug Ducey (R).
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Arizona is one of a half dozen states Obama is visiting in the final days of the election in an attempt to rally Democratic voters in states where polls show highly competitive races.
“Obama is so popular within the Democratic Party, this is designed to make sure Arizona’s Democrats turn out,” said Roy Herrera, a Democratic election attorney and consultant in the state.
“Enthusiasm needs to be kept high so they come out, and we don’t see the kind of drop-off that you usually see in a midterm election.”
