Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who is fast building a portfolio of key Supreme Court challenges, today ripped Sen. Mark Kelly for his support for ending the filibuster to pass Democratic voting changes, calling the proposal “unconstitutional.”
In an interview, Brnovich, who won a 2021 case in the court to defend Arizona’s voting methods against a challenge from the Democratic National Committee, said the changes the Arizona Democrat is backing in today’s Senate debate on voting reforms would federalize elections.
“To me, I think what this bill demonstrates is a raw political power grab by the far Left because they want to nationalize the elections — because then they can control them,” he said from his Arizona offices.
“It’s important for us to push back with the facts, with the evidence. And just like when I argued Brnovich v. the DNC in the Supreme Court, they tried to say it was racist and all that stuff, and it was not true, just objectively was not true,” said Brnovich, who is running in the GOP Senate primary for a chance to take Kelly on later this year.
In a statement, the first-term Kelly said, “If campaign finance and voting rights reforms are blocked again this week, I will support the proposed changes to pass them with a majority vote. … Protecting the vote-by-mail system used by a majority of Arizonans and getting dark money out of our elections is too important to let fall victim to Washington dysfunction.”
Of those pushing to kill the filibuster to pass controversial ballot changes backed by President Joe Biden, Brnovich said, “I think they’re purposely trying to divide this country and they’re trying to make this an issue of race, and it’s not. I think the fact that there are states in the largely Democratic Northeast that make it much more difficult to vote early or to vote by mail or even register. I’ll point out the hypocrisy of the Left on this issue.”
He was joined in his criticism of Kelly by another GOP Senate primary candidate, Blake Masters.
Brnovich is following his 2021 victory in Brnovich v. the DNC before the Supreme Court with another case next month challenging the Biden administration’s abandonment of a key immigration rule.
Biden recently inflamed the debate when he compared opponents to notorious political racists. However, it is two Democratic senators, including Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who are blocking a move to sideline the filibuster and let the election bill pass on a majority vote.
