<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1659459362407,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000172-ebac-d265-adff-fffc847c0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1659459362407,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000172-ebac-d265-adff-fffc847c0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_59459359", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1067176"} }); ","_id":"00000182-5f78-d4b1-a7ea-5f7aade00000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedA Trump-endorsed Arizona lawmaker who wants to “decertify” the 2020 election results won the Republican nomination for Arizona secretary of state on Tuesday, becoming the latest supporter of unevidenced election theories backed by the former president to win the GOP’s nod for a top elections oversight job.
State Rep. Mark Finchem handily dispatched a handful of Republican rivals on Tuesday, including advertising executive Beau Lane, who was supported by Gov. Doug Ducey and much of the state’s GOP establishment but whom Finchem disparaged as a “RINO,” or Republican in name only. Finchem had 38.7% of the vote with 65% of ballots counted when the race was called by the Associated Press.
Finchem has advanced a slate of hard-right election changes that he would pursue if elected, including bans on early voting and electronic vote-counting machines, as well as strict limits on the use of mail-in voting. The 65-year-old also wants to give the Arizona legislature the power to “decertify” election results, and he introduced a resolution in February calling on state leaders to “set aside and decertify” the 2020 election results in three of Arizona’s most populous counties.
Finchem was present at the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and following the 2020 election, he asked the Arizona legislature to appoint a slate of electors who would ignore the state’s election results and cast electoral votes for former President Donald Trump. In Trump’s September 2021 endorsement of Finchem, the ex-president praised his “incredibly powerful stance on the Voter Fraud that took place in the 2020 Presidential Election Scam.”
Finchem is not the first Trump-endorsed election theorist to prevail over more mainstream challengers in their bids for a top elections oversight post. Kristina Karamo, a former community college professor and poll challenger who gained widespread popularity in conservative circles after claiming to have witnessed voter fraud firsthand, won the GOP’s nomination for Michigan secretary of state at a state party convention in April. Karamo maintains that Trump won Michigan in 2020, and she received the former president’s endorsement shortly before the convention. And Jim Marchant, a former Nevada state assemblyman who ran on a platform closely aligned with Finchem’s and denies that President Joe Biden won his state in 2020, won the GOP nod for Nevada secretary of state in June.
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Still, not all Trump-backed candidates for election posts won their primaries — Georgia GOP Rep. Jody Hice and Colorado’s Tina Peters, among others, lost their bids for secretary of state to more mainstream Republican rivals.
Finchem is set to face either Reginald Bolding, the minority leader in the Arizona House, or Adrian Fontes, Maricopa County’s former top elections official, in November’s general election. Fontes led Bolding in early returns, but the Democratic primary remained uncalled as of Wednesday morning.
It remains unclear whether members of Arizona’s Trump-skeptical GOP establishment, including Ducey, will throw their support behind Finchem.
