Mark W. Finchem is an American
alt-right extremist, Oathkeeper militia member and
Jan. 6 insurrectionist who served as a member of the
Arizona House of Representatives representing
District 11 since January 5, 2015. He is the Arizona
Coordinator for the Coalition of Western States, an
organization that opposes the activities of the
Bureau of Land Management and supported the
occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
in 2016. Finchem is a member of the militia group
Oath Keepers and has espoused the QAnon conspiracy
theory. He is a candidate in the 2022 race to become
Secretary of State of Arizona. As of 2016, Finchem
was Arizona Coordinator of the Coalition of Western
States (COWS), a group founded by Washington state
representative Matt Shea in 2014 to support Cliven
Bundy and his family in their confrontation with law
enforcement, which also supported the 2016
occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
Mark Pitcavage of the Anti-Defamation League
described COWS as motivated by "anti-government
extremism and anti-public lands extremism", and said
that Finchem's membership indicated he shared
extremist views. Following the 2020 United States
presidential election, Finchem supported the "Stop
the Steal" movement which falsely claimed that
Donald Trump won the election nationally and in
Arizona. In 2021, Finchem shared on social media a
"report" falsely claiming to have uncovered tens of
thousands of missing or lost votes, and tens of
thousands of votes fraudulently cast, in Maricopa
County, Arizona. The report was based on
extrapolations from a non-random sample of a much
smaller number of voters and was rejected by county
elections officials and political scientists.
Finchem traveled to Washington, D.C. to take part in
the January 6, 2021, protest that was followed by an
attack on the U.S. Capitol. He said there was
"substantial evidence that this election was a
fraud" and tweeted photographs of protestors massed
on the steps of the Capitol building. Finchem later
claimed that leftists had instigated the violence. A
coalition of community organizations subsequently
called for the expulsion of Finchem and six other
Arizona Republican lawmakers who advocated
overturning the 2020 election. In response to a
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) briefing that
said antifa groups were not involved in the attack
on the Capitol, Finchem said he did not "trust a
word that comes out of the FBI's mouth" Finchem then
called for the Arizona legislature to appoint
presidential electors of its own choosing.
Republican
candidate for Arizona Secretary of State who lost to
Adrian Fontes in the 2022 General Election.
An Arizona judge has
sanctioned former Republican secretary of
state candidate Mark Finchem and his
attorney over a lawsuit challenging his loss
in last year's election, saying the suit
"was groundless and not brought in good
faith." Finchem's suit raised unsupported
claims that his loss was marred by
misconduct and demanded the results be set
aside and the election redone. He's refused
to concede to Democrat Adrian Fontes, who
took office in January. Maricopa County
Superior Court Judge Melissa Julian tossed
out Finchem’s lawsuit in December. Fontes
and then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who
is now governor, asked her to sanction
Finchem for requiring them to incur the
hassle and expense of defending against a
baseless lawsuit. Julian said in a ruling
dated March 1 that Finchem must pay the
reasonable lawyer fees incurred by the
Fontes campaign and by the secretary of
state's office, which Fontes now leads.
Those costs have not been determined. “Mr.
Finchem and bad actors like him cannot be
permitted to avoid accountability,” Fontes
said in a statement. “He continues to grift
off of his broken political agenda using
fraudulent schemes that take advantage of
Arizonans.”
Losing Republican
candidates Kari Lake and Mark Finchem are
still attempting to outlaw the use of
machines to tabulate votes in
Arizona. Gubernatorial candidate
Kari Lake
and secretary of state candidate Mark
Finchem reiterated their claims made before
a trial judge that tabulation machines are
not secure. Their plea to the 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals is that a trial judge did
not give them a chance to make their case. U.S.
District Court Judge John Tuchi tossed their
claims as they did not prove they were
harmed by the current system and that their
allegations were vague. Furthermore he said
the candidates’ attorneys filed a frivolous
suit. The suit is seeking to send the
case back to Tuchi to allow
Lake and Finchem
argue their case in court.
The Arizona Secretary
of State's Office on Thursday referred a
campaign finance complaint about Republican
Mark Finchem to the state attorney general
for investigation. The complaint involves a
mailer that landed in voters' mailboxes
without the required disclosure during the
run-up to the Nov. 8 election. The mailer
slammed Finchem's opponent in the secretary
of state race, Democrat Adrian Fontes, as
incompetent when he ran the Maricopa County
Recorder's Office and promoted Finchem as a
law enforcement-friendly champion of
transparent elections.
Finchem has built a
national profile as a key proponent of
misinformation about the 2020 elections, and
was the driving force in Arizona for an
event at a Phoenix hotel in late November
2021. At that event, Trump’s lead attorney,
Rudy Giuliani, and other pro-Trump figures
gathered with state GOP lawmakers and the
president’s supporters to discuss baseless
theories that Joe Biden won Arizona’s
election by fraud.
A Maricopa County
Superior Court judge tossed a lawsuit on
Friday filed by former GOP candidates Mark
Finchem and
Jeff Zink that challenges the
results of November’s general election.
Judge Melissa Iyer Julian dismissed the
lawsuit with prejudice, which means it
cannot be filed again. The judge also
confirmed Adrian Fontes won the election and
is the secretary of state-elect for Arizona.
"In the ruling this
week, U.S District Judge John Tuchi said the
court will not condone litigants furthering
false narratives that undermine public trust
and that financial penalties are
appropriate. Tuchi ordered
Lake and
Finchem’s lawyers to pay Maricopa County’s
attorneys fees, the amount of which has yet
to be determined.
If Mark Finchem, the who was recently accused of
antisemitism and who days ago
Republican candidate for secretary of state
in Arizona and a QAnon-friendly election denialist attended a
conference with conspiracy theorist
extremists, wins on Tuesday, he will soon
oversee all the state’s elections, including
the upcoming 2024 presidential contest. That
possibility has long had Democrats and
democracy activists worried. And in the
weeks before Election Day, Finchem’s ties to
far-right fanatics who have engaged in armed
acts of voter intimidation have provided
even more reason for concern.
The
old saying is a picture is worth
a thousand words. Well this clip
of Mark Finchem going ballistic
while “engaging” with a reporter
from the Guardian must be worth
a million words…or votes.
“helped organize the
January 6 protests where police were
attacked.” (Finchem insisted he was not
involved in the organizing of the event.
Video footage shows he was by the east steps
of the Capitol when rioters were battling
law enforcement officers.) In each instance,
the lawyer representing Finchem was a
Phoenix attorney named Jack Wilenchik.
Wilenchik, who also represented the Cyber
Ninjas, the firm that conducted a shoddy,
partisan, and discredited review of the
Arizona 2020 vote count (and was
subsequently shut down), prevailed in
preventing Finchem from being kicked off the
ballot. And like his client, Wilenchik was
involved in the effort to overturn the 2020
election. His participation in one
particular scheme to keep Trump in power
subsequently raised questions about that
endeavor’s legality.
Mark Finchem, the
Republican nominee for Arizona Secretary of
State, can’t stop contradicting himself.
He’s been spinning his web of lies since the
watershed election that ousted his role
model and backer, former President
Donald
Trump. Fresh off an October 9 rally in Mesa
with Trump and other Arizona candidates,
Finchem posted this terse truism on social
media on October 11: "Just follow the law."
But for Finchem, a state lawmaker since
2014, all crimes are not created equal. He
is hardly the first politician to promote
law and order on the campaign trail. The
irony is that, just days before the tweet,
he participated in an interview with
convicted criminal Micajah Jackson, a
violent homophobe and antisemite who lives
in Phoenix and took part in the January 6,
2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Finchem
posted the interview on his campaign
website. Earlier this year, Jackson pleaded
guilty for his role in the insurrection. He
was sentenced to 36 months probation and 90
days in a halfway house.
Mark Finchem, the
Republican nominee for secretary of state,
has been a minor player in Arizona politics
since becoming a state legislator in 2015.
But in the past two years, he’s built a
national profile as one of the most ardent
backers of baseless claims that the 2020
election was marred by widespread fraud —
and that nationwide following is evident in
his campaign finance reports.
Finchem, a state
legislator from Oro Valley, has long been at
the forefront of narratives around Jan. 6.
The lead organizer of the rally that
turned into a violent riot said in an
interview that Arizona’s “Stop The Steal”
movement, which fueled the actions of Jan.
6, wouldn’t have existed without Finchem.
On Finchem’s old Twitter account, which he
deleted in 2021, he frequently spouted
misinformation about the 2020 elections,
much of which was flagged by Twitter as
being incorrect. He also spearheaded an
event at a Phoenix hotel in late November
during which Trump’s lead attorney, Rudy
Giuliani, and other pro-Trump figures
gathered with state GOP lawmakers and the
president’s supporters to discuss baseless
theories that Joe Biden won Arizona’s
election by fraud.
Mesa County,
Colorado, Clerk Tina
Peters, who faces
multiple felony
charges, may have
lost her race in
June’s primary GOP
election, but her
false allegations of
election fraud live
on through conspiracists in
Colorado and
nationally. One of
those currently
rallying under her
banner is state Rep.
Mark Finchem,
Arizona’s Republican
candidate for
Secretary of State.
During a debate with
his Democratic rival
Adrian Fontes, the
moderator asked
Finchem whether he
approves of mail-in
voting. "I don’t
care for mail-in
voting," Finchem
said Sept. 22.
"That’s why I go to
the polls." But
that’s not what
public records show
about Finchem’s
voting history.
Since the 2004
general election,
Finchem voted by
mail in 28 out of 30
elections.
“Now, there’s this
narrative out there
that five officers
were killed by the
insurrection,"
Finchem continued.
"That is absolute
BS. That has proven
to be debunked. That
is an outright lie,
it’s fantasy and
fabrication."
Finchem was also
present on the
Capitol grounds on
Jan. 6. Five
officers who
responded to the
Capitol insurrection
died following the
attack. Capitol
Police Officer Brian
Sicknick died one
day after he was
assaulted by several
rioters while
defending the
building; four other
officers who were on
duty on Jan. 6 have
died by suicide.
Arizona Rep. Mark
Finchem dismissed his repeated failure to
follow state laws on financial disclosures
as a "technicality." Finchem, who is the GOP
candidate for secretary of state, said in a
social media post on Tuesday that not
reporting years of "paltry" retirement
income does not compare with the way his
opponent ran county elections in 2018 and
2020. "Filling out retirement income of a
paltry amount because of a form technicality
is NOTHING like bungling TWO countywide
elections by skirting the law," Finchem said
on Telegram, a private site favored by
conservatives. "And any media hack who tries
to imply they are the same is a
Marxist-fringe lunatic," he said. AZCentral
on Monday found Finchem for years did not
report sources of income and business
interests on the state forms required of all
elected state officials. That includes an
estimated $160,000 in monthly retirement
benefits and a business that received money
from former President
Donald Trump's
reelection campaign in 2020. Finchem, who
served for 21 years as a public safety
officer in Kalamazoo, Michigan, avowed under
penalty of perjury that the information in
his financial disclosure forms was "true and
correct."
Arizona Rep. Mark
Finchem failed for
years to follow
state laws requiring
elected officials to
report their sources
of income and
business ties.
Finchem did not
disclose nearly
$2,000 a month in
pension benefits and
a few businesses in
which he was
involved from the
time he took office
in 2015 until
January, financial
records show.
The four-term
Republican lawmaker
from Oro Valley
reported his
longtime public
safety pension for
the first time in
seven years after
launching his bid to
become Arizona's
next secretary of
state.
Finchem, who is
endorsed by former
President
Donald
Trump, was a
prominent member of
the "Stop the Steal"
movement and has
sought to overturn
Arizona's 2020
presidential
election results.
If elected, Finchem
would be in charge
of overseeing the
financial disclosures
and campaign
contribution reports
required of every
elected state
official.
He declined to
comment on the
missing data in the
reports, which he
had avowed were
"true and correct"
and signed under
penalty of perjury.
Finchem would
not answer specific
questions about why
he left off his
pension information
from reports or what
caused him to start
reporting it this
year. ...
When Fontes was asked
if he agreed with Finchem, the former Marine
calmly responded: “we have to have faith in
our democracy. Our democracy rests on the
decisions thousands of people make… when we
have conspiracy theories and lies like the
ones Mr. Finchem has just shared, based on
no real evidence, what we end up doing is
eroding the faith that we have in each other
as citizens…the kind of divisiveness not
based in fact, not based in any evidence
that we’ve seen trumpeted by Mr. Finchem is
dangerous for America and we have to call it
what it is.” Finchem protested, saying “I
take exception to what he just said,”
claiming Fontes was “running over the
evidence that has been presented…visual
evidence.” He repeated the ballot harvesting
claims and maintained that this has all been
recorded. Moderator Richard Ruelas asked if
he was talking about the “evidence” from the
discredited Dinesh D’Souza 2000 Mules movie
and Finchem said “exactly.”
In a cover story out
this week, reporter Charlotte Alter said she
called Finchem, an Oro Valley Republican,
and asked him whether, if Biden wins Arizona
in 2024, he as secretary of state would
certify the vote. Finchem chuckled, she
reported, and said this: "If the law is
followed, and legitimate votes have been
counted, and Joe Biden ends up being the
winner ... I’m required under the law — if
there’s no fraud — to certify the election.”
Then Finchem added the key kicker: “I think
you’re proposing something that, quite
frankly, is a fantasy.”
Republican Secretary
of State nominee Mark Finchem held a
fundraiser in California on Sunday that was
hosted by a conspiracy theorist who believes
9/11 was orchestrated by the U.S. government
and attended by a prominent QAnon
influencer. Nicole Nogrady, who hosted the
event, has shared a litany of debunked
stories and posts concerning COVID-19,
abortion and other falsehoods on her
Instagram account. “They have the public
addicted to fetal tissue,” Nogrady said in
one post, citing a debunked conspiracy
theory that certain foods and drinks are
made with aborted fetal tissue. “Cannibalism
is addictive, which is why people become
addicted to these mainstream corporate
products.” Nogrady also believes that
airplanes are spraying chemicals to
geoengineer the world, a long debunked
conspiracy called “chemtrails.” On Sept. 11,
Nogrady also posted on Trump’s Twitter
knock-off, Truth Social, about her beliefs
that the attack that claimed the lives of
2,977 people 21 years prior was done by the
“Deep State.”
Prominent Arizona
Jewish groups are accusing Mark Finchem of
fueling his campaign for secretary of state
with antisemitic rhetoric. They blasted the
Republican state lawmaker that said
Democratic candidates are beholden to Jewish
philanthropist George Soros and former New
York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. "You cannot be
trusted to serve as our Secretary of State,"
The Jewish Community Relations Council of
Greater Phoenix fired back on Twitter. "@RealMarkFinchem:
your reliance on #antisemitic tropes to
spearhead your campaign is an embarrassment
to the majority of #Arizona residents," the
group said in its reply. Finchem on Thursday
defended the Tweet as political speech. He
doubled down on his initial claim, saying
critics are part of a Soros conspiracy and
their objections prove it." [...] This is
not the first time Jewish groups have called
out Finchem. They say he embraces white
nationalism, is endorsed by and associates
with people known for antisemitic statements
and uses racist dog whistles in speeches.
"He's dangerous," said Tony Zinman, co-chair
of Tucson Jews for Justice. "He doubles down
on who he is: A white supremacist, fascist
and an antisemite."
Mark Finchem, the
Republican nominee for secretary of state in
Arizona, has enthusiastically championed a
number of conspiracy theories—none more so
than the conspiracy of a stolen 2020
election, which is the animating force
behind his campaign to run Arizona’s
elections. But in a recent campaign speech,
Finchem pushed the envelope, even by his own
standards. Just days before he won the
August primary, Finchem was caught on tape
blaming former Vice President Mike Pence for
everything from orchestrating a “coup” to
unseat Donald
Trump after Jan. 6, to
allegedly spying on the Trump campaign in
2016, to scheming to “steal” the presidency
in 2024.
An Arizona judge has
ordered three Republicans, including
secretary of state nominee Mark Finchem and
U.S. Rep.
Paul Gosar, to pay $75,000 in
attorney fees for filing a defamation suit
against a former Democratic lawmaker
“primarily for purposes of harassment.”
Aug. 30,
2022
About Mark
Finchem's Job With The Kalamazoo Police
Dept.:
I believe
some of you are confused, and you shouldn’t
be.
There is
no need to wonder why on earth Mark Finchem,
the Republican candidate for Arizona
secretary of state, did not rescind his
endorsement of the homophobic, antisemitic
Republican state Senate candidate in
Oklahoma, Jarrin Jackson.
Just as
there is no need to wonder why Kari Lake,
the Republican candidate for Arizona
governor, (before the media made a big stink
about it) then rescinded it in a whisper.
This is
not complicated.
Finchem
does not condemn racists, antisemites and
homophobes like Jackson because … he needs
them.
Finchem and Lake are connected by hate
They are,
essentially, his core support group.
The same
is true, in general terms, for Lake.
Just look
at who these Republican candidates associate
with and the fellow candidates they support
and endorse.
After the endorsement:
Finchem
and
Lake, for example, are joined at the
hip. They’re
Donald
Trump cultists and
election deniers. They filed a lawsuit
trying to ban ballot-counting machines, a
“frivolous” legal maneuver for which
Maricopa County supervisors want a judge to.
Finchem
is also a member of the far-right extremist
Oath Keepers. The group’s founder and
several members have been charged with
seditious conspiracy in connection with the
Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
They went from big tent to pointy white hood
Also, as
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan
Greenblatt said, “We’ve seen the Proud Boys,
the Oath Keepers, many of these
organizations, engage in the kind of
antisemitic rhetoric [and] . So it’s part
and parcel of these organizations in the way
that they operate.”
Arizona
state Sen.
Wendy Rogers is also a proud
member of the Oath Keepers. Both she and
Finchem took campaign contributions from
Jackson.
Likewise, Rogers and Lake have exchanged
endorsements of one another. Political
allies, united by hate.
Lake,
Finchem, Rogers and other Trump sycophants
have taken over the GOP on a state and
national level. What used to be a Republican
Party trying to welcome everyone under a
spacious big tent now seems more like a cult
trying to welcome a select few under a
pointy white hood.
Simple questions. You know the answers
They are
what they are, and most of them are not
trying to hide it.
Which
leaves Arizona voters with a few simple
questions.
Can a
politician support another politician who
manifests racist, antisemitic and homophobic
views and not be racist, antisemitic and
homophobic?
And can a
citizen vote for such a politician and not
be racist, antisemitic and homophobic?
In interviews with
Politico, Arizona Republicans take shots at
Finchem, who for years has served as a state
legislator in the Arizona House of
Representatives and who has developed a
reputation as a far-right crank even among
his GOP colleagues.
Aug. 19, 2022
AZ GOP Secretary Of
State Nominee Shares
Extremist
Anti-Government
Conspiracies On
Social Media
The Republican
nominee for secretary of state in Arizona is
a self-proclaimed member of the far-right
extremist group the Oath Keepers who
repeatedly shared anti-government
conspiracies and posts about stockpiling
ammunition on social media. CNN's KFile team
uncovered previously unreported posts from
Mark Finchem, an Arizona state
representative who won his party's
nomination with the endorsement of former
President Donald
Trump, on several social
media websites linked from his since-deleted
former Twitter account. The posts included a Pinterest account with a "Treason Watch
List," and pins of photos of Barack Obama
alongside imagery of a man clad in Nazi
attire making a Nazi salute; Finchem also
shared photos of the Holocaust claiming it
could happen in the United States.
Finchem, a Tucson
Republican, didn't used to be a conspiracy
theorist. Then he received an email, one
week after the 2020 general election, that
sent him tumbling down the Big Lie rabbit
hole. He became so convinced that the
sanctity of Arizona’s elections has been
thoroughly deflowered, he even doubled down
and called fraud on his own win in the 2020
general election, according to emails leaked
to Phoenix New Times.
Two Arizona
Republicans are
trumpeting an
endorsement from
Andrew Torba, the
CEO of far-right
social media
platform Gab, who
said earlier this
month that Jewish
people aren’t
welcome on Gab — and
should be exiled
from the
conservative
movement altogether.
Elected
officials
and
candidates
for
office
in 2022
continue
to
challenge
and
question
the
results
of the
2020
presidential
election
in
Arizona.
The
results
have
been
examined
and
re-examined,
challenged
in court
and in a
monthslong
ballot
review.
No
evidence
has been
found of
widespread
fraud or
error in
the
results.
Yet
candidates
deny the
outcome.
Others
don't
quite go
as far.
But they
raise
questions
about
potential
irregularities
they say
could
have
influenced
the vote
and
should
be
examined.
The
Arizona
Republic
is
listing
candidates
by
category
by the
race
that
they are
entered
in. This
list is
not
complete
and will
be
updated
throughout
the 2022
election
season.
Election
deniers
These
candidates
in
Arizona
races
deny
that Joe
Biden
won the
2020
presidential
election,
either
in
Arizona
or
nationwide.
Question 2: Adding “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” or “gender expression” to the protected classes of race, religion, age, sex, and ancestry in nondiscrimination law.
Candidates'
Position:
Oppose.
Question 4: Allowing biological males that identify as transgender to play on female sports’ teams.
Candidates'
Position: Oppose
Question 8: Allowing parents to seek professional counseling for their minor child with same-sex attraction or gender identity issues.*
Candidates'
Position: Support
Question 9:
Protecting individuals and
businesses from being required
to provide services or use their
artistic expression in a manner
that violates their moral or
religious beliefs.**
Candidates' Position:
Support.
*
This is in reference to the
dangerous and disproven
"Reparative Therapy".
Two of the four
Republicans – state Reps. Mark Finchem and
Shawnna Bolick – said had they been the
secretary of state in 2020,
they would not have certified the election
showing a narrow Joe Biden victory over
Donald Trump. Even if the law calls for it.
The two were among a group of GOP lawmakers
who signed on to asking that an alternate
slate of electors for
Trump be accepted
instead, or for all the electoral votes to
be nullified until an audit could be done.
Donald
Trump’s top
pick to administer Arizona elections in 2024
is more than a garden-variety backer — he
played a little-known but notable role in
bolstering the former president’s push to
subvert the 2020 ballot.
Rep. Mark Finchem is
busy fundraising,
and not just for his
campaign for Arizona
secretary of state.
The Oro Valley
Republican has three
active fundraising
accounts to deal
with legal
challenges and costs
associated with his
assertion that the
2020 presidential
election was stolen,
despite numerous
audits that have
found no such
evidence.
The fundraising
appeals tie into the
theme of his bid to
become Arizona's top
elections official,
but they are
separate from the
ongoing campaign for
the GOP nomination
for secretary of
state. In his
campaign pitches,
Finchem talks about
broken election
procedures and
repeats the lie that
the 2020 election
was stolen from
former President
Trump.
Finchem raised
$663,000 in 2021 for
his campaign. He
cannot use those
dollars to fund the
legal and other
expenses he has
incurred while
pressing the "Stop
the Steal"
narrative, leading
to the separate
accounts on a
crowdfunding
website.
One of those
accounts seeks
contributions to
help him press a
defamation case that
he, U.S. Rep.
Paul
Gosar and former
Arizona state
representative
Anthony Kern filed
against a former
state Democratic
leader. It goes to
trial this week in
Yuma County Superior
Court . . .
It’s not surprising
that our leaders finally broke down and
agreed to allow the public schools to spend
money that’s already sitting in their bank
accounts – money the Legislature
appropriated last June. What is stunning is
that 20 Republicans – 14 in the House and
six in the Senate – actually voted to stiff
the schools and to heck with the impact on
the one million Arizona children who attend
them.
But before he
[Finchem] can give his full attention to the
statewide campaign bid, he must comply with
a demand from the U.S. House Select
Committee on the January 6 Attack to turn
over his personal communication documents.
Finchem, who falsely declared himself an
elector for defeated President Donald Trump,
posted on social media recently, “They paint
me as a threat to democracy.”
Mark Finchem, the
Arizona secretary of state candidate backed
by former President
Donald
Trump, spread
dangerous misinformation about the Covid-19
pandemic on social media, calling the
vaccine a "crime against humanity," implying
it was a "bio-weapon" and sharing an article
last August that suggested Covid-19 did not
exist in the Canadian province of Alberta.
[...] In August 2021, Finchem shared a story
riddled with misinformation on the
coronavirus and vaccine on the platform Gab
-- a social media network popular with
conservatives, the alt-right and some
extremists -- writing, "It ain't a
vaccine!!! Call it what it is, a crime
against humanity."
Two Arizona
Republicans are among six people issued
subpoenas Tuesday by the House Jan. 6
Committee, with state Rep. Mark Finchem and
state GOP Chair
Kelli Ward told to turn over
documents and appear for depositions next
month. The individuals included in the
latest batch of subpoenas for records and
interviews were reportedly among the Donald
Trump supporters involved in sending slates
of so-called "alternate electors" to
Congress to be included in the electoral
votes cast for president in the 2020
election. Finchem, a member of the state
House from Oro Valley, is running in the
Republican primary to be Arizona secretary
of state — the office that oversees
elections. Ward, who served a single term in
the state Senate before twice unsuccessfully
seeking the nod from GOP voters in U.S.
Senate primaries, has been the chair of the
state Republican Party since 2019. Both
Finchem and Ward have been outspoken Trump
supporters and backed the drawn-out and
bumbling "audit" of the election in Maricopa
County, hewing to the conspiracist line that
the election was "stolen" from the former
president. The phone records of Ward and her
husband were already subpoenaed earlier this
month by the committee. They filed suit to
block those documents from being turned
over.
Former
President Donald
Trump and his
allies have cheered a resolution
by a Republican Arizona state
lawmaker to decertify the 2020
election won by Joe Biden — a
proposal that has no legal merit
and isn’t going anywhere.
"Arizona House bill would
decertify three counties in
Arizona," said a Feb. 8 Facebook
post by David J. Harris, a
conservative commentator. The
post links to an article on his
website that says that if the
resolution passes, "it could
effectively recall the Biden
electors." He’s wrong. The post
was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat
false news and misinformation on
its News Feed. (Read more about
our partnership with Facebook.)
The resolution he’s talking
about was authored by State Rep.
Mark Finchem. Trump, who has
endorsed Finchem as a candidate
for Arizona secretary of state,
declared the resolution "big
news in Arizona!" But it’s
just wishful thinking by people
who see political gain in
rehashing the falsehood that
Biden’s victory was the result
of voter fraud.
Republican Rep. Mark Finchem’s House Concurrent Resolution 2033
reads like a seven-page laundry list of
imagined grievances and debunked conspiracy
theories, topped off by a fantasy belief
that the Arizona Legislature somehow has the
power to decertify the results of the
election in Maricopa, Pima and Yuma counties
and recall the state’s 2020 presidential
electors.
The real ones, I mean.
Not the phony electors put forth by the
state GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward and what
could be her fellow co-conspirators.
State Rep. Mark
Finchem, who is running for secretary of
state, filed HCR 2033 on Monday, which says
that is it is the "justifiable position of
the Arizona State Legislature that we set
aside the results of the Maricopa, Pima and
Yuma County elections as irredeemably
compromised and reclaim the 2020
Presidential Electors.
Feb. 7, 2022
HB
2706
-
Vote to
pass a
bill
that
prohibits
transgender
female
students
from
participating
in
school
sports,
from
kindergarten
through
college,
in
private
and
public
schools.
Kari
Lake, a former
TV anchor who's
running for
governor, began her
speech with the
theme of some of the
other speakers,
praising America
under Trump and
listing its problems
under Biden. As did
others, she called
Trump “president”
and slammed the 2020
election as “rotten
to the core.”
[...]
We are so blessed
to have
Donald
Trump
with us here today.
We know the election
was stolen,” state
Sen. Wendy Rogers,
R-Flagstaff, said
when she took the
stage, echoing the
sentiments of other
speakers and crowd
members, who cheered
her in response.
[...]
Like-minded Trump
supporters in the
Legislature included
speakers at
Saturday's rally
such as Rogers,
Sen. Kelly Townsend,
R-Mesa, Rep. Mark
Finchem, R-Oro
Valley,
Sen. Sonny Borrelli,
R-Lake Havasu City,
and former
representative
Anthony Kern,
who's running for
the state Senate.
[...]
“They attacked
Donald Trump because
he exposed them and
their evil deeds,”
said Finchem, who's
running for Arizona
secretary of state,
a position that
oversees state
elections.
[...]
On Dec. 14, 2020,
Kern and 10 other
Arizonans, including
state GOP Chair
Kelli Ward and Rep.
Jake Hoffman,
R-Queen Creek,
signed a document
that was sent to
Congress. All 11
people were listed
on the general
election ballot as
the would-be
electors for Trump.
[...]
Borrelli pushed
back on the fact
that the belief in
widespread election
fraud that stole the
presidency from
Trump in 2020 was a
“conspiracy theory.”
He said there was
indeed a conspiracy,
but he claims "it’s
not a theory.” He
said the problem was
“obstructionists”
who oversee
elections at the
Arizona Secretary of
State’s Office and
in Maricopa County.
Borrelli said that
many of his peers in
the Arizona House
and Senate were
behind him and other
election deniers and
that they were going
to “tighten up the
loopholes that these
commie (expletive)
have exploited.” The
crowd cheered as
Borrelli claimed
that the
“shamestream media”
were hiding facts
like “ghost voters”
he said were found
to have voted in
Pima County in 2020.
Pima County election
officials deny there
were any widespread
problems with the
election.
[...]
Arizona Republican
U.S. Reps.
Debbie Lesko,
Andy Biggs and
Paul Gosar, the
latter two national
leaders in the
spread of falsehoods
over the 2020
election, also spoke
at the rally
The Desperate Arizona
Quest to Uncover a Conspiracy continues on
Monday as Rep. Mark Finchem convenes a
“hearing” into voter fraud in the state’s
2020 election. This time, he’s delving deep
into the details of a 13-month old email. An
email from some anonymous guy whose claims
already have been investigated and
discarded. Told you desperation has set in.
The four Republicans
who ... circulated baseless conspiracy
theories about a 2020 Donald Trump
presidential victory in Arizona and pushed
for the Senate's partisan audit of Maricopa
County's election results are continuing on
the same path more than a year later. [...]
U.S. Reps.
Andy Biggs and
Paul Gosar, state Rep. Mark Finchem,
R-Oro Valley, and former Representative
Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, were at the
U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, encouraging the
overturn of election results.
Finchem is no stranger to conspiracies and the far-right. In fact, before heading to the Arizona Legislature, he had already joined the Oath Keepers—who played a leading role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the militia group is “founded on the belief that the federal government is part of an evil conspiracy intent on stripping Americans of their natural rights and freedoms.” Its members have encouraged violence in opposition. The founder of Oath Keepers has previously encouraged the murder of elected officials, including in 2015 openly calling for the late Sen. John McCain to be put to death by hanging.
[...]
He previously served as the Arizona coordinator for the Coalition of Western States—a group of legislators and activists who supported the armed occupation of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016. He also signed a letter of support to pardon arsonists who burned federal government land.
[...]
Following the horrific events of the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally, Finchem denied any far-right involvement in the event—claiming that mainstream media was lying and that it was a Deep State PSYOP to construct a political narrative for Democrats. It was not. He also falsely accused contemporary Democrats as being the true members of the Ku Klux Klan who joined the rally.
[...]
Mark Finchem also parrots far-right conspiracies on vaccines. Sure, Finchem got COVID-19 himself. And yes, his mother lost her decades long battle with cancer soon after contracting the virus. But on his official Twitter in July, he warned President Joe Biden to take his “tweet as Arizona’s statewide ‘no trespassing sign.’ You and your vaccine henchmen have been forewarned.” I am unsure what exactly he is threatening here, but I believe you can read between the lines.
Finchem’s supply of money also comes from the right-wing extremists. One of his leading campaign funders is Daniel Brophy, a Wyoming-based political megadonor and brother of former State Sen. Kate Brophy McGee of Phoenix. According to a local legal group, Sen. McGee herself once described her brother as having alt-right political views after he gave money to her political rival. When a woman who has proudly touted her anti-LGBTQ+ bonafides and was painted as a bygone example of the Arizona GOP by English newspaper The Guardian calls you alt-right, I am going to have to take her word for it.
Rep. Finchem also attended the premiere of a “documentary” called The Deep Rig about an alleged conspiracy in the 2020 election. The film featured Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan (who confirmed himself as “Anon” in the movie), former Secretary of State Ken Bennett, and other leaders of election conspiracies in Arizona. Finchem supported the film despite the fact that its director has a history of baseless conspiracies—including the dedication of an entire film to the argument that extraterrestrials were the cause of the Sep. 11 attacks on the Twin Towers
[...]
Given his evident belief in the conspiracies of the far-right, of course Finchem was at the insurrection on Jan. 6 himself. Despite claiming that he never made it closer than 500 yards to the Capitol building, footage of the event clearly shows the politician in attendance himself. He also tweeted in praise of the insurrectionists. Plus, the prominent “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander identified Finchem as the starting point of the anti-democratic movement in Arizona.
Not only was he there, but he then spread more conspiracies after the fact. In his newsletter following the attack in D.C., he claimed (falsely) that facial recognition technology had identified masses of leftist activists in the crowd. He also accused Antifa of responsibility for violence at the Capitol building, despite having no evidence for such claims. Further, even in the face of proof of him attending the event, he has repeatedly threatened to sue anybody attempting to connect him to the events at the Capitol.
"Mack, a former
Oath Keepers
board member and a
supporter of the
Bundy family’s armed standoff with federal officials, founded the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers
Association, which teaches law enforcement officials that “the power of the sheriff even supersedes the powers of the president.”"
Pfizer likely may
not have its
executives at the
QAnon conference in
Las Vegas on Oct.
22-25, but three
Arizona legislators
it gave money to
will be there as
“special guests” and
speakers. The three
Republican Arizona
legislators are Rep.
Mark Finchem,
Rep.
Leo Biasiucci
and Sen.
Sonny Borrelli.
In the 2018 and 2020
election cycles, the
drug maker gave
Finchem a total of
$900 and Biasiucci a
total of $800.
Pfizer gave Borelli
a combined $1,000
between 2014 and
2018. QAnon
followers have
become one of the
leading national
sources of
conspiracy theories
about the Covid-19
vaccines produced by
Pfizer and others.
Based on the belief
that there is a
worldwide
Satan-worshipping
pedophile network
controlling the
government and
media,
QAnon has
increasingly become
enmeshed with claims
that Covid-19 is a
hoax and that the
injection’s purpose
it to insert a
tracking chip in
peoples’ arms"
[...] "Finchem, who
is running for
Arizona Secretary of
State and has been
endorsed by former
President Trump, has
fully embraced
Trump’s big lie that
the 2020 election
was stolen and was
outside the Capitol
on Jan. 6 while it
was being stormed by
pro-Trump
insurrectionists.
The most recent
slate of speakers
also includes
Republican state
legislators Mark
Finchem and
Wendy
Rogers — the former
was at the Capitol
on Jan. 6 and the
latter cheered on
the violent failed
coup on social media
— U.S. Senate
candidate
Jim Lamon,
and congressional
candidates
Jeff Zink
and
Eli Crane.
In an endorsement
statement he issued
on Monday,
Trump
called Finchem "a
true warrior" and
lauded him for
spreading
discredited fraud
claims about the
election.
And
yet another conspiracy theory from
the highly unstable Right.
Photo: Gab
Republican legislators (left to right)
Rep.
Mark Finchem, Sen.
Sonny Borrelli
and Sen.
Wendy Rogers spoke on Aug. 12,
2021, at Mike Lindell’s “Cyber
Symposium.” Photo: Twitter.
one of the
cybersecurity
experts that Lindell
hired told the
Washington Times
that Lindell failed
to provide the data
he had long promised
to deliver. The
expert, Josh
Merritt, said the
data that Lindell
did provide cannot
prove China hacked
the election. “We
were handed a turd,”
he said.
Several prominent
Arizona Republicans
issued a joint
letter Wednesday
afternoon asking
Gov.
Doug Ducey to
withhold funding and
begin legal action
against school
districts that are
not following state
laws.
Aug. 11, 2021
BTW, Mr. Finchem has no authority to arrest or
interfere with any official.
"Video that emerged
on social media this
week shows that
Finchem was wrong
when he said in
January he was no
closer than 500
yards to the Capitol
during the
insurrection on Jan.
6. He was much
closer," Steller
noted. "Another
video that emerged
this week shows
Finchem echoing
QAnon talking points
about powerful
pedophile networks,
something he has not
normally talked
about in public."
Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, one of the
biggest proponents of the controversial election
audit in Maricopa County, is vying for the top
election official spot currently held by
Democrat Katie Hobbs
Lawyers for Finchem
sent a letter dated
May 5 to Rural
Arizonans for
Accountability, a
group of Arizona
residents working to
file a petition to
recall him,
demanding they
"immediately cease
and desist from
publishing and
retract all false
and defamatory
allegations
contained in
materials that you
have published in
support of your
campaign to recall
Rep. Finchem."
Republican Rep.
Mark Finchem is
asking his followers
to give him money so
he can pay off the
$15,500 he spent to
host an unofficial
election integrity
hearing in
November.
More than two
months after the
insurrection, these
lawmakers still hold
their elected
position and have
not been held
accountable for
their actions
despite repeated
calls for some to be
disciplined or
expelled from the
legislature.
When Arizona state
Rep. Mark Finchem
authored a paper
about why he
believed the
Legislature had the
authority to
overturn the results
of the presidential
election, he
described himself as
a "legislative
fellow in residence"
at the University of
Arizona's College of
Law.
One problem:
Finchem, an Oro
Valley Republican,
does not now and has
never held a
fellowship at the
law school.
The paper was posted
on the website of
the Pathway Research
and Education
Corporation, a
nonprofit Finchem
chairs. He also has
recently encouraged
supporters to donate
to that
organization,
telling backers in a
recent interview
with Prescott E-News
that he was raising
funds "for a
potential legal
defense" and was
"examining
litigation" against
Democratic lawmakers
who had called for
the U.S. Department
of Justice to
investigate him.
Finchem is currently
a student in the
master of legal
studies program at
the James E. Rogers
College of Law at
the University of
Arizona, a
spokeswoman said.
But he is not a
"legislative fellow
in residence at the
James E. Rogers
School of Law."
"I can confirm that
Rep. Finchem does
not now hold and has
not held a
fellowship at the
College of Law. He
is a Master of Legal
Studies student,"
said Tracy Mueller,
a spokeswoman for
the school.
The lawmaker does
have a fellowship at
the University of
Arizona's Center for
the Philosophy of
Freedom, which is
not part of the law
school, the director
of that center said.
When Arizona state
Rep. Mark Finchem
authored a paper
about why he
believed the
Legislature had the
authority to
overturn the results
of the presidential
election, he
described himself as
a "legislative
fellow in residence"
at the University of
Arizona's College of
Law.
The Republic first
asked Finchem about
his work at the
school on Feb. 5 as
part of an article
about the Trump
campaign paying a
company he controls
more than $6,000.
The lawmaker is
perhaps the most
outspoken legislator
among several who
have called for
overturning the
results of the
presidential
election.
"Arizona started
with one man: State
Representative Mark
Finchem," Ali
Alexander, the
organizer of the
Stop the Steal rally
in Washington, D.C.
on Jan. 6, said in a
video posted by the
group Church
Militant several
days later.
The legislator even
traveled to
Washington, D.C. to
speak at a rally
that day against
certifying the
results of the
presidential
election. He has
denied taking part
in the riot at the
U.S. Capitol but
initially refused a
request by The
Republic for public
records from his
travels under the
state's government
transparency law.
In the legal paper,
Finchem argued that
the Legislature has
the authority to
call itself into
session and choose
the presidential
electors.
"It is the plenary
authority and
obligation of the
Legislature to do
so," he wrote.
"Since this
authority and
obligation is placed
solely upon the
Legislature by the
highest law of the
land, the
Legislatures are not
impeded by state
statutes in
fulfilling this
duty."
Finchem has since
faced an attempted
recall campaign and
calls for his
resignation.
Text messages show
that Congressman
Andy Biggs was
apparently
coordinating with
Finchem to gather
signatures from
Arizona lawmakers
who endorsed a slate
of fake electors
from the state as
part of the broader
effort to overturn
the 2020 election
results. It's
unknown if that's
the same group of
fakers who were
caught in December
sending a letter to
the National
Archives in
Washington D.C. that
fraudulently claimed
Arizona's electors
cast their votes for
Trump. The real 11
electors cast their
votes a week later
for Biden, in
accordance with the
wishes of a majority
of Arizona voters.
Oro Valley
Republican Mark
Finchem filed an
ethics complaint
against every
Democratic member of
the Arizona
legislature Tuesday
for a letter they
sent last month
asking the
Department of
Justice and FBI to
investigate his and
other lawmakers’
alleged roles in the
Jan. 6 insurrection
at the U.S. Capitol
Republican Arizona
Representative Mark
Finchem released
text messages on
"Tuesday that show
him coordinating
with Ali Alexander,
a prominent
conservative
activist who helped
organize the
infamous January 6
rally at the U.S.
Capitol that became
a deadly riot"
Arizona courts have
ruled that records
on a public
official's private
device can be
considered a public
record if those
records relate to
public business and
the phone was used
for a public
purpose.
HB
2706
-
Vote to
pass a
bill
that
prohibits
transgender
female
students
from
participating
in
school
sports,
from
kindergarten
through
college,
in
private
and
public
schools.
State
Representative Mark
Finchem served as
"Arizona
Coordinator" for the
Coalition of Western
States, a group that
supported the
infamous armed
occupation of the
Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge in
Oregon in 2016.
Question
4: Adding “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” or “gender expression” to the protected classes of race, religion, age, sex, and ancestry in nondiscrimination law.
Candidates'
Position: Oppose.
Question
9: Protecting a parent’s right to seek professional counseling for their minor child with same– sex attraction or gender identity issues to help them reach their desired outcome.*
Candidates'
Position: Support.
*
This is in reference to the
dangerous and disproven
"Reparative Therapy".
A Republican Arizona lawmaker
appeared to agree with a former porn star’s
suggestion that Democrats were responsible for the
wave of mail bombs sent to Democratic targets this
week.
Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, agreed that the state’s U.S. senators pretty much ignore state lawmakers. “I’ve called a number of times to try and get help,’’ he said. “I don’t even get a secretary,’’ Finchem explained. “I get a voicemail that says, ‘We are currently not taking any more messages.
This gunfight was triggered
by a complaint by state Rep. Mark Finchem, a
Christian conservative Republican from Oro Valley
who asked Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich to
withhold all of the state-shared revenues that the
city receives until the city stops destroying guns
and instead starts auctioning them off to gun
dealers.
Dec. 22, 2016
Center
for
Arizona
Policy
2016 Survey
Questions For
Arizona Candidates
Position Sought:
State
Senate LD-11
Question
4:
Adding "sexual orientation,"
"gender identity," or "gender
expression" to the protected
classes of race, religion, age,
sex, and ancestry in
nondiscrimination law.
Candidates'
Position:
Oppose.
Question
6:
Prohibiting government from
discriminating against an
individual, organization, or
small business based on their
beliefs about marriage.*
Candidates'
Position:
Support.
Question
10:
Implementing policies to allow
students and faculty to use the
restroom, locker room, and
shower room that aligns with
their gender identity.
The bill by Rep. Mark Finchem
of Oro Valley would strip a requirement that
residents pay attorney fees if they lose a lawsuit
against a state or local government for failing to
properly enforce federal immigration law.
Question
9: Arizona’s voter-approved constitutional definition of marriage should be defended to the fullest extent legally possible.
Candidates'
Position: Support
Question
11: Adding “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” or “gender expression” to the protected classes of race, religion, age, sex, and ancestry in antidiscrimination law.
Candidates'
Position: Oppose
Question
15: Protecting individuals and businesses from being required to provide services or use their artistic expression in a manner that violates their moral or religious beliefs.*
Males.
men, or
boys;
