Gov hobbs, Katie SoS

---

oddly sparse here as consistent warnings of attacks on elections/democ MSNBC TRMS?

not accident death threats (az fraudit BS), finchem wants to LOCK HER UP

see az SoS Mayes 2022

---

AN 7 26 CAND FOR GOV?

Arizona was once a deep-red state known for the conservative GOP politics of Sen. Barry Goldwater and his successor, John McCain. But these days, Arizona is a swing state that has a Democratic governor (Katie Hobbs) and two Democratic U.S. senators (Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego) yet went to Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. According to New York Times reporters Reis Thebault and Kellen Browning, Arizona Republicans are having a heated debate over two competing visions for their party — one that finds far-right MAGA culture warriors up against the type of traditional conservatives who dominated Arizona politics for decades.

"The bombastic, culture-war brand of politics embraced by Mr. Trump's most vocal allies in Arizona has proved a poor fit with the moderate Arizona voters who often decide statewide contests," Thebault and Browning report in the Times. "They have repeatedly passed over Republican firebrands, including Kari Lake and Blake Masters, in favor of Democrats they see as less extreme.

Some Republicans fear the party is poised to repeat its mistake this year by nominating (Rep. Andy) Biggs in Tuesday's GOP primary to face Gov. Katie Hobbs, a vulnerable Democratic incumbent, in November. Seeking to alleviate those concerns, Mr. Biggs has spent much of his campaign attempting to persuade voters that he is more electable than Ms. Lake, whose polarizing comments and baseless claims of election fraud alienated independents and even some Republicans during her unsuccessful bids for governor and Senate."

Biggs, who formerly chaired the House Freedom Caucus, is known for being a far-right Trump ally. But according to Thebault and Browning, he is trying to appear more moderate as he competes for Arizona's 2026 GOP gubernatorial nomination.

"On the debate stage last month in Arizona," the Times reporters note, "Rep. Andy Biggs, the leading candidate in the state's Republican primary for governor, did not try to convince voters that he was the most conservative candidate in the race. He did not tout his Freedom Caucus bona fides, nor his push to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Instead, he styled himself as a bipartisan dealmaker who has worked with Democrats, including Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona. 'Here's the bottom line: I know how to reach across the aisle,' Mr. Biggs said during the debate."

Arizona Republicans, according to Thebault and Browning, "have been at war with one another up and down the ballot, from the governor's contest to lower-profile races." Turning Point USA, the right-wing group founded by the late Charlie Kirk, has been heavily involved in Arizona GOP primaries — and the Times reporters note that the group's "heavy hand has begun to draw backlash."

Veteran GOP strategist/pollster Paul Bentz told the Times, "The dominant force in the primary at this point is the MAGA wing. It's a contest to see who can be the most MAGA."

---

an 4 26

Arizona’s legislative leaders can’t dismantle a new national monument near the Grand Canyon that they claimed would harm both the state and local governments, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

In the memorandum ruling, a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously agreed with a lower court ruling made more than a year ago. Both courts ruled that Republican legislative leaders lacked standing to bring the lawsuit because all of the harms they claimed the monument would cause were speculative.

Republicans in the Arizona Legislature have criticized the creation of the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni — Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument since President Joe Biden designated it in 2023. That designation effectively barred mining on the roughly one million acres of land near Grand Canyon National Park that make up the monument.

Mining on the land within the monument is already barred until at least 2032, but the new designation will ban it indefinitely.

Senate President Warren Petersen and former House Speaker Ben Toma, both Republicans, filed a lawsuit in 2024, asking the court to declare the creation of the monument unlawful and to set aside its designation.

Joining in the suit were State Treasurer Kimberly Yee, who is also a Republican, Mohave County, Colorado City and the town of Fredonia.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, alongside Gov. Katie Hobbs, both Democrats, intervened in the lawsuit to argue for the preservation of the monument.

Mayes celebrated the win on Wednesday.

“Today’s ruling is a victory for the people of Arizona and for the Indigenous communities whose ancestral homelands are protected by this monument,” Mayes said in a statement. “The court rejected every argument Senate President Warren Petersen, Speaker of the House Steve Montenegro, and Treasurer Kimberly Yee put forward. I am proud to have stood up to defend these sacred and important lands.”

Biden created the monument in response to advocacy from the Native American communities whose ancestral homelands are located in and near the Grand Canyon and who still rely on the canyon for natural and cultural resources that are significant and sacred to their communities.

In the unsigned memorandum, Judges Consuelo Callahan, John Owens and Michelle Friedland wrote that the Arizona Legislature couldn’t base its arguments for dismantling the monument on its “fears of hypothetical future harm.”

Callahan was appointed to the Ninth Circuit by President George W. Bush, while Owens and Friedland were appointed by President Barack Obama.

“It’s sad to see the Ninth Circuit kicked the can down the road,” Petersen said in a statement to the Arizona Mirror.

Petersen said he was disappointed that the court decided the challenge “came too soon” and failed to address the legislature’s claim that Biden lacked the authority to create the monument in the first place.

“Arizona families should not have to wait years while our land and economic opportunities remain locked up,” he said. “We will continue fighting to protect Arizona’s economy, jobs, and state sovereignty from this expansive federal land lock-up, including through any available avenues at the federal level. We are actively working with the Trump administration to undo this illegal land grab.”

In the challenge, the Arizona Legislature argued that the Antiquities Act of 1906, which Biden used to designate the monument, didn’t actually give him the power to do so.

Instead of addressing that claim, the courts ruled that none of the entities that brought the challenge could establish a concrete injury upon which they could base their case.

“Their alleged loss of future tax revenue depends on uranium prices being sufficiently high in 2032 (or whenever the pre-existing protections expire) such that third-party companies would choose to begin mining,” the appellate judges wrote. “But it is speculative whether the right economic conditions and incentives for uranium mining will exist so far into the future.”

The courts agreed that claims from the government entities that the creation of the monument was losing them tax revenue on geothermal and mineral leasing were also speculative.

“Plaintiffs fail to allege that any entity has ever sought to engage in ‘mineral or geothermal leasing,’ or that the monument land even contains those resources,” the judges wrote.

The Ninth Circuit found Colorado City’s argument that the creation of the monument endangered its future water supply equally unconvincing. Colorado City claimed that because its water was supplied from an aquifer beneath the monument, the federal government might decide to restrict access to that water in the future.

The judges wrote that Biden’s proclamation doesn’t alter existing water rights and “there is otherwise no reason to speculate that the federal government will ‘reduce Colorado City’s water supply,’ as Colorado City fears.”

The Ninth Circuit also disagreed with the Arizona Legislature’s claim that the creation of the monument strips it of its power to sell, lease and set royalty rates for state land surrounded by the monument. The judges wrote that the legislature could “continue to manage and dispose of state land as it sees fit.”

The court similarly shot down the Arizona Legislature’s claim that the monument designation harmed the state by forcing it to channel time and money to “passing laws, holding hearings, and publicly commenting” on issues caused by the monument.

“A plaintiff may not ‘manufacture’ an injury by ‘simply choosing to spend money,’” the Ninth Circuit wrote.

The judges wrote that the legislature had failed to show that it would have suffered any harm if it hadn’t passed laws, held hearings or made public comments relating to the monument.

The judges also dismissed the legislature’s claim that it, and the other plaintiffs, might lose money in the future due to increases in energy prices caused by the ban on uranium mining within the monument.

“Future energy prices depend on many unknown variables and the ‘unfettered choices’ of innumerable third parties,” the judges wrote. “Any future economic harm from higher energy prices caused by the Proclamation is accordingly far too speculative to support standing.”

The tribal nations with ancestral lands within the monument include the Havasupai Tribe, Hopi Tribe, Hualapai Tribe, Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, Moapa Band of Paiutes, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, Navajo Nation, San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe, Yavapai-Apache Nation, Pueblo of Zuni, and the Colorado River Indian Tribes.

---

an 4 25

The Republican gatekeeper standing in the way of the Democratic governor’s nominees to head state departments said this week that those directors need to have a “neutral, fair” approach to regulation.

But Sen. Jake Hoffman is using the committee to exact political vengeance on Gov. Katie Hobbs by unfairly targeting her nominees, said Christian Slater, the governor’s chief spokesman. He called Hoffman a “liar and a clown” who is “engaged in a partisan witch hunt.”

And while Hoffman may demand neutrality and fairness from Hobbs’ picks to head state agencies, the same can’t be said of the people who he summoned to testify on April 10 when the Senate Director Nominations Committee met to consider Hobbs’ nominee to lead the Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions.

A long line of far-right local Republican Party leaders blasted Barbara Richardson for a supposed anti-business stance and for participating in National Association of Insurance Commissioners special committees on diversity, equity and inclusion and climate resiliency.

In a March 27 press statement, Hoffman said that “qualified candidates should be free from any partisan political agenda” and accused Richardson of having a history of “radical leftist ideologies.”

IFrame Content

Nearly all of the more than a dozen people who asked the committee not to recommend Richardson be confirmed as director were Republican Party activists or their associates. Some of the speakers disclosed their political affiliations, but several did not.

“We need a regulator who maintains a neutral, fair approach to regulation,” Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, said. “I don’t believe that Miss Richardson is that regulator.”

Richardson previously led insurance regulation departments in multiple states under both Democratic and Republican governors. The committee split along party lines to not recommend her confirmation.

State law requires the state Senate confirm a governor’s picks to lead agencies. Without a recommendation from the committee, the full Senate is unlikely to confirm Richardson’s appointment to head the Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions.

So far this year, the committee has recommended confirmation of eight of Hobbs’ department director nominees, and six of them have been confirmed by the Senate.

But in February, Joan Serviss, Hobbs’ nominee to head the Department of Housing, was dismissed from her position due to pressure from Republicans in the Senate.

When Serviss went before the committee after Hobbs nominated her as director in 2023, Hoffman accused her of plagiarism for copying language in press statements during a previous job. Later, he blamed her for a $2 million wire transfer the department made to scammers who impersonated a nonprofit.

The Director Nominations Committee, which was created in 2023 specifically to vet Hobbs’ director nominees, held several contentious and combative nomination hearings that year and refused to confirm most of the governor’s nominees.

Prior to the creation of that committee, Senate confirmations occurred with little fanfare following brief interviews with relevant legislative committees.

Hobbs attempted to sidestep the Senate approval process by appointing her director nominees as deputy directors, positions that don’t require Senate approval. But following a lawsuit from Senate Republicans, a judge ruled that Hobbs had broken the law in circumventing the approval process and ordered her to make new director nominations to be submitted to the Senate.

Richardson originally went before the committee on March 27, but was invited back on April 10 to explain some of her actions that Hoffman said caused him concern. Those included the way that she communicated rules to businesses that the department regulates, which Hoffman claimed went against state statute, as well as longer wait times for licensing.

Richardson explained that longer wait times were due to staff turnover and a significant increase in licensing renewal applications from around 81,000 in 2019 to nearly 122,000 in 2024.

Former Arizona Republican Party Treasurer Elijah Norton, who owns several businesses regulated by the Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions, told the committee that his testimony against Richardson came at great risk to his own business. Norton claimed that many other business owners were scared to speak to the committee because they feared retaliation from Richardson.

He accused her of being a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” or a leftist disguising herself as a moderate. Norton said he didn’t believe her claims that her involvement in the DEI committee was only for learning purposes and that she did not implement any DEI practices in the department.

Joe Steenbergen, who also harshly criticized Richardson, did not tell the committee members that he works for Veritas Global Protection Services, one of the companies that Norton owns.

“I can say unequivocally that, since Miss Richardson assumed her role as acting director of the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions, or DIFI, the department has taken a complete nosedive,” he said.

Steenbergen added that the workers there have become apathetic and “less business friendly,” and he claimed that, if the Senate approved Richardson’s nomination, he would likely recommend that his employer leave Arizona for a state that’s more business friendly.

Other speakers who recommended against Richardson’s confirmation included Shelby Busch, the first vice chairman of the Maricopa County Republican Committee; Debbie Cheatham, an advisory board member for Arizona Right to Life; and Ron Smith, who ran the unsuccessful 2024 campaign for Congress for former Arizona Sen. Anthony Kern, who was one of the state’s most far-right lawmakers.

Slater said in a written statement that the Republican Party activists who testified had one job: beat up Richardson.

“Jake brought Republican precinct committeemen who don’t even know what DIFI stands for, let alone what it does, to engage in a hit job on a career nonpartisan public servant,” Slater said. “The only people who are harmed because of these political games are the people of Arizona.”

Kelsey Lundy, a lobbyist for Compass Strategies, spoke in support of Richardson, saying she’s been representing businesses regulated by DIFI for around 20 years and feels Richardson has treated her clients fairly and with no bias.

Chad Heinrich, CEO of Arizonans for Affordable Healthcare, also recommended that the committee approve Richardson’s nomination, saying that he’d witnessed her deference to state law and lawmakers.

Democratic Sen. Analise Ortiz, of Phoenix, apologized to Richardson for “the political hit job we saw today,” adding that she was disheartened to hear untrue claims that Richardson is a DEI activist.

---

rww 8 23

stew Peters is a far-right virulently anti-LGBTQ bigot who regularly uses his nightly “The Stew Peters Show” program, speeches, and social media accounts to promote white nationalists and antisemites and to spread wild conspiracy theories, bigotry, and calls for violence.Nevertheless, Peters regularly manages to get Republican leaders, elected officials, and candidates for office to appear on his program.

On Wednesday, far-right Arizona stateSen. Wendy Rogers appeared on Peters’ program, where she discussed her good friend Kari Lake’s never-ending effort to overturn her loss in the 2022 gubernatorial election to current Gov. Katie Hobbs.

When Peters declared that he hopes that Lake will prevail and then have Hobbs arrested, Rogers eagerly agreed.

“If she is installed as the legitimate governor, what about Hobbs?” Peters wondered. “Will she be arrested? Will all of the people who committed these crimes actually be held criminally accountable? This is what we need.”

“I want to see that,” Rogers replied. “I want to see that.”

Peters, though, does not have much faith in our political and judicial system, prompting him to declare that Americans should now be exploring “extra-legal options.”

“Speaking of enemy combatants, that’s what these people are,” Peters said. “They have taken over a country. They have affected a Marxist coup d’état.These are the real insurrectionists who have committed sedition.”

“The judiciary has failed us. The legal process has failed us. The voting process has failed us,” Peters continued. “So, I think that right now what Americans need to be exploring is our extra-legal options.”

The term “extra-legal” as Peters used it means “illegal,” of course, and potentially violently so.

“God bless America,” Rogers then responded as Peters ended the segment by expressing his love and appreciation for her.

---

https://www.alternet.org/doug-ducey-rescue-plan-funds/

~ hobbs

an 7 23

no lnx

Home | 'Give it a (expletive) rest': AZ governor hits back after far-right outlet hounds her at gym

Gideon Rubin

and Raw Story

July 08, 2023

Katie Hobbs hit back after a reporter from a far-right outlet hounded the Arizona governor at her gym, video posted on social media shows.

The Gateway Pundit reporter is heard shouting questions based on baseless conspiracies about her 2022 election victory over Kari Lake at the governor as she is seen walking swiftly down a hallway.

The reporter, who identifies himself as Jordan Conradson, hounds Hobbs as she walks through hallways at the gym accompanied by security.

“I have some questions about the election in Arizona,” he’s heard in the video asking Hobbs.

Conradson asks Hobbs to respond to unsubstantiated allegations that Maricopa County improperly conducted “secret” tests on voting equipment.

He later asks her to respond to the suggestion that mail-in votes were cast improperly.

An annoyed Hobbs at the end of the video tells him:

“Give it a (expletive) rest, Jordan. I’m at the gym.”

Gateway Pundit describes the meeting between Hobbs and Conradson as a chance encounter and calls the governor a “potty mouth.”

Watch the video below or click the link.

From Your Site Articles

'I'll burn Arizona to the ground': SNL roasts election-denier Kari Lake ›

'Must vote to decertify': Kari Lake ally erupts after Katie Hobbs sworn in as Arizona governor ›

Kari Lake mocked relentlessly for whining on Twitter after Katie Hobbs defeat ›

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

Judge won't block Jan. 6 panel subpoena to Arizona GOP chair | AP ... ›

How the hard-right turn in the Arizona GOP is an anti-democracy ... ›

Arizona GOP censures Cindy McCain, Jeff Flake and Doug Ducey ... ›

fox loses mind, bannon etc

Fox News correspondent mocks Katie Hobbs after the network calls her win in AZ gubernatorial race

11/15/22 10:21

Charlie Kirk and guests discuss recalling Arizona's Governor-elect Katie Hobbs

11/15/22 9:20

Fox News hosts Adam Carolla to analyze Arizona gubernatorial election results

11/14/22

Watch Rachel Maddow connect Steve Bannon to potential election denialism in Arizona

11/14/22

rww -->

...

“This is still an active investigation with detectives checking all security cameras in attempts to identify and locate the subject involved,” the police department said in a statement obtained by CNN. No suspects have been identified yet, and the police have not elaborated on what kind of items were taken.

As the investigation continues, Hobbs’ team and the Arizona Democratic Party have painted Lake as responsible for the break-in, arguing that her incendiary rhetoric has fueled violent threats against them. This comes as the Hobbs and Lake campaigns head into the final stretch of a heated race for the position of governor.

“Let’s be clear: for nearly two years, Kari Lake and her allies have been spreading dangerous misinformation and inciting threats against anyone they see fit,” said Hobbs campaign manager Nicole DeMont. “The threats against Arizonans attempting to exercise their constitutional rights and their attacks on elected officials are the direct result of a concerted campaign of lies and intimidation.”

Lake responded by calling the accusation “defamatory” and claiming that the Hobbs team’s attempt to blame her is “trying to deflect from her own abysmal campaign and the fact that you know, nobody even knows where her campaign office is.”

“This sounds like a Jussie Smollett part two,” Lake said in response to reporters’ question. “The person who broke in probably didn’t even realize it was a campaign office. It’s really sad. And the fact that you guys are running with this story, shame on you.”

Watch above via CNN.

10 22

media Matters: Steve Bannon calls on Infowars listeners to become poll workers.
Ryan Teague Beckwith and Margaret Newkirk @ Bloomberg: Masked Poll Watchers Are Showing Up at Voting Sites With Handguns and Kevlar Vests.
Kelly Weill @ The Daily Beast: MAGA Conspiracy Tours Plagued With ‘Grifter’ Allegations.
Ken Meyer @ Mediaite: Katie Hobbs Blasts Kari Lake for ‘Inciting Threats’ After Campaign Office Is Burglarized.
Hemant Mehta @ OnlySky: Yikes: 45% of Americans say the U.S. should be a ‘Christian Nation’.
Katherine Stewart @ The New Republic: Why Are Some Christian Nationalist Leaders Opposed to Being Called Christian Nationalists?

Tags: Kari Lake Steve Bannon Christian Nationalism Round-Up

an 922

On Monday, September 26, the Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial board published an editorial attacking Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs — who is running against far-right MAGA Republican and conspiracy theorist Kari Lake in Arizona’s 2022 gubernatorial race —for her views on “school choice.” The WSJ’s editorial board recommended that Lake emphasize “school choice” rather than the 2020 presidential election, which she falsely claims was stolen from Donald Trump. And veteran conservative columnist Mona Charen, in a scathing article published by The Bulwark on September 28, slams the Journal’s editorial board for turning a blind eye to Lake’s extremism.

In its editorial, WSJ’s editorial board wrote, “The race for governor is close, and Democrats are seeking to rev up turnout by making the election about Donald Trump. GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake hasn’t helped herself or her party by insisting that the 2020 election was stolen. Her election fraud claims put off many Republicans and independents and are a loser in the general election. A winning and unifying issue for Republicans this November is school choice.”

The board continued, “(Florida Gov. Ron) DeSantis won in 2018 thanks in part to support from black mothers who were worried his Democratic opponent would take away their kids’ state scholarships. Ms. Lake has a chance to drive a similar message, and Ms. Hobbs has made herself vulnerable by telling parents they can’t be trusted with school choice.”

Those familiar with Charen’s background know how conservative she is. The 65-year-old Charen worked in the Reagan White House during the 1980s and was a speechwriter for First Lady Nancy Reagan, and the titles of her books include “Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got it Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First” and “Do-Gooders: How Liberals Hurt Those They Claim to Help (and the Rest of Us).” But Charen has been a blistering critic of former President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, and in 2020, she endorsed Joe Biden for president.

In her Bulwark article, Charen notes that she agrees with “school choice” and has been critical of teachers’ unions. But “school choice,” she emphasizes, is no reason to endorse someone as “extreme” as Lake.

“Disturbing, extremist, and otherwise unfit candidates dot the national landscape in 2022 like monkeypox, from Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania to J.D. Vance in Ohio to Don Bolduc in New Hampshire, but Arizona surely takes the highest honors for the sheer concentration of ranting incompetents who threaten the democratic process,” Charen writes. “Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for governor, whom the Journal is endorsing, may be in favor of school choice, but that’s a little beside the point when you consider the larger picture. Kari Lake has declared that the 2020 election was ‘corrupt and stolen.’ Regarding the current president of the United States, she has expressed pity, urging that ‘deep down, I think we all know this illegitimate fool in the White House — I feel sorry for him — didn’t win. I hope Americans are smart enough to know that.’”

Charen continues, “She has no patience for temporizers. ‘It is not enough to say you are for ‘Election Integrity’ if you are not for DECERTIFYING the 2020 election if wrongdoing, fraud or different results are revealed,’ she tweeted last year. She then boasted that she was the only candidate for governor calling for decertification of the 2020 election. In addition to the standard denial of the 2020 election, Lake has also adopted the smarmy tactics Trump has normalized in the GOP. When former Congressman Matt Salmon, one of her primary opponents, demurred about putting cameras in every Arizona classroom, she accused him of coddling pedophiles and sneered that he was too weak to be governor.”

According to Charen, WSJ’s editorial board has responded to such “awkward realities” by viewing them “as problems only insofar as they make it harder for her to win.”

“Again, I tend to agree with the Journal’s editorial board on many policy matters,” Charen writes. “Pro-school choice? Check. Pro-free enterprise? Check. Anti-regulation? Much of the time, yes. Pro-free trade? Double check. Pro-immigration? Check. Anti-big government? Check. But they are pretending, or perhaps deluding themselves, that the Republican Party remains, underneath it all, the party of Paul Ryan and Larry Hogan and Chris Sununu, and that the country will be better off if Republicans win elections, full stop.”

Charen continues, “Yet as Liz Cheney sees and is willing to say, that’s not this Republican Party. This GOP is the party of Mastriano and Vance and yes, Kari Lake. This is a party that cannot be trusted with power, that openly proclaims its eagerness to overturn elections. Next to that, everything else, including school choice and regulation and taxes, pales to insignificance. The Wall Street Journal editorial board has continuing influence with reasonable center-right voters. They owe them better.”

https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/arizona-secretary-of-state/

https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/katie-hobbs-secretary-of-state/

stripped of power?!

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/11/politics/fact-check-republican-secretary-of-state-nominees-2020-election

many lnx

At least 11 Republican nominees for state elections chief have disputed the legitimacy of the 2020 election

By Daniel Dale, CNN

Updated , Fri August 19, 2022

Washington (CNN)In at least 11 states, the Republican nominee for the job of overseeing future elections is someone who has questioned, rejected or tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Secretaries of state will play a critical role in managing and certifying the presidential election in 2024. The distinct possibility that some of these secretaries will be people with a history of election denial is a major challenge for American democracy -- especially because former President Donald Trump, who is widely expected to run again in 2024, continues to pressure state officials to discard the will of voters.

More than half of GOP governor nominees have questioned or denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election

More than half of GOP governor nominees have questioned or denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election

The Republican nominees for secretary of state in the November 2022 midterm elections include three swing-state candidates who have made efforts to overturn 2020 results in their states: Mark Finchem o

Arizona, Kristina Karamo of Michigan and Jim Marchant of Nevada.

The Republican nominee in Republican-dominated Alabama, Wes Allen, expressed support for a 2020 lawsuit that sought to get the Supreme Court to toss out Joe Biden's victory. The Republican nominee in Republican-dominated Indiana, Diego Morales, has called the 2020 election a "scam," the vote "tainted" and the outcome "questionable." The Republican nominee in Republican-dominated Wyoming, Chuck Gray, has said that Biden's victory was "illegitimate" and that he "absolutely" thinks Trump was the real winner.

The Republican nominee in Democratic-leaning but regularly competitive Minnesota, Kim Crockett, has described the 2020 election in her state as "lawless." The Republican nominee in the Democratic-dominated Connecticut, Dominic Rapini, is the former chair of a group that has made baseless complaints of 2020 fraud.

The Republican nominee in Democratic-leaning but sometimes competitive New Mexico, Audrey Trujillo, has called the 2020 election stolen. So have the Republican candidates in Massachusetts and Vermont, both obscure figures who face long odds of winning their liberal states in November.

There are some significant differences in the intensity with which these 11 nominees have committed to election rejection. For example, Morales acknowledged in June that Biden "legitimately occupies" the presidency, while Finchem, a serial promoter of wild conspiracy theories about the election, has persisted this year in his impossible quest to reverse Biden's victory in Arizona.

Twenty-seven states are holding secretary of state elections in 2022. CNN will update this list if we find information showing that the 2020 results have been disputed by additional Republican nominees. (The little-known South Dakota candidate who won the Republican nomination at a June convention, Monae Johnson, has broadly questioned the validity of US election results but we could not immediately find public comments she has made about the validity of the 2020 results in particular.

Alabama: Wes Allen

Rep. Wes Allen speaks during debate on transgender bills during the legislative session in the house chamber at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday April 7, 2022.

State representative Wes Allen, who won Alabama's Republican nomination in a June runoff election, endorsed the Texas-led legal effort to get the Supreme Court to overturn Biden's victories in four states -- tweeting in December 2020 that Alabama's attorney general should "stand firm" in support.

Allen has vowed to withdraw Alabama from a 31-state consortium that helps member states keep their voter rolls up to date, baselessly alleging that the consortium, which is funded and run by member states, is a "leftist" entity. Alabama's departing Republican incumbent secretary of state, John Merrill, has called Allen's claims "patently false" and defended the consortium as an important election security tool.

The Democratic nominee is Pamela Laffitte, a corrections sergeant for a county sheriff's office.

Allen's campaign did not respond to a request for comment

Arizona: Mark Finchem

Arizona state representative Mark Finchem (R-AZ) speaks at a rally in Iowa State Fairgrounds, in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., October 9, 2021.

Mark Finchem is a far-right Arizona state representative who has for years promoted absurd conspiracy theories and other misinformation. Finchem has been aggressively dishonest about the 2020 election -- and he continues to push to "decertify" Biden's 2020 win in Arizona, though this cannot be done.

Finchem has repeatedly and falsely claimed that "Trump won" the election. He has falsely proclaimed that "the election was a fraud" and that it was "rigged." He demanded in mid-2021 that liberal officials and the media prove the falsity of election conspiracy theories that had already been proven false, even selling shirts reading "#ProveIt."

Finchem, who was endorsed by Trump last year and won the Republican primary earlier this month, played a key early role in the election-denying "Stop the Steal" movement in Arizona. After he attended the "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington on January 6, 2021, he was photographed outside the US Capitol during the insurrection that day. He also tweeted a sympathetic message about the rioters, blaming Congress for refusing to acknowledge the "rampant fraud" that, again, didn't exist. (Finchem denies any involvement in the riot and has not been charged with anything.)

On the first anniversary of the insurrection, Finchem tweeted a false claim that "the real insurrection" was how Democratic officials in Arizona had rigged the election with "tens of thousands of fraudulent votes" in two big counties won by Biden. This is just fiction.

In July, Finchem baselessly called for the arrest of incumbent Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is now the Democratic nominee for governor, and Adrian Fontes, the Democratic nominee for secretary of state who oversaw the 2020 election in Maricopa County, where many Republicans have baselessly alleged mass fraud.

Finchem's campaign did not respond to a request for comment....