In the Arizona Republican Party, most activists are conservative, united by strong support for the rule of law and, most recently, election integrity. United that is, unless forced to choose between loyalty to current Party Chairman Kelli Ward and the Party’s bylaws.
At issue is the Party’s bylaws that grant state committeemen 10 days to challenge the results of party elections, like the one held on January 23rd that saw Ward claim victory in her bid for a second term as Chairman. Dozens of state committeemen called for audits of the results and after initial confirmations from top-ranking AZGOP officials that the bylaws would be followed, Ward reversed that decision in very public fashion, claiming that the bylaws didn’t allow for any audits, no audit would happen, and that losers do not get to ask for audits.
That set off a firestorm of criticism from conservatives within the party that had spent the previous months spending their capital entirely on the topic of election integrity, only to be stonewalled by the Maricopa County Supervisors. Suddenly they were hearing the same responses from their own Party Chairman. 17 State Legislators, including some of the party’s most conservative and outspoken election integrity hawks like Mark Finchem, wrote to Ward, demanding that she comply with the bylaws and audit the results, or drop out of the effort to force Maricopa County to do the same with the ballots from November’s election.
“We urge you to heed the calls of your voters and allow for an immediate audit of the election that was held on January 23rd, in a manner that is fair and transparent. Or we would ask that you remove yourself from efforts to properly audit the elections held in Arizona on November 4th, 2020, as you would be an unwelcome distraction and foil for the media to use to discredit our efforts to protect our state’s voters.” read part of the letter sent to Ward.
After nearly two months of refusals to comply, the AZGOP was sued to force an audit, and the State Committeemen began the arduous process of collecting enough signatures to force a redo of the January election. And conservative leaders within the party found themselves having to choose between supporting Ward and her refusal to follow the party’s bylaws, or insisting on election integrity and looking like they were opposing Ward.
“This wasn’t about Ward to me,” said one Committeeman, “it was about the rules. If she doesn’t have to follow the rules then neither does the next chairman or the one after that. Why even have rules then?”
For longtime activists like Members at Large Ian Murray and former State Senator Sylvia Allen, and others, it comes down to supporting Ward, and defending the results of the election, no matter what the bylaws say. Murray, Allen, and several other Members at Large signed emails that the AZGOP sent out, urging state committeemen not to sign the call for a special meeting, claiming that the meeting was properly run, that the effort was sour grapes by a “disgruntled few,” and that it was driven by liberal elements within the Party who opposed the America First agenda that they believe is personified by Ward herself.
“We view the efforts of a few malcontents as divisive and damaging to the America First agenda…” wrote Murray and the others.
Yet those labels clearly do not apply to longtime conservative activists like the aforementioned Mark Finchem, State Representatives Shawnna Bolick, Frank Carroll, Ben Toma, Kevin Payne, and myriad unelected grassroots conservatives who have well established bona fides within the Trump universe, or as anti-establishment voices within the Party. Many of them were Ward supporters in her previous campaigns for U.S. Senate, yet each of them is calling for the rules to be followed, no matter who is in charge.
It is this division of the conservative base that has the results of the fight so difficult to predict.
“There aren’t very many liberals left who are party activists, it is mostly conservatives.” observed a State Committeeman who supports the special meeting but who told ADI that she did not sign because she was afraid of being targeted if she publicly opposed Ward, adding “but I know quite a few conservatives who don’t care about right or wrong or following the rules right now, they just want their candidate to win, no matter what, and that just breaks my heart.”