One of the more brazen tactics emerging in Arizona’s contested primaries is the Fake Trump Endorsement, where candidates claim to have the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, even though it is a complete lie. The strategy seems to be that most voters won’t hear about the lie, or will have already submitted their mail-in ballot before they discover the lie, and the Trump endorsement is powerful enough to earn votes from unsuspecting voters.
The Arizona Daily Independent previously covered Gail Golec and her fake Trump endorsement road signs, but not to be outdone, District 3 State House candidate, and former legislator, Darin Mitchell, not only printed up and is distributing thousands of palm cards claiming a fake Trump endorsement, he has branded himself as part of what he is calling the Team Trump Dream Team, featuring his picture and logo, as well as the pictures and logos of gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem.
The problem is that Mitchell does not have an endorsement from President Trump. In spite of repeated trips to Mar-A-Lago to seek the former President’s endorsement, all Mitchell has gotten is a picture with the President, which he also displays prominently on the card. Mitchell’s social media accounts are also completely devoid of any mentions of a Trump endorsement, which is an obvious red flag, since candidates who receive the endorsement generate huge amounts of social media coverage over it.
“Mitchell is lying, and it is amazing that he thinks he can get away with it.” said one observer of the race, “Then again who knows how long he’s been knocking on people’s doors and just lying to their faces? I’d be mad as hell if I were one of his voters though. Nothing more disrespectful than to tell a lie like that to their faces, thousands of times!”
For their part, neither Lake nor Finchem, both of whom are endorsed by the former President, seem aware of Mitchell’s misleading handout, but their volunteers may be inadvertently helping perpetuate the scam by handing out the cards on neighborhood walks.
Voters who want to verify a candidate’s claims of a Trump endorsement can follow a well-maintained list at https://ballotpedia.org/Endorsements_by_Donald_Trump. The only Arizona legislative candidates endorsed by Trump at this time are David Farnsworth, Robert Scantlebury, Anthony Kern, and Janae Shamp.
In the meantime, voters in LD3 will remain largely unaware that Darin Mitchell is faking his Trump endorsement, hoping to fool them into voting for him in the August 2nd primary.
