Some say it is a witch hunt and others are asking what took so long, but one thing most politicos agree on is that Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes’ investigation into Arizona’s 2020 “fake electors” is increasingly serious.
Mayes’ investigation appears to be particularly focused on five high-profile Trump supporters who played a major role, not just as hypothetical electors, but in pushing and promoting efforts to replace Arizona’s elected electors’ authority with their own.
Former AZGOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward, her husband Michael Ward, Arizona Republican National Committeeman Tyler Bowyer, and then-State Representatives Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern are the five individuals named in the article. Both Hoffman and Kern have since been elected to the State Senate.
Already, similar illegitimate electors in Georgia and Michigan have faced a serious of charges for violating election laws, and it is widely expected that similar charges are likely for at least some of Arizona’s participants in the wider effort to substitute electors loyal to Donald Trump for electors who were elected on behalf of Joe Biden after the 2020 election.
Mayes was quoted recently in a CNN piece, calling the investigation “robust,” and “a serious matter.” Mayes vowed “to make sure that we do it on our timetable, applying the resources that it requires to make sure that justice is done, for not only Arizonans, but for the entire country.”
Mayes must walk a fine line due to the fact that her win against the Republican nominee for Attorney General, Abe Hamadeh, is still being contested. Her situation is so shaky, with a less than 300 vote difference between she and Hamadeh, that even she mockingly refers to herself as “Landslide Mayes.”
Still, Mayes’ sense of humor is not likely allowing her to find comic relief in the “elector’s” antics.
All five pushed, to varying degrees, efforts to have the 2020 election results set aside. Some reached out directly to Vice President Mike Pence, believing that he had the authority to set aside the election results. One such communication directed at Pence by Michael Ward including a threat against any Republicans who did not cooperate with the plan. “My Holiday prayer is that every backstabbing ‘Republican’ gets paid back for their failure to act come Jan 20th!” tweeted Ward, who was certainly no stranger to controversial and threatening behavior towards other Republicans.
With a history of aggressive behavior and violent rhetoric, Michael Ward has few supporters left in Arizona’s GOP.
Arizona GOP chair hopeful Kelli Ward’s husband allegedly assaulted volunteer
As a freshly announced candidate for Congress, Kern may make a tempting target for Mayes, but he is given little chance for success in a race that features a number of election heavyweights, so some believe that being mentioned in news stories like this may actually give him a boost.
In greater danger, according to Arizona politicos, are Bowyer and Hoffman, who are close friends as well as political and business allies. Both were prominent supporters of Kelli Ward, both have built their political reputations as Trump loyalists and as ideological warriors for the conservative cause, and both have run into trouble as they reportedly reap millions of dollars from the same type of political opportunism for which they criticize others.
Hoffman, who had numerous social media accounts booted from platforms like Twitter and Facebook for hiring teenagers to spread false information online, has been paid at least $6.6 million by Turning Point for political work, according to an AP story earlier this year. Turning Point is the group that Tyler Bowyer serves as Chief Operating Officer for, and it is a major source of funding for Bowyer’s increasingly lavish lifestyle as well.
“Both are very high-profile, so it isn’t a surprise that they are on that list. As much money as they’ve already made, they could be done today and live far more comfortably than most Arizonans, but they both have bigger plans for themselves and each other, so they have reason to be worried that Mayes actually does come after them. They need politics to make mad money.” said one Republican activist who has worked with both of them in the past. “That said, I would expect them to both celebrate the exposure and wear the investigation like a badge of honor, because a lot of activists will assume they are just being targeted for being all-in for Donald Trump, and that will make them martyrs for the cause.”
There is no word on how long the investigation will last or if or when any charges might be filed.