The successful effort by the Kari Lake campaign to take down Arizona Republican Party chairman Jeff DeWit may have taken another newsworthy turn on Thursday when President Donald Trump announced he would no longer be visiting the state on Friday.
However, some party officials are denying that the two events are actually related.
Arizona’s RNC Committeeman Tyler Bowyer tweeted, “I am hearing Trump isn’t at Mar-a-Lago because he has to be in New York for court. They wanted to make it work but could not promise to get here in time.”
The AZGOP when thrown into turmoil when Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake provided a recording of a 2023 conversation between her and DeWit in which DeWit expressed his concerns about her chances in the 2024 election.
While most news reports are focused on DeWit asking Lake what it would take to convince her to get out of the race, little attention is yet being paid to the question of, on whose behalf was DeWit speaking?
It is widely believed that DeWit was speaking for campaign officials connected to the Trump campaign, which DeWit served as COO for both the 2016 and 2020 campaigns. Many believe the former President will face a greater challenge winning Arizona with Lake on the ballot, due to substantial Republican opposition to Lake’s candidacy from various wings of the party.
“It is hardly a secret that people close to the Trump campaign are concerned that Kari Lake will cost Trump enough votes in a close race that he loses Arizona and potentially the White House,” one campaign operative told the Arizona Daily Independent. “It would hardly be a surprise to find out that DeWit was acting on behalf of Team Trump, after all that’s who he has been working for non-stop since 2015, but he won’t ever admit it, he’s too loyal.”
The drama comes at a bad time for a state party plagued by infighting. The Party’s MAGA leadership is under siege from insurgents who insist they are not loyal enough to the MAGA cause, and the GOP’s annual meeting this coming Saturday was already expected to see an effort to remove DeWit and replace him with someone even farther to the right.
Corporation Commissioner Jim O’Connor, who had previously unsuccessfully sought the chairmanship, is off and running and is expected to be Kari Lake’s choice in her effort to control the party leading up to her own primary election later this year.
The Trump event was expected to raise some $500,000 for the state party, but tickets being sold are now being refunded instead.
“This is just completely wild!” said one party activist, “It was a phone call between DeWit and Kari Lake, so obviously Lake leaked it to try to take down DeWit. But why do we have Team Trump on Team Trump violence? It is just insane to watch. Didn’t these same people just blow an easy win in 2022 because of infighting? Now this is how they start the election year?”