The Left Starts to Panic as ‘Election Deniers’ Begin to Dominate Critical Secretary of State Contests – Opinion

Conservative voters have been subject to one criticism over time: Too much attention is paid to federal offices and too little is given local candidates.

In my county, where I’ve been Chief Judge of an election precinct for over a decade, candidates for county commissioner, school board, county clerk, various judges, the recorder of deeds, etc., are very often left blank by voters. The end result is that a relatively small number of voters have an outsized influence on the people who run the county bureaucracy and who occupy what could be “farm team” positions.

There have been positive signs over the past two years that conservatives now understand the consequences of failing to pay attention at all levels of elected officials, particularly in the light of the 2020 electoral fiasco. Particularly the officials responsible for maintaining integrity in elections.

Donald Trump’s pick to become Arizona’s top elections official raised more campaign cash in 2021 than his two potential Democratic opponents combined — a sign of MAGA-world’s deep engagement in taking over under-the-radar positions in charge of running battleground state elections.

State Rep. Mark Finchem, whom Trump endorsed for Arizona secretary of state in September of last year, has made the former president’s lies about the 2020 election results a cornerstone of his campaign. Finchem has said repeatedly, and without providing legitimate evidence, that the election was tainted by fraud, and he was a major backer of the GOP-led review of the vote in Maricopa County, which election experts and the county’s own Republican officials trashed as an unprofessional fishing expedition.

Drafting off Trump’s endorsement, Finchem brought in more than $660,000 for his campaign in 2021, according to new campaign finance reports. That’s more than the combined fundraising totals of the two leading Democrats, former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes and state House Minority Leader Reginald Bolding, who respectively raised about $385,000 and $200,000 for the year.

Finchem was not the only Republican to have business connections. Finchem wasn’t even close. But the financial haul from Trump’s pick, which included thousands of donations under $100 that poured in from around the country, points to a broader trend across the states.

Arizona isn’t the only place where the ferment is taking place. Trump-endorsed candidates Jody Hiice in Georgia, and Kristina Kazmo in Michigan also make a fortune from their campaigns. Another dozen credible secretary-of-state candidates could also be on the fall ballot before all the dust has settled.

It should become obvious after what happened in November 2020 that we have to elect take-no-prisoners-warriors for the position of secretary-of-state. These are not the clowns Brad Raffensperger, a stump-broke flaccid stump-broke Brad Raffensperger.

The era of school boards being ignored seems to have ended, in addition to the position of secretary of state. Increasingly, fights over school board positions look to be the line of contact between conservative parents concerned about the quality of education received by children in the school system and the progressive enablers of the various teachers’ unions.

I have to admit that the way conservatives have risen to the challenge of contesting–and often seizing–all available levers of power has been inspiring. Populist-conservative voters, freed from the thrall of Conservative, Inc., have internalized the type of organizational skill that has so frequently eluded us in the past years. It is very positive. There are many visionary, strong and capable candidates emerging. These men and women have reasons to seek office that go beyond the monetary perks. It is in serious danger. The only way to turn this around is to out-organize the terrorists and out-vote them. Right now, I’m very hopeful that we are on the right track.