Republican Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb announced On Tuesday, he’s running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Kirsten Cinema.
Lam will be the first Republican to participate in the 2024 election, but likely the last. He won the Democratic Party in 2018, but Cinema, who left that party last year to become an independent, has already faced a challenge from Rep. Ruben Gallego of the Phoenix Democratic Party.
Since being first elected as Pinal County sheriff in 2016, Lam has been an integral figure in Arizona politics, rising to national prominence and regularly appearing in mainstream and far-right peripheral media. increase. It’s his appearances and those fringe affiliations with his outlet that could sow trouble for Lam in the election campaign.
Gallego has already begun to take note of his ties to the far right, releasing a statement to Capitol Hill Police Sergeant Tuesday. Akirino Gonell accuses Lamb of “perpetuating the ‘Big Lie'”.
lamb is Alliance with Group Pursuing widespread election fraud conspiracy theories, such as True the Vote, lied to law enforcement.
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Lambs and the Political Fringe
Lam has made a name for himself by appearing in mainstream conservative media outlets like Fox News, where he said: About immigration Problem, he also appeals to a different audience.
lamb is against vaccines is a member of a group known asconstitutional sheriff”
The movement, led by former Graham County, Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack, sovereign citizen group Its leader, Mack, believes that the “New World Order” is aiming to take the guns and that the Sheriff is on the front lines of stopping “Election Fraud.”
lamb claimed He is not a “constitutional sheriff.” Organization and signatories in some of their material, and mac himself Called Lamb a constitutional sheriff.
The group takes a favorable view of armed civilian militias, including militias operating along the Arizona-Mexico border.Such groups are largely anti-government, and some of their leaders Attending the January 6th Riot.
Some militias are steeped in the QAnon conspiracy theory that the “cabal” is actively participating in sex trafficking to help the “elite.” There is no evidence for these claims.
Lam signaled these conspiracy theorists. sign a copy of the book For QAnon influencers with the QAnon slogan “WWG1WGA”
Other QAnon proponents work with ramlike Melody Jennings, also known as “Trumpermel,” the women behind efforts to organize armed observers to monitor Arizona’s dropboxes during the 2022 election. and blocked her group. extremist sworn guardianfrom staking the dropbox.
Lam has also appeared on many QAnon-related shows, including one with a history of anti-Semitic comments. It included an article in which author Rick Wiles spent an hour and a half saying:a seditionist jew‘ was “scheming” to impeach Trump and calling Jews “tyrants”.
Wiles also states that the Antichrist “gay jews“He was Interview with Lauren Witzke And in an episode in which Lamb also appears, Wiles said that Jews “crush” and “crush” people. I’m a conspiracy theorist It reflects the beliefs of white nationalists.inside Appearing on the White Nationalist Podcast no white gilt, Witzke repeated the racist “great alternative” theory.
lamb Witzke Supported when she ran for Senate from Delaware.
Lamb also reflects the “great alternative” theory Appearing on QAnon talk showstates that illegal immigration is “an interest in their agenda.”
A popular racist ideology among white supremacists claims that white Americans are being replaced by immigrants. seized by extremist groups such as american identity movement and generation identity.
Also, the murder of Anders Behring Breivik at a Norwegian youth summer camp in 2011 and the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue photography Pittsburgh witnessed the worst attack on the Jewish community in US history. Just before that happened, the killer took to the right-wing social media site Gab and said he believed immigrants were brought in to “kill and replace our people.”
The following year, 51 people died and 40 were injured in New Zealand, but not before the shooter posted a 74-page manifesto titled “The Great Replacement.”
Again in 2019, in El Paso, Texas, the shooter who killed 23 people at a Walmart cited a “great replacement” in his manifesto, saying the killings were a response to the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” said.
Lam testified before Congress earlier this year, saying there was “zero evidence” that voter fraud was rampant, but the group has continued to pursue unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 and 2022 elections. We have formed an alliance with and continue to work together.
One of those groups is True the Vote.2000 Mules”
Lam partnered with TTV on an election hotline to send voters to TTV instead of election officials to look up election issues. hello”sheriff’s toolkitFor TTV, he attended an invitation-only event by TTV in Pinal County.pit”
The event, which hosted QAnon influencers and other conspiracy theorists, pushed unsubstantiated fraud allegations, prompting many in the election fraud field to rub their noses with the likes of Lamb and other prominent figures in Arizona. made possible. last MayLam also said there was “no doubt” that there was fraud in the 2020 election, later referring to “2000 Mules” before its release.
Lamb is likely not the only Republican candidate for the Senate.
Duncan Colton, Kari Lake Senior Advisorsaid Lake to the Washington Post The senator himself may be eyeing a runLam endorsed Lake in the 2022 gubernatorial race.
