By Ray Stern || Arizona Republic
Extreme positions exist on both sides of the political spectrum, but Arizona Republicans, with a good chance of retaining control of the state Legislature, have the most candidates spreading false information about the election system and conspiracy theories.
Arizona voters could put candidates who support overturning elections in control at the Legislature and also in statewide offices including governor and secretary of state.
Republican legislative candidates include Oath Keepers and people who believe in, or have dabbled in, conspiracies like QAnon and a century-old imagined plot that a Jewish banking family manipulates geopolitics.
By contrast, no Democratic candidates for the Legislature appear to have a history in Antifa or other left-wing extremist organizations, and Democrats have not publicly spread false, debunked allegations about the election system.
Not all GOP candidates who Democrats consider extreme actually fit that label. And moderate Republicans are running, too. A list of moderate Republicans running for the Legislature this year might include Ken Bennett of Prescott, a former secretary of state who worked as a liaison for the state Senate’s partisan audit but believes President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, or three-term House member David Cook, who voted against Gov. Doug Ducey’s flat tax last year and prioritizes paying down the state’s debt.
But out of 90 seats in the Legislature, more than a dozen GOP candidates — five running for the state Senate, the rest for the House — have been accused by partisans of extremism and have records worth exploring.
‘I’m not an extremist’
Quang Nguyen escaped the Communist regime of Vietnam when his family was evacuated to the United States in the early 1970s. Now, 59 and a state lawmaker from Legislative District 1 in highly conservative Prescott Valley, Nguyen said he helps his community as a member of the Yavapai County Oath Keepers.
Nationally, the Oath Keepers group is a “large but loosely organized collection of individuals, some of whom are associated with militias,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice, which is prosecuting 11 of its leaders, including Phoenix resident Edward Vallejo, on charges of seditious conspiracy related to the riot at the U.S. Capitol. “Members and affiliates of the Oath Keepers were among the individuals and groups who forcibly entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”
The Anti-Defamation League and Democrats have called the organization an extremist group. Other local elected officials who have declared themselves members include Rep. Mark Finchem — the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for secretary of state — and state Sen. Wendy Rogers, who won the Aug. 2 primary in Legislative District 7 against fellow Oath Keeper state Sen. Kelly Townsend.
Nguyen said it was a “misunderstood” organization and that the Yavapai County chapter has no affiliation with the national chapter. The extremism label is unfair, he said.
“I’m not an extremist and will never be one,” Nguyen said. “They are not a racist organization because I have been a member.”
Nguyen said the group is made up mostly of former or retired first responders. He goes to meetings a couple of times a year to work on preparedness training, learning to work radios and perform first aid. They’re training for community emergencies, with no “militia function,” he said.
