Kristin Clark is mounting a write-in campaign to block Jake Hoffman from reaching the Arizona legislature. /Courtesy of Kristin Clark / Town of Queen Creek
By Erasmus Baxter | Phoenix New Times
Revelations about right-wing disinformation boss Jake Hoffman’s election ratfuckery have spurred a last-ditch effort to stop him from ascending to the Arizona Legislature.
Hoffman, a Queen Creek council member and Republican House candidate for Legislative District 12, drew national attention last month when The Washington Post reported on a disinformation cell of local teens his digital marketing company, Rally Forge, had organized. The teens posted identical messages that asserted COVID-19 is overhyped and generally attempted to undermine confidence in the validity of American elections — all in support of President Donald Trump.
Experts quoted by the Post compared the local effort to those Russian troll farms conducted in support of Trump leading up to the 2016 election.
“In this election, the troll farm is in Phoenix,” Graham Brookie, director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, told the Post.
Facebook eventually removed 200 accounts, 55 pages, and 76 Instagram accounts associated with Rally Forge, and Twitter permanently suspended Hoffman’s personal account.
