11 Republicans affirmed Donald Trump won in Arizona. What to know about the fake electors

Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this article misspelled Loraine Pellegrino's name.

They convened at the Arizona Republican Party headquarters two weeks before Christmas in 2020 and put their names to a lie.

Eleven top party officials, lawmakers and candidates avowed they were the state's "duly elected and qualified electors" and cast their votes for then-President Donald Trump.

None of it was true.

Electors in Arizona are required by law to follow the will of the people. In 2020, legitimate electors designated by the Democratic Party cast their votes for Joe Biden, who had won Arizona by a 10,457-vote margin.

The 11 Republicans weren't qualified electors for the 2020 election, Trump didn't win Arizona, and their votes were not official. They celebrated anyway, immortalizing the moment in a Twitter video.

In all, 84 people — including elected officials, candidates, former officeholders and Republican party leaders — from groups in seven swing states falsely claimed to be alternate electors in a coordinated plot to keep Trump in office.

Jump ahead two years. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has launched an investigation into the state's fake electors, after similar probes by federal and state prosecutors in Nevada, Georgia and Michigan.

And the 11 Arizonans who applauded eagerly at the time are unwilling to talk about their decisions, declining interview requests, hanging up on calls and retreating from questions.

Here is what you need to know about the GOP's slate of fake electors.

Tyler Bowyer

Bowyer, 37, is the chief operating officer at Turning Point USA, a nonprofit that advocates for conservative politics on high school, college and university campuses.

Bowyer's biography on Turning Point's website touts his "strong desire to combat Marxist-Leninist philosophy from entering the American political mainstream." He describes himself as a seventh-generation Arizonan.

Republican Gov. Jan Brewer appointed Bowyer as a student regent on the Arizona Board of Regents in 2011. He has worked for the Republican National Committee and served as chairman of the Maricopa County Republican Party from 2015-2017.

In July 2015, Bowyer helped to convene a rally at the Phoenix Convention Center that served as an early national sign of the future president's appeal.

Bowyer has declined recent interview requests about the electors. In 2022, he told The Arizona Republic he didn’t know “all the details and facts” but emphasized his role as an elector.

“I was an elector − I want to make sure we’re clear here − I was an elector for the Republican Party.”

Nancy Cottle

Nancy Cottle, 71, of Mesa, chaired the Arizona Trump electors.

Cottle was subpoenaed by House Select Committee investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol for her "role and participation in the purported slate of electors casting votes for Donald Trump and, to the extent relevant, your role in the events of January 6, 2021.”

Cottle, has served on the Arizona GOP Executive Committee and the Maricopa County Republicans Committee. She led the Pledge of Allegiance at a Jan. 15, 2022,Trump rally in Florence, ending with the rallying cry, "Let's Go Brandon."

She describes herself on Twitter as a "political junkie" and an "ultra MAGA." Her LinkedIn page lists her as a "strong consulting professional" with a background in business planning. Cottle is the owner of The Branded Image.

She has a master's degree in operational management from the University of Phoenix and a bachelor's in health, physical education and speech from Kent State University, according to her bio.

Cottle has not responded to multiple interview requests.

State Sen. Jake Hoffman

State Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, chairs the Legislature's conservative Freedom Caucus.

On Jan. 5, 2021, Hoffman sent a letter to Vice President Mike Pence asking him not to accept the state's official electoral votes. Although Hoffman had not yet taken office, the letter was sent on official state letterhead and had a return address of the state Capitol.

Hoffman has proposed and supported so-called election integrity bills, including one that would trigger an automatic redo of an election in which voters had to wait in line more than 90 minutes and another to break up Maricopa County into four counties. Both of those failed.

Hoffman, 38, is the married father of five, according to online biographies. He previously served on the Higley School Board and the Queen Creek Town Council. He was a communications director with Turning Point USA and runs several conservative digital marketing companies.

In 2020, a company he operated called Rally Forge was accused of operating a troll farm for a Turning Point affiliate and was banned from Facebook and suspended from Twitter. The company paid teens to set up bogus accounts and flood social media with posts sowing distrust in mail-in ballots and downplaying COVID-19.

Another of Hoffman's companies, 1Ten, received $2.1 million from a political action committee that used spoof donors to boost the campaign of failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake. The owners of California businesses who were listed as the source of funds said they had never heard of the PAC − or Lake.

Hoffman has avoided questions about the fake electors. In a brief interview outside the Capitol in 2022, he told The Arizona Republic electors wanted to provide Congress and Pence with "dueling opinions" before walking away.

He dodged questions again in June. When asked about investigations, Hoffman retreated to a members-only stairwell at The Capitol.

State Sen. Anthony Kern

State Sen. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, is an ardent Trump supporter who spoke at "Stop the Steal" rallies and was at the U.S. Capitol when it was sacked by rioters. He has given conflicting accounts about where he was that day, but photos and videos show him on the Capitol steps.

Kern, 61, predicted in speeches he gave before the riot that Jan. 6 would be a "big day," frothing up crowds by asking if this was "a revolution." He told The Republic in 2022 what happened at the Capitol was a partisan hoax.

Kern in 2005 was hired as a civilian code enforcement officer for The El Mirage Police Department. He was fired in 2014 for lying to a supervisor after a string of disciplinary problems. The department also put Kern on the Brady list, a database of officers accused of dishonesty.

Kern was elected to Arizona's House of Representatives in 2015. He falsely claimed on financial disclosure forms that he was a certified law enforcement officer. In 2019, he tried to pass a law to overhaul the Brady List without acknowledging he would directly benefit by getting his name removed. He lost his seat in the 2020 election.

After swearing an oath of fealty to Trump in 2020, Kern was tapped to help count and inspect ballots during the Arizona Senate's "audit" of Maricopa County election results led by Cyber Ninjas. Contractors ousted Kern after several days later because of "optics."

Kern has repeatedly declined to discuss his role as a Trump elector. During a June interview, he brushed off questions and said he didn't need a lawyer.

Only people who have done something wrong or had something to hide would need to hire a lawyer, he said.

Jim Lamon

Jim Lamon ran for U.S. Senate in 2022 and lost in the Republican primary.

Lamon, 67, of Paradise Valley, is married with two children. He grew up on a farm in Alabama before joining the U.S. Army. He was stationed in Germany in the Cold War and served as an airborne officer.

Lamon earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Alabama in 1979.

He describes himself on LinkedIn as a Fortune 500 executive. Lamon is the founder of Scottsdale-based Depcom Power, a solar engineering and construction company that employed 1,600 across the nation when he sold it.

Before entering politics, Lamon was known as a reliable donor to Republican causes and candidates, including Trump. He was a behind-the-scenes player in the Arizona Senate's "audit" and helped bankroll security.

Lamon made immigration and border security a cornerstone of his platform and sought to restore Trump-era policies that returned asylum seekers to Mexico while awaiting court hearings. He was also critical of the Biden Administration's COVID-19 relief package.

Despite pouring millions of his own money into his campaign, Lamon lost to Republican challenger Blake Masters, who was defeated by Democrat Mark Kelly.

Lamon has not responded to interview requests about the electors. In 2022, while he was running for Senate, he appeared on KTVK-TV’s “Politics Unplugged” and claimed the electors were part of a backup plan in case Trump succeeded in his election fraud challenges.

“The Republican electors put forth a valid document that said, in the event that the election certification was overturned, there would be no excuse not to recognize those electors,” Lamon said.

The signed document, however, had no such proviso.

Robert Montgomery

Robert Montgomery is the former chair of the Cochise County Republican Committee. He was unseated by a surprise challenger in December and resigned from the committee in response.

Montgomery, 72, of Hereford, pushed for hand counts of votes as committee chair and before the 2022 election told Cochise County Supervisors they should ignore warnings about it from then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

He told the supervisors to throw Hobbs' letter “in the bucket somewhere” and argued a full hand-count would be “easy to do,” according to a report by Votebeat.

Montgomery said former State Rep. Mark Finchem − an election denier and conspiracy theorist − would support hand counts if he won his bid for secretary of state. Finchem lost in a landslide to his Democratic challenger.

The Cochise County Board of Supervisors in September appointed Montgomery to the Palominas Fire District board. The decision came despite protests from some Sierra Vista residents who said Montgomery's role as a fake elector should disqualify him. They complained Montgomery should not be rewarded for trying to overturn the election.

He is also on the county's planning and zoning commission.

Montgomery has repeatedly declined to discuss his role as a fake elector. He did not respond to messages left at his home or at the fire district in July.

Samuel Moorhead

Samuel Moorhead is the elected vice president of the Gila County Community College District governing board, which he joined in 2012.

He was serving as the second vice chair of the Gila County Republican Party when he signed as a Trump elector.

According to online biographies, Moorhead, 78, of Globe, is married and has four children and five grandchildren. He was born in Pennsylvania and served as a Navy corpsman for 14 years, doing multiple tours in Vietnam.

Moorhead has a bachelor's degree in education from Edinboro State University in Pennsylvania and earned a master's degree in special education and teaching from New Mexico State University in 1999. He is listed as a consultant on his LinkedIn page.

He taught at schools in New Mexico and Arizona. Moorhead also was a commercial driver for Werner Enterprises until his retirement in 2007.

Moorhead has not responded to calls and messages about his role as a Trump elector.

Loraine Pellegrino

Loraine Pellegrino, 65, of Phoenix, was secretary for the Arizona Trump electors.

Pellegrino is one of four electors subpoenaed by House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

She has an extensive background in Arizona Republican politics. Pellegrino is past president of the Arizona Federation of Republican Women and is a founding member of the Ahwatukee Republican Women's Club.

Her online biography highlights her election as a delegate to Republican National Committee conventions in 2012, 2016 and 2020. She has served three terms on the Arizona GOP Executive Committee. She lists the recruitment of Republican women to run for office as one of her personal achievements.

Pellegrino has lived in Arizona for 25 years. She was born and raised in Connecticut and has a bachelor's degree in media studies from Sacred Heart University. She is married and has one son.

Pellegrino in a January 2022 interview said the electors met as a contingency “in case there was a change in the decision here in the state." She couldn't say how the plan came together but bristled at the characterization of the group as "alternate" electors.

“We were electors for Trump and we were hoping things would change,” she said. “Just in case, we signed our paperwork to be ready in the event that something was overturned.”

Pellegrino told The Republic in May 2022 nothing had come of subpoenas from the Jan. 6 committee.

Pellegrino hung up when contacted in July about the attorney general's investigation.

Greg Safsten

Greg Safsten was executive director of the Arizona Republican Party when he signed as a Trump elector.

Safsten, 35, of Gilbert, was hired as a campaign consultant in 2022 by U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters, who was defeated in the general election. He had previously worked as an adviser and director for Rep. Andy Biggs and Rep. Matt Salmon.

According to his Legistorm biography, Safsten got his start in 2012 as a field director for Salmon's campaign and was later hired as his legislative assistant. In 2016, he went to work for the Biggs campaign and ultimately rose to the position of deputy chief of staff.

Police and court records show in 2022 he was arrested and pleaded guilty to extreme DUI.

According to a March 2022, search warrant affidavit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, a Gilbert police officer saw Safsten speed away from a Taco Bell restaurant "losing control of his vehicle as it fishtailed" and nearly collided with another vehicle.

The officer said Safsten kept going when he initially tried to pull him over, driving at a high rate of speed and weaving between lanes until finally pulling over about a half-mile later. He failed a field sobriety test, records show.

Safsten was fined and sentenced in January to 60 months' probation, records show.

Safsten's LinkedIn page has no employment information after August 2022. He bills himself as a "seasoned public relations, communications, public policy & political executive."

"I work to be the leader and teammate I'd want on my own team," he writes on his page. "Having formed and led teams in various conditions for over a dozen years, I know what it takes to win."

Safsten was born and raised in Mesa. He attended Mountain View High School and obtained a bachelor's degree in international studies from Arizona State University in 2007. He also studied clinical laboratory science at Weber State University in Utah.

Safsten did not respond to an interview request.

Kelli Ward

Kelli Ward is the past chair of the Arizona GOP. She helped to organize the signing of the fake electors, sat at the head of the table during the "signing" video and boasted about the moment on Twitter.

"Oh, yes we did!" Ward wrote in a Dec. 14, 2020 post. "We are the electors who represent the legal voters of Arizona! #Trump2020 #MAGA."

Ward, 54, of Lake Havasu City, was among those subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 committee and the Department of Justice over the slate of fake electors. Her attorney said in 2022 Ward was engaging in First Amendment-protected activity.

In testifying before the Jan. 6 committee, Ward exercised her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 200 times.

Ward is an osteopathic physician turned politician. She was elected to the Arizona Senate in 2013. She resigned to go after John McCain's U.S. Senate seat in 2016, losing in the Republican primary, 39% to McCain's 51%. She tried again for U.S. Senate in 2018 and lost in the Republican primary to Martha McSally.

Ward became party chair in 2019 and after the 2020 election became one of Trump's most ardent supporters, launching several unsuccessful lawsuits to overturn Arizona's election.

Ward promoted various voter fraud conspiracies and championed the Arizona Senate's "audit," delivering frequent YouTube updates as the ballot count unfolded, which turned into a fundraising bonanza for the party's candidates and causes.

The party took in more cash during the first four months of 2021 than it had during full election cycles.

Ward is married and has three children. She was born in West Virginia. She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Duke University and a doctorate from West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine. She has a master's degree in public health from A.T. Still University, according to her legislative biography.

She practiced emergency medicine in Lake Havasu City and Kingman.

Ward was replaced as party chair in 2023. She and her husband announced on YouTube they bought a 44-foot catamaran and were starting a charter business called Sail American Honey.

Ward has not responded to interview requests about the electors.

Michael Ward

Michael Ward is Kelli Ward's husband and a GOP activist. He, too, has been subpoenaed by the Department of Justice for his role as a Trump elector.

Ward, 58, of Lake Havasu City, is an emergency physician and is the state air surgeon in the Arizona Air National Guard, according to his LinkedIn page. He formerly worked at Havasu Regional Medical Center.

Ward first enlisted in the US Air Force in 1983 and began his military medical career. He joined the reserves and was commissioned to active duty in 1992, according to a listing on America's Mighty Warriors, a veteran's support group.

Ward earned a doctorate in osteopathic medicine in 1995 from A.T. Still University, where he met Kelli, according to her biography. They were married in 1995. Ward served as his wife's campaign manager from 2011-2015.

He was accused in 2019 of spitting in the eye of one of his wife's former volunteers. Police records indicate the alleged incident happened at the Arizona Republican Party's general election night gala in Paradise Valley.

The former volunteer said Michael Ward was angry because the volunteer was supporting Kelli Ward's political opponent, Martha McSally, according to police reports. Michael Ward emailed the Paradise Valley police and denied the allegations. He told police his accuser was an attention seeker and known storyteller.

Michael Ward also had a reputation for confronting people on his wife's behalf. He was accused of bullying a staffer of Sen. John McCain at a Tea Party event in 2016. The moment was captured on video.

Michael Ward did not respond to an interview request about the attorney general's investigation into the Trump electors.

Arizona's second slate of fake electors

Arizona spawned a second group of fake electors in 2020 who certified that it, too, had cast the state's votes for Trump.

The lesser-known Trump loyalists called themselves “The Sovereign Citizens of the Great State of Arizona” and sent the National Archives in Washington, D.C., notarized documents that carried the state seal on their letterhead. The signers were:

• Federico Buck, a real estate professional.

• Cynthia Franco.

• Sarai Franco.

• Stewart A. Hogue.

• Jamie Hunsaker, a Trump enthusiast.

• Carrie Lundell.

• Christeen Taryn Moser.

• Danjee J. Moser.

• Jessica Panell.

• Donald Paul Schween, who was active in Republican Party politics.

• Peter Wang.

Arizona Republic reporters Ryan Randazzo and Richard Ruelas contributed to this story.

Robert Anglen is an investigative reporter for The Republic. Reach him at robert.anglen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8694. Follow him on Twitter @robertanglen.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona's 11 Republican fake electors face state, federal scrutiny