Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is the antidote to Kari Lake

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is tired of Democrats trying to play nice with MAGA election deniers like Kari Lake, other right-wing conspiracy hawkers and just plain liars.

Politicians like Lake and the many Donald Trump cultists are poisoning the faith voters have in the election process and grifting on their claims.

Fontes, an imposing former Marine who won his statewide election by 120,000 votes, is gaining a reputation around the country as someone who doesn’t shy away or pander to Trump's sycophants.

He was a guest speaker at a Democratic Party event in North Carolina where he said in part, “I use the words ‘MAGA fascists’ because it’s the truth. These people are not Grand Old Party Republicans; they are MAGA fascists.

“There is no reason for me to call them by anything other than what they are. If they feel a little sensitive about that, then maybe they ought to reconsider their position vis-a-vis American democracy and stop acting like fascists.”

Fontes is willing to call out falsehoods

This isn’t something new for Fontes. He has never backed away from debunking falsehoods about stolen or rigged elections and has encouraged others to do the same.

Not enough people do.

And he knows what that could mean in future elections.

A few months after his victory, while his opponent was still publicly calling the elections rigged and soliciting funds — just as Kari Lake has been doing since her loss to Gov. Katie Hobbs — Fontes told The Guardian, “We must stop pretending these guys have legitimate complaints, catering to their eggshell sensitivities.

“We must confront them again and again, treating them like the enemies to democracy that they are. We’re not name-calling, we’re truth-telling — there’s a big difference.”

Richer also takes on election deniers

Prior to becoming Secretary of State in 2022, Fontes lost his job as Maricopa County recorder to Stephen Richer in 2020. (Weird how he couldn’t rig THAT election, huh?)

Since then, he and Richer have both vigorously defended the election system … with facts.

Richer, a Republican, has been steadily under attack since his election. So much so he’s needed added security. But he hasn’t wavered.

In fact, he recently sued losing governor candidate Kari Lake for defamation.

In an op-ed he wrote for The Arizona Republic, Richer said in part, “Rather than accept political defeat, rather than get a new job, she has sought to undermine confidence in our elections and has mobilized millions of her followers against me.”

'We've got to defend them fiercely'

He added, “This case is about a losing candidate for office refusing to accept the will of the voters and, instead, spreading malicious falsehoods to raise money and garner attention.

“Those falsehoods not only undermine confidence in our elections and our democracy, but they also cause harm to real people — like me.”

Both Richer and Fontes also have been staunch defenders of election workers, advocating for strong law enforcement and prosecutorial response to the many threats such workers have received.

Another view: Why Richer should drop his lawsuit against Lake

Fontes said, “We need to be aggressive — not just assertive, but aggressive — in pursuing these threats, because elections are the gold thread that holds the whole fabric of our society together. We’ve got to defend them fiercely.”

Richer and Fontes are the antidote to Kari Lake and those like her.

More people should call out this grift

The Republic’s Robert Anglen has recently published articles outlining the buffoonish nature of the so-called vote audit by the technology firm Cyber Ninjas, hired by then Republican Senate President Karen Fann.

The articles point out how the head of the company, essentially, had no idea what he was doing.

Nothing came of the audit, yet election deniers and political con artists continue to use it to rake in donations from gullible constituents. At the same time eroding confidence in the election process.

In response to The Republic’s articles Fontes tweeted, “The real damage done is from the public personalities continuing to grift $$ using the big lie in the face of reality and overwhelming proof that it was, in fact, a lie. … and how many total taxpayer dollars continue to be wasted because of this nonsense? It has to stop.”

Doing so will take other public personalities, not just Fontes, continually pointing that out.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Adrian Fontes is the antidote to Kari Lake