Election conspiracy believer, Trump ally, others could be in running for Arizona Republican Party chair

Jim O'Connor, the Arizona Corporation Commission chair and an election-conspiracy believer who wants to halt the use of machines in elections, has positioned himself as a candidate to lead the state Republican Party, which holds its mandatory annual meeting on Saturday in Phoenix.

Other candidates could be in the running as well: Donald Trump endorsed his favorite for the role. But O'Connor's interest in the job comes with some intrigue: A leaked letter from an Arizona Corporation Commission lawyer to O'Connor could indicate that O'Connor knew state Republican Party Chair Jeff DeWit might resign.

DeWit quit the post on Jan. 24, the day after Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake released a March 2023 recording of DeWit offering her a lucrative job to quit her race. She released it just days before the GOP meeting, when committee members from around the state will gather to vote for new leaders.

O'Connor won't be the only choice for chair for the hundreds of state committee members at the GOP meeting. But his interest in the position raises the possibility the party leadership could move farther to the right.

The chair position wasn't supposed to be open this year: DeWit was only one year into his two-year term. But his resignation clears the path for a new chair.

O'Connor, a longtime party activist who's been on the Corporation Commission since 2020, told The Arizona Republic his preparation for the job was "coincidental."

"No one I knew had a clue Ms. Lake had such damning evidence of (DeWit's) corruption," O'Connor said. "I was approached by dozens of state committeemen asking if I was interested in that pro bono job for the final year, if the vote to remove DeWit was successful."

Former President Donald Trump has his own preferred candidate for state chair. On Friday, he endorsed Gina Swoboda, a former Trump adviser and senior policy adviser to the state Senate on elections. She's also the state GOP's current third vice chair.

"Gina is a strong fighter for election integrity and will be relentless in her work to deliver Arizona for President Trump and Kari Lake in 2024," Trump said in a statement on the same day a jury ordered him to pay $83.3 million in damages for defaming an advice columnist.

Former president loses lawsuit: Trump hit with $83.3 million in damages for defaming E. Jean Carroll

Lake soon responded on social media that she was "proud" to join Trump in endorsing Swoboda, saying she "will help deliver Arizona for President Trump and flip control of the U.S. Senate."

O'Connor said Lake's endorsement should lay to rest the idea that he coordinated his run for chair with Lake. He did not say if he would continue running but has not yet dropped out of the race.

Numerous Arizona elected officials also followed Trump in endorsing Swoboda.

But other candidates also have thrown their names in the race for the suddenly vacated chair position.

'Betrayal': Arizona GOP Chair Jeff DeWit resigns after recording of 'offer' to Kari Lake

Letter shows O'Connor prepared for party leadership role

A letter from Corporation Commission lawyer Wesley Van Cleve shows that O'Connor had asked recently if state law allowed him to serve as chair of the regulatory agency as well as chair of the state Republican Party. Van Cleve answered in the Jan. 8 letter that no law prevented him from holding two chair positions at once.

Two weeks later, Kari Lake leaked the recording after keeping it secret for 10 months.

After DeWit resigned, O'Connor emerged almost immediately as a candidate for the vacant chair job. His name appears as a chair candidate in a flyer circulated to Republicans around the state this week promoting an "Ultra Grassroots" slate of candidates for state party leaders, with O'Connor's name at the top.

Last year, DeWit, a former state treasurer, Trump campaign leader and NASA executive, won out among election-denying candidates for chair by promising to shore up the party's finances.

The party has been hobbled by a desperate need for more funds after losses by Trump-endorsed statewide candidates in 2022, including Lake's loss to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. The situation appeared to be turning around, with the party announcing last month it had a "record-breaking" last quarter of 2023 in donations.

DeWit had replaced divisive GOP Chair Kelli Ward, who along with her husband were among 11 Republicans who in 2020 falsely certified that Arizona’s votes in the electoral college should go to Trump, not Joe Biden.

DeWit's resignation raised concerns among some Republicans that the party would lapse back into disunity and infighting.

DeWit told The Republic he believes the letter to O'Connor "shows they planned this far in advance" and that he had been told by others that was so.

DeWit declined further comment.

'Disgusting': Kari Lake assails former AZ GOP boss Jeff DeWit, doesn't say why she released 'bribe' recording

Party infighting led to movement against DeWit

Republican activist Dan Farley posted his concerns about a possible conspiracy on X.com, formerly Twitter.

"Don't tell me it wasn’t coordinated," he told The Republic, adding that the Jan. 8 letter shows "premeditation."

Farley is not a moderate. He's a GOP precinct committee member, GOP chair in Phoenix's Legislative District 4 and president of the Arizona Tea Party. Yet he has battled with what he calls the "tyranny" faction of the party — election deniers and "grifters" who he believes are ruining the party.

DeWit's political enemies have been moving for months toward an intended ouster of DeWit and filling the position with O'Connor, but Lake's recording streamlined the process, Farley said.

Hard-right Republican activists don't like DeWit because "he's just not part of the cult," according to Farley.

Farley also noted that O'Connor took over as acting chair of the Maricopa County Republican Party's annual meeting on Jan. 13, leading he and others to speculate it was a trial run for the state job.

If DeWit hadn't resigned, people pushing the "Ultra Grassroots" slate with O'Connor could have found the votes to call for a special election meeting in 45 days under the party's bylaws, Farley said. The bylaws also prohibit elected officials from holding the chair position, but "if they have the numbers" at the meeting, he said, O'Connor's supporters would vote to change the rules.

Other names discussed by observers for the top slot include former state Rep. Liz Harris, who was expelled from the Arizona Legislature last year for lying about disinformation she allowed an ally to present at a hearing. Asked if she was considering going for the chair position, Harris told The Republic in a text, "While I am not sure of all the candidates, I have personally been impressed with AZ Corporate Commissioner Jim O'Connor."

Farley said that last year, O'Connor asked him for his extensive list of GOP-related email contacts. When Farley refused, O'Connor teamed up with Harris "because she has a big social media following," he said.

Harris and O'Connor both work with Shelby Busch, co-founder of We the People AZ Alliance PAC and the county GOP's first vice chair, who is a close ally of Lake, Farley explained.

Farley previously has been critical of the county party's current leadership, calling it unethical, while Busch claims Farley has attacked her because of "political differences."

'Grassroots' candidate believes O'Connor just acted 'preemptively'

O'Connor has echoed some of the same election-fraud concerns of Busch and Harris, asking counties to stop using machines in elections and exploring how the Corporation Commission could hold a hearing on the use of "voting machines," which he called an "incredible risk to our republic."

Vera Gebran, who ran unsuccessfully for the Legislature last year, is running for first vice chair of the state party on the same Grassroots slate as O'Connor. She doesn't believe O'Connor knew about Lake's recording before she released it, saying he was probably "acting preemptively" by asking Corporation Commission lawyers about the position "in case DeWit did step down."

She noted that DeWit foes have been circulating petitions for weeks asking GOP members to try to oust DeWit.

"I think it was totally a coincidence," she said of the timing of Lake's audio release before the state meeting.

Jill Norgaard, the state GOP's acting chair since DeWit resigned, and her advisers are pushing for a special meeting in 45 days to elect a new chair.

But Gebran said "that is a month and a half out of the 10 we have left" before the Nov. 5 election. Having attended the Jan. 13 county meeting and having witnessed the "excitement" over the Grassroots slate there, she predicted a floor vote for chair at Saturday's meeting.

She acknowledged the division in the party, stating "there's a lot of varying perspectives." She's reluctantly running for the party position out of a sense of "duty," she said.

She said she and others on O'Connor's slate promote government based more closely on the U.S. and state constitutions. Gebran said politicians generally represent a "uniparty," adding that citizens should ask themselves if they would rather support constitutional policies or "support the globalist initiative and join a one-world government?"

Other candidates could be nominated

Another flyer circulating among Republicans touts an "America First Conservatives" slate. That one features Yuma County GOP Chair Greg Wilkinson vying for state chair and Gina Maloney running for first vice chair.

Wilkinson said after DeWit resigned, people began calling him and asking him to run for state chair. He said he didn't know with certainty whether he would be nominated or if any election for chair would take place at all on Saturday since no election for chair is on the event's agenda.

"I'm kind of going in to see what happens," Wilkinson said.

Dajana Zlatičanin, state GOP party spokeswoman, told The Republic it's a "fact" that someone could be elected chair at the meeting.

The vacancy also spurred Nico Delgado, a 16-year-old spokesman for the North Valley Young Republicans club, to give it a shot. He announced on social media Friday he is running for state chair "to raise awareness for the need of a youth advisory board" in the state party.

Chuck Coughlin, a Republican political consultant who has been critical of the party's Trump-supporting wing, said he didn't know who would end up as the party's new chair, but predicted the person would be "someone who can easily pass the MAGA ideological purity test and who is incapable of understanding and correcting the mistakes of the last three cycles."

'She’s walking a tightrope': How will Kari Lake's close ties to Trump play in Senate race?

Reach the reporter at rstern@arizonarepublic.com or 480-276-3237. Follow him on X @raystern.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Jim O'Connor, Gina Swoboda among possible candidates to replace DeWit