Far-right group will have a sponsored booth at Arizona Turning Point USA conference

They were sued last year for participating in an “escalating scheme of voter intimidation and harassment” during Arizona’s 2022 elections. Next month, they’ll have promotional real estate at a conference organized by Turning Point USA, the influential conservative organization led by MAGA personality Charlie Kirk.

The Yavapai County-based Lions of Liberty, a far-right group with ties to the extremist militia group Oath Keepers, will host a sponsored booth at Turning Point’s annual “AmericaFest” event in Phoenix. The Dec. 16-19 event will feature a bevy of conservative politicians aligned with former President Donald Trump.

In its email newsletter, Lions of Liberty has been advertising a discount code giving 50%-off AmericaFest admissions, which was given to them as part of the sponsorship, according to a copy of the emails obtained by The Arizona Republic.

The partnership was first highlighted by the social media account Arizona Right Watch, which posted screenshots of AmericaFest promotional materials that advertised the Lions of Liberty discount code.

Lions of Liberty was one of several far-right groups engaged in an effort to monitor ballot drop boxes during the 2022 elections, motivated by the conspiracy theory that “ballot mules” were illegally depositing multiple ballots during the previous election. Ballot box watchers were instructed to photograph anyone believed to be depositing multiple ballots, along with the person’s car and license plate, according to an investigation at the time by the Arizona Mirror.

The League of Women Voters of Arizona sued several of the groups involved in the dropbox surveillance plan, including Lions of Liberty, alleging that their behavior amounted to “intimidating voters by collecting their personal information and surveilling them while carrying firearms and wearing military tactical gear.”

They also alleged the groups were “propagating false information to citizens about the manner in which they can lawfully vote and groundlessly claiming that voters are engaged in election crimes,” for example by falsely suggesting that it is always illegal to deposit multiple ballots into one dropbox.

Lions of Liberty backed down from the ballot box surveillance scheme after the lawsuit was brought against them.

Asked about the partnership, Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet wrote in a statement to The Arizona Republic that after speaking directly with the Lions of Liberty, “our concerns have been sufficiently addressed.”

“To be clear, the group is one of 150 sponsored booths that will participate in our exhibition hall and this is our first interaction with them,” Kolvet wrote.

“Turning Point USA and its sister 501c4 Turning Point Action do not condone or encourage any behavior that could be even remotely interpreted as intimidating a voter, and we believe every American citizen who has the right to vote should be free to do so safely, securely, and without fear,” he wrote.

Lions of Liberty did not respond to a request for comment.

Turning Point leaders have condemned political violence, though they have often promoted misinformation and sown doubt about the security of U.S. elections. In recent years, the group has mobilized to push Arizona’s Republican Party towards leaders who espouse conspiracy theories. The group’s political wing also helped hundreds of people attend the “Stop the Steal” rally in DC on Jan. 6, 2021, which preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol that day.

Kirk, Turning Point’s founder, has been identified as one of the leading “superspreaders” of misinformation about the 2020 election on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Turning Point’s December conference is set to feature a who’s who of Trump-aligned conservative politicians and media figures, including Donald Trump Jr., Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and numerous right-wing media personalities.

Haley Orion, an independent researcher who tracks Arizona’s far right and runs the Arizona Right Watch social media page, said she believes that Lions of Liberty’s political influence has been growing.

She said that the group has some sway in Yavapai County politics, regularly courting Arizona lawmakers. U.S. Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., has visited the Yavapai County Preparedness Team, a group affiliated with the Oath Keepers and connected to the Lions of Liberty.

“It’s not really surprising that AmericaFest and Turning Point USA sees value in them,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Lions of Liberty will have presence at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest