Oh my Lord, Mark Finchem could actually win this election

The state of Nevada sent Arizona voters – the ones who reject the delusion that the 2020 election was rigged – a chilling message on Tuesday.

Be afraid.

Silver State Republicans on Tuesday nominated a foursome of Donald Trump-endorsed candidates for key jobs in federal and state government.

Former Attorney General Adam Laxalt easily won the Senate GOP primary and will challenge Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto, perhaps the most vulnerable Democratic senator up for reelection this year.

Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo won the Republican nomination for governor and will challenge Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak.

Right-wing lawyer Sigal Chattah beat back the establishment pick and will face off against the state’s Democratic attorney general.

But it is the Nevada secretary of state’s race that should send a chill through our superheated state.

Mark Finchem is basically Jim Marchant

Jim Marchant, the race’s biggest believer in the Big Lie, cruised to victory in a seven-way Republican primary for secretary of state, a job that would put him in charge of the 2024 elections in a swing state that President Joe Biden narrowly won.

Sound familiar?

Change former Nevada Rep. Marchant’s state and he becomes … Arizona Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley.

Finchem is locked in a four-way Republican race for Arizona secretary of state and is easily the most extreme of the four.

Supreme Court rules: Finchem will remain on the ballot

Marchant won Trump’s endorsement by being one of the loudest voices in his state screaming “Stop the Steal.” Spreading lies about a rigged election is the cornerstone of his campaign.

The Trump-endorsed Finchem has been charging that Arizona’s election was stolen since November 2020, when he hosted an all-day “hearing” at which Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani presented various “expert” witnesses, not a single one of whom provided any actual evidence of fraud. Finchem regularly promises to produce evidence but curiously, he never does.

Marchant has demanded a “full forensic audit” of Nevada’s 2020 election, which Joe Biden narrowly won.

Finchem has used the Senate’s audit of Maricopa County’s 2020 election to call for decertification of Arizona’s election results – never mind the inconvenient fact that the Cyber Ninjas turned up no evidence of widespread fraud. (Finchem insists the evidence is “clear and convincing”.)

Marchant has said he would not have certified Biden’s win, had he been secretary of state in 2020.

They believe and propose the same things

Finchem’s bill to decertify Arizona’s election reads like a seven-page laundry list of imagined grievances and debunked conspiracy theories, topped off by a fantasy belief that the Arizona Legislature somehow has the power to decertify the results of the election in Maricopa, Pima and Yuma counties and recall the state’s 2020 presidential electors.

Marchant supported sending an “alternate” slate of pro-Trump electors to Congress after Joe Biden won the state.

Finchem supported Arizona’s fake electors and in fact was in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. According to the House Select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, Finchem claimed he had to deliver “evidence” to Vice President Mike Pence to postpone the certification of the election results. Finchem, who ignored a subpoena by the committee, was spotted outside the Capitol as rioters stormed the building to stop the certification vote.

Marchant wants to ban the use of electronic voting machines and end early voting.

Finchem teamed up with Kari Lake to sue the state to require the hand counting of ballots. Like Lake, he wants to kill the early voting program that was used by nearly 90% of voters in 2020. Never mind that he has cast an early ballot in almost every election since 2004.

Marchant spoke at a QAnon conference in Las Vegas in October. That’s the conspiracy group that sees Trump as a messiah and Democrats as a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who sex-traffick children from the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor that has no basement.

Finchem also spoke at that QAnon gathering, where he praised a Colorado county clerk who at the time was under investigation on suspicion that she allowed unauthorized individuals access to Dominion voting equipment.

“Tina Peters, God bless her, y’all need to pray for that woman ‘cause she is under fire,” Finchem said during a panel discussion.

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters has since been indicted on criminal charges in an alleged scheme to breach the security of election equipment in a search for evidence of fraud in the 2020 election. She’s been barred from overseeing the 2022 elections and is now occupying herself with a run for Colorado secretary of state.

But I digress.

Undecided in this race? Consider this

Marchant won Nevada with 38% of the vote.

A recent Data Orbital poll of likely Republican primary voters showed Finchem leading the pack with 12.4%, followed by state Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita (8.1%), businessman Beau Lane (7.1%) and state Rep. Shawnna Bolick (6.8%).

As for the 62% who were undecided, here’s something to think about as they ponder who should oversee the 2024 election in this key swing state:

Marchant has told NBC News that he wouldn’t rule out advocating for an alternate slate of Trump electors in 2024, should he become secretary of state.

Finchem hasn’t gone that far.

Yet.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: If Jim Marchant can win Nevada, so can Mark Finchem in Arizona. Yikes