‘This should terrify the nation’: the Trump ally seeking to run Arizona’s elections

Last September, Donald Trump released a statement through his Save America website. "It is my great honor to endorse a true warrior," he proclaimed, "a patriot who has fought for our country, who was willing to say what few others had the courage to say, who has my Complete and Total Endorsement."

Former US presidents usually reserve their most gushing praise - replete with Capital Letters - for global allies or people they are promoting for high office. A candidate for the US Senate, perhaps, or someone vying to become governor of one of the biggest states.

Trump by contrast was heaping plaudits on an individual running for an elected post that a year ago most people had never heard of, let alone cared about. He was endorsing Mark Finchem, a Republican lawmaker from Tucson, in his bid to become Arizona's secretary of state.

Until Trump's endorsement, Finchem, like the relatively obscure position for which he is now standing, was scarcely known outside politically informed Arizona circles. Today he is a celebrity on the "Save America" circuit, one of a coterie of local politicians who have been thrown into the national spotlight by Trump as he lays the foundations for a possible ground attack on democracy in the 2024 presidential election.

The role of secretary of state is critical to the smooth workings and integrity of elections in many states, Arizona included. The post holder is the chief election officer, with powers to certify election results, vet the legal status of candidates and approve infrastructure such as voting machines.

In short, they are in charge of conducting and counting the vote.

About three weeks after Trump lost the 2020 presidential election - and on the same day that Joe Biden's 10,457-vote victory in Arizona was certified - Finchem hosted Rudy Giuliani at a downtown Phoenix hotel. Giuliani, then Trump's personal lawyer, announced a new theory for why the result should be overturned: that Biden had relied on fraudulent votes from among the 5 million undocumented immigrants living in the state - a striking number given that Arizona only has a total of 7 million residents.