These Arizonans of the Year showed courage under fire
The great victory of the 2020 election wasn’t the ascent of a candidate or cause or ballot initiative. It was the triumph of democracy against a plot to subvert and overturn the results of a presidential election.
Under assault by a sitting president and his high-wattage attorneys and operatives, a group of principled election officials, judges and other officeholders across the country steadfastly carried out their duties to deliver an honest outcome.
They did it in a nation cleaved by political division and teeming with tribal hatreds.
Especially noteworthy were a handful of Republicans in Arizona who had to lean into the headwinds of their own party and risk political self-destruction to remain true to their conscience. They never yielded.Our recognition and gratitude go to them.
Over much of the last 14 months, our state has been ground zero for a protracted and manufactured drama about election integrity.
Even now, Donald Trump and his most ardent adherents continue to stoke the embers of denial and conspiracy theories.
But in the hours and days and weeks that followed election night, that conflagration burned hot, ignited by Trump’s baseless assertion of voting fraud and irregularities not just here but in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and elsewhere.
A foundering president demanded that tabulation of votes be stopped in states where Biden had closed on his lead and eventually surpassed him. He fanned the embers of unsubstantiated claims, such as illegal immigrants and dead veterans voting, and filed mostly flimsy legal challenges.
His most egregious act was to browbeat and cajole officials publicly and in private to try to swing the election result in his favor.
He succeeded for a time in Arizona, compelling Senate Republicans to conduct an outrageously inappropriate and hyper-partisan review of votes in Maricopa County. Some of the most powerful leaders in the Arizona Republican Party, including Senate President Karen Fann, greenlighted that absurdity.
It stretched on for months with pratfalls and blunders that embarrassed the state, overshadowing more sober moments of leadership and integrity.
That includes when Gov. Doug Ducey silenced his mobile phone and the White House ringtone “Hail to the Chief,” as he signed the official canvass certifying Joe Biden had won the election.
Or when state Attorney General Mark Brnovich told Fox Business’s Neil Cavuto roughly a week after the election that Biden won Arizona because voters had “split their ticket.” “People voted for Republicans down ballot,” he said, “and they didn’t vote for President Trump or Martha McSally. So, that’s the reality.”
They joined state leaders such as Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who vigorously defended against charges of voting fraud.
But most notable because of the pressure they faced from their own voters and party, were Maricopa County Supervisors Clint Hickman, Jack Sellers and Bill Gates; Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer; Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers; and state Sen. Paul Boyer. For the three supervisors, that included legal threats from the state Senate controlled by their fellow conservatives.
The Arizona Republic recognizes these six as the 2021 Arizonans of the Year for their integrity under fire, their backbone to stand against the high-pressure tactics of a president of the United States and for their unwillingness to yield to high authority in the state Legislature that had so obviously lost its bearings.
Unlike the Democrats, they paid a political price for their defiance.
The Republican supervisors, joined by Democrat Steve Gallardo, rejected subpoenas from the state Senate to turn over 2.1 million ballots cast in the county in the 2020 election or the machines used to tabulate them for state examination.
They asked a judge to quash the subpoenas. They lost.
The judge ordered the county to release the ballots and machines to the state Senate for the audit that Fann initiated.
How they lost is important. The supervisors resisted because there were conflicting laws regarding the storage and access to cast ballots, as well as concerns over voter information.
They sought clarity of the law as much as they questioned the Senate’s subpoena authority.
In the months-long tussle with the Senate, the supervisors also voted unanimously to undergo a second round of independent audits of the election results and, along with House Speaker Bowers, attempted to broker a deal with Fann to conduct a cooperative audit using an accredited firm.
The bipartisan, collaborative approach to resolution and transparency are in stark relief with Fann and the Cyber Ninjas audit that was largely an opaque, oneparty affair.
Hickman, Sellers and Gates maintained their quiet resoluteness in the face of attempted influencing by Trump and his intermediaries, as detailed by Arizona Republic reporters Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Ron Hansen in a recent series looking at the Arizona audit and its genesis.
Wingett Sanchez and Hansen also chronicled efforts by Trump and his advisers to persuade Arizona legislative leaders to replace the state’s 11 presidential electors – whose votes were to go to Biden – with Trump electors.
A few of those calls were made to Bowers, in hopes that he would help convene a special session for the Legislature to act.
Bowers declined, having neither been presented evidence of voter fraud nor provided proof that lawmakers possess the power to select their own presidential electors.
Stephen Richer benefited from the down-ballot selection of Republicans, knocking off incumbent Recorder Adrian Fontes, a Democrat. He did not shy away from using his new office to defend the election system.
In an op-ed in July, Richer compared the election audit rules that Maricopa County followed against those of the Cyber Ninjas and concluded ominously that the latter would not generate confidence.
“The Cyber Ninjas are unchecked by sensible rules that promote accuracy and fairness. This is extremely troubling. Whatever the Ninjas ultimately produce should be greeted with extreme skepticism.” His words proved prescient.
Paul Boyer averted a political train wreck by opposing Republican Senate colleagues who were prepared to order the arrest of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors for refusing to violate state law by handing over ballots from the November election.
In a time that called for political courage and risk-taking, six Republicans stood out for their selfless devotion to the State of Arizona and to national principle. Clint Hickman, Jack Sellers, Bill Gates, Stephen Richer, Rusty Bowers and Paul Boyer are our 2021 Arizonans of the Year.