The former governor of Arizona, once a Trump surrogate in the swing state, is now speaking up to defend the state’s elections as election denialism continues to grip Republican politics.
Jan Brewer, the Republican governor from 2009 to 2015, signed an infamous anti-immigration law, which reverberated in state politics and affected the state’s reputation for years. She was secretary of state, which oversees elections, before becoming governor.
She is, by no means, a centrist, though those to her right now call her a Rino, a Republican In Name Only. She said she’s had enough of a spate of election lies coming from her party in recent years – though she’s also quick to note that Democrats have spread election doubts in the past, too.
In recent weeks, she wrote an op-ed in the Arizona Republic, the state’s largest daily newspaper, to call on Republicans to stop attacking elections, writing that she wants to “pull us back from the brink of election denialism, and get back to focusing on actual policy so we can win elections with our conservative ideas”.
She’s joined with two organizations, RightCount and the Democracy Defense Project, to publicly defend elections, alongside other Republicans and people across the political spectrum. She’s also endorsed Maricopa county candidates in Republican primaries who stood up to their party against intense pressure to overturn the 2020 election results.
“You have to stand up and defend the integrity of our electoral system, because that’s what unites us,” she said in an interview with the Guardian. “It’s so important that people understand that.”
Arizona remains a hotbed for election denialism, with major Republican primary candidates maintaining their elections were stolen in 2022 and Trump’s was stolen in 2020. The issue holds a grip on Republican activists, who can sway primaries. And groups like Turning Point USA, based in Arizona, fuel the distrust in elections.
The election situation in Arizona is “out of control”, Brewer said.
“I just hope that we get our state back together and that we preserve our democracy and we save our Republican party, because obviously this is destroying it,” she said. “And if they want Republicans elected, then they’ve got to accept that how that happens is through elections. And we’ve got to assure them, and they’ve got to realize, that our elections are fair, or we won’t have Republicans elected.”
Why speak out now?
We’re hearing these conspiracies, as far as I’m concerned, about elections being stolen, and it was wrong, and that there were terrible things taking place at the polls, and it just went on and on and on. As the prior chief of elections, I knew the procedures that are taken to prevent that. We wrote the election procedure manual. We did the [logic and accuracy] tests. It just was undermining our democracy. And I thought, well, somebody needs to stand up. Other people have stood up too, but I stood up and said a few things, and all of a sudden, everybody kind of listened. These false claims, widespread voter fraud, it just absolutely erodes our elections, and it undermines our democracy.
To be clear, do you think the 2020 election was stolen?
No.
And you have faith in how things are running in Arizona at this time?
There’s always been hiccups, but never to the extent of changing the numbers on the election. I mean, we’ve seen it over and over again, but you’re dealing with human error, you’re dealing with sometimes equipment error, but usually it is rectified immediately, and you can take care of it.
Why do you think doubting election results has become such a sticking point, especially for Republicans in recent years? Why is it still lingering?
Well, I think because they want to win. They want to be the winner, so if they can’t win the election, then they want to say that it was stolen from them. I don’t know, you’d have to ask them why they do it. I just believe that we just need to defend our electoral system, it’s as simple as that, from distrust. We need to speak up, and our politicians need to speak up, and whether it’s left or right, sowing that kind of mistrust and doubt is not good – it’s not good for us, it’s not good for the people out there running, it’s not good for the United States. It certainly is not good for free and fair and democratic elections.
Why do you think election denialism has been so big in Arizona? Is it just because Republicans have been losing in recent years?
I wish I could tell you. I don’t know. It’s just, it’s out of control. I don’t know why. It goes way back when, and it is on both sides. It’s been on both sides. Don’t lay it just on the Republicans, but that happens to be the people that are doing it currently, because we lost the presidency. We had some heated races in Arizona and some of the losers claimed that they were stolen, and they went through all these court cases and they didn’t win and they didn’t have the proof. And evidently, they don’t trust our judicial system either.
So have you seen this level of election doubt before?
No, no, never, no.
Is that why you’re speaking out now? It just reached a fever pitch for you?
I think so. I hope more people speak out. It’s so important.People need to know that they’re vote counts. I mean, none of the cases and the claims have been founded. Yeah, there was an issue with a machine or two breaking down. It got repaired. There was an issue, maybe, with the paper size, but it didn’t change the election. It wasn’t enough. So you have to be realistic. And they make up things. The people here, some of them want voter ID at the polls. Well, we have voter ID at the polls. I implemented that when I was secretary of state in the Help America Vote Act. So there’s just a lot of misinformation out there, misguided claims.
The claims are just outrageous. And the abuse of some of those elected officials, like the board of supervisors and the county recorder and the election workers at the polling places, it’s just been awful. Why would anybody want to serve?
What role do you think Trump plays in that? Isn’t that election denialism coming from the top?
He unfortunately planted the seed that his election was stolen. I didn’t agree with him. I thought that he lost.
Have you talked with him about it?
No.
What can be done to move forward? As a society, how do we move beyond this?
The only thing that I know that has to be done is we need people to stand up and talk about it and move on. This is ruining the Republican Party at this point in time. It’s undermining our elections, and if we don’t stop it, the end is that people won’t vote. And who will that hurt if they don’t vote? It will hurt the Republican Party. We need every vote that we can get at the polls.
For those people that believe in early voting, then they can vote early and trust the system that their vote is counted. I mean, I was not a big supporter way back when I was in the legislature, when they wanted to have early voting, I thought it was important that we go to the polls on Election Day. But as you get older and wiser, and the state grows, and people have more obligations and responsibility, people are sick, they can’t get there. We lead the country in early voting.
Are you going to vote for Trump again this year?
He’s our nominee.
Is that a yes?
Yes.
How do you reconcile that?
He did a lot of good when he was president. I just hope that if and when he wins, that it doesn’t all evolve again. Of course, if he wins, then I guess they’ll think the election is okay.
Does it seem like in Arizona, that there are Republicans who agree with you, who are just afraid of the wrath of the other Republicans?
I know that for a fact, because they talk to me. They’re afraid. You don’t hear people winning, saying it was a rigged election. Look at all the people that say that the presidential election was rigged, but the ones serving in the legislature, I guess your election was okay? It just doesn’t make sense.
Are you at all afraid of any repercussions from the Republican party in Arizona?
I’ve been around a long time. I’ve got a lot of friends. And I get some interesting text messages and stuff, [like] ‘our friendship goes back a long ways, I’m sorry we disagree, I think we can do it in a civil manner’ and try to talk people into seeing at least some of your points. If we keep that dialogue going and are able to talk to one another, and if they’re willing to listen, I’m willing to listen, maybe we can get above and around all of this.
