PRESCOTT VALLEY, ARIZONA - JULY 22: Former President Donald Trump (R) watches Republican candidate for governor Kari Lake speak at a ‘Save America’ rally in support of Arizona GOP candidates on July 22, 2022 in Prescott Valley, Arizona. Arizona's primary election will take place August 2. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
After Arizona conservatives faced one of their worst turnouts in decades during the 2022 midterm elections, state Republicans have chosen to replace staunch Donald Trump ally Kelli Ward with Jeff Dewit, a former Trump aide with more measured rhetoric surrounding Trump’s 2020 election conspiracies.
Ward had made efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Arizona outright, even going as far as to censure Republican state Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers over his decision to testify in the January 6 select house committee last July.
IN MEMORIAM 2022: 100 GREAT CELEBRITIES WHO DIED IN 2022
In Ward’s four years as Arizona Republican Party chairman, her party lost three Senate races, the governor’s seat, the secretary of state and the attorney general to their Democratic counterparts.
Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter!
A week of political news in your in-box.
We find the news you need to know, so you don't have to.
Dewit, marketing his victory as a change in course for the party, said, “I’m going to work for you and we’re going to unify… and we’re going to get back to beating Democrats and winning elections.”
President Joe Biden was only the second Democratic president since 1952 to win Arizona, and the state continues to shift blue.
Dewit, although less vocal about Trump’s election conspiracy theories than his predecessor, has historically been a strong ally to Trump.
Dewit was confirmed as NASA’s chief financial officer under Trump and ran the former president’s Arizona campaign in 2016 and 2020. Dewit was supported by Kari Lake, the Trump-backed candidate for Arizona governor who lost in the 2022 election.
Trump himself even endorsed Dewit at the last minute for Arizona Republican Party chairman; however, the former president did not mention Dewit on any of his social media platforms prior to his victory.
On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) banned noncompete agreements in a 3-2 vote. The…
A proposed bill in California would prohibit security screening company CLEAR from skipping the general…
On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments over a challenge to a law allowing…
The Arizona House of Representatives failed to advance a repeal of the state's 160-year-old abortion…
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D) signed a bill restoring criminal charges in cases of hard drug possession.…
President Joe Biden's administration announced the first-ever national limits on toxic "forever chemicals" in drinking water. This…