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PLAIN TRUTH: Arizona’s incoming Secretary of State has a new term for “election deniers”

PLAIN TRUTH: Arizona’s incoming Secretary of State has a new term for “election deniers”

PLAIN TRUTH: Arizona's incoming Secretary of State has a new term for "election deniers"

Adrian Fontes (D) will be Arizona’s new Secretary of State in a few short weeks, and he says that handling “election deniers” is largely a matter of facing them with truth and facts, and refusing to give them such a mild name. Instead, he says, they’re going to be called “MAGA fascists.”

Fontes’ state was particularly hit hard with election deniers — or, to use his term, MAGA fascists — in 2020, when Donald Trump’s loss was followed by months of audits, protests, lawsuits, and unfounded accusations.

It seemed as though 2022 might follow a similar pattern when Republican Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake (R) lost, and began to make claims (against all evidence) that the outcome had been dishonest and that Republican voters had been disenfranchised.

However, Arizona has certified its elections, despite resistance from some officials at the county level, and that certification includes Lake’s loss to Katie Hobbs (D), and Fontes’ own victory.

He says that even if the threatened lawsuits come, they will not prevail, and he refuses to give too much attention to people who not only don’t care about honest elections, but don’t care about their own voters, either.

Fontes’ position on election deniers, or MAGA fascists, is diametrically opposite to that of the opponent he beat out for the seat.

Mark Finchem (R) actually attended the deadly January 6th rally to protest the 2020 election that Trump lost, and was one of many Secretary of State candidates around the country to campaign (and lose) on the Big Lie, the false claim that Trump won in 2020 and that Biden is not the legitimate president.

Fontes told MSNBC:

First and foremost, we’re not gonna just call the ‘election deniers,’ they are MAGA fascists. They don’t care about American voters…We’re going to attack their lies with vigor and with truth, because we’ve got the truth on our side, we’ve got justice on our side, we’ve got American democracy and American voters on our side, so we’re going to push as hard as we can against the misinformation and disinformation that they continue to peddle with no evidence and no legitimacy.

You can see Fontes’ interview below.

Stephanie Bazzle
Steph Bazzle is a news writer who covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph. Sign up for all of her stories to be delivered to your inbox here:

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