Mark Brnovich is his party’s best chance to win John McCain’s Senate seat back for the GOP. Just one problem: He’s the state’s attorney general, and Trump wants him to keep re-fighting the 2020 election.
Right now, Brnovich, a lifelong Republican and diehard conservative, is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate — with a reasonable chance to flip the seat back from incumbent Mark Kelly, the Democrat who won only narrowly in 2020. In any normal year, his current job would be a big asset: He’s one of Arizona’s highest profile elected officials, with unmatched name ID and what seems to be a standing invitation to Fox News.
But in 2022, he faces a squeeze familiar to high-profile Republican state officials across the country. With Trump unwilling to let go of the lie he won the election, and the GOP base passionately defending his claims, Republicans who actually hold office — and who have to operate within the rules and norms of government — face a disadvantage with many of their own voters. Most Republican candidates just have to pledge allegiance to Trump’s election lies to prove loyalty to their national leader. Brnovich is tasked with executing on them. And legally, he has to tell Trump, “No.”
Trumpian Republicans have a specific complaint about Brnovich right now: He has done nothing with a batch of “findings” prepared by the Cyber Ninjas, the now-defunct company that the Republican-controlled state Senate hired to audit the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County. The report was replete with innuendo but didn’t actually declare any charges were warranted for election fraud, let alone provide sufficient evidence to win a prosecution. In fact, the audit reaffirmed that Biden beat Trump in Arizona. Brnovich has parked the investigation in his office, and there’s no sign it’s wrapping up anytime soon.
Republicans who believe the election was stolen have been raising the pressure on Brnovich ever since. That includes Trump himself, who has called Brnovich “lackluster” and “nowhere to be found” on his crusade. Tech billionaire and Trump ally Peter Thiel, who is backing Brnovich’s closest competitor, Blake Masters, has already cut television ads using Trump’s words to hammer Brnovich for certifying the election.
Lorna Romero, a Republican political consultant in the state, says candidates who carry the “Stop the Steal” banner may appeal to Republican primary voters, but nominating them could be disastrous for the party come November.
“The tides are gonna change,” she says. “I think it’ll be helpful for [Brnovich] to be on the right side of history.”