Arizona's political landscape has changed a great deal since conservative Republican Jan Brewer was sworn in as governor in January 2009.
Back then, Arizona was still considered a red state and a bastion of Barry Goldwater/John McCain conservatism. But these days, Arizona is regarded as a swing state — not unlike Pennsylvania or Virginia — and Arizona Democrats are winning more statewide races than they used to.
However, the Arizona Republican Party is now dominated by far-right MAGA Republicans — including election deniers and conspiracy theorists who are openly disdainful of old-school Goldwater and McCain Republicans. Kari Lake, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (an ex-Democrat turned independent), told "McCain Republicans" to "get the hell out" of a GOP event in 2022.
During an interview with The Guardian published on July 5, Brewer called out MAGA election deniers and said they are "out of control" in her state.
"You have to stand up and defend the integrity of our electoral system, because that's what unites us," Brewer told The Guardian. "It's so important that people understand that…. 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."
The conservative ex-governor continued, "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."
When The Guardian asked Brewer if she thought the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump, she emphatically replied, "No."
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Brewer told The Guardian, "We're hearing these conspiracies, as far as I'm concerned, about elections being stolen…. 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."
Brewer continued, "Why would anybody want to serve?.... This is ruining the Republican Party at this point in time."