Jim Lamon was a big backer of former President Donald Trump in Arizona. He was even one of the fake "electors" signing forged paperwork claiming that Trump won the state and trying to fraudulently be counted by then-Vice President Mike Pence on January 6.
But times have changed. According to Newsweek, Lamon, who also ran unsuccessfully for the GOP Arizona Senate nomination in 2022, has now founded a right-wing organization attacking Trump — for not being MAGA enough.
Lamon, reported Ewan Palmer, "is the sole donor behind the Actions Speak Louder Than Tweets PAC, according to an expert's report. The commitee has aired adverts in recent months attacking the former president." Among the criticisms Lamon's PAC is pushing is that Trump previously endorsed Mitt Romney for Senate, and that he briefly backed a national "red flag" gun law after the Parkland school shooting in 2018.
Federal Election Commission paperwork shows that Lamon has given $24,000 of his own money to support this project.
"Lamon appears to be pushing to ensure Trump is not the next president, although previously he had been part of a group of false electors that claimed Trump had won Arizona in 2020, instead of the eventual winner, President Joe Biden," said the report. "On 14 December, 2020, a group of 11 Republicans that included Lamon, Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward, and her husband Michael Ward, met to sign a document falsely declaring themselves the 'duly elected and qualified electors' for the state and awarded Trump the 11 electoral votes."
The fake elector scheme, which occurred in over half a dozen battleground states, has been a key point of investigation by special counsel Jack Smith and Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis, and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel brought charges this week against the false electors who forged documents in that state. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has similarly opened an investigation into the scheme there, which included Lamon, but currently that investigation is in a "fact-gathering" stage and no criminal charges are yet being considered, a deputy for Mayes told The Washington Post.
