Trump ally and ex-sheriff aims for Congress after Senate defeat and QAnon controversies

Former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb signals plan to run for open East Valley congressional seat

by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy, Arizona Mirror
October 21, 2025

Former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb signaled his intent to run in the Republican primary to replace U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs in a ruby red East Valley congressional district.

Lamb on Monday filed a statement of interest to run as a Republican in Congressional District 5, which is centered on Gilbert and Queen Creek and includes parts of Chandler and Mesa.

Lamb is the latest in a series of Republicans who have set their sights on replacing Biggs, who announced earlier this year he was running for governor in 2026. The former Pinal County Sheriff ran for the U.S. Senate last year, but was beaten by former local news anchor Kari Lake.

Lamb did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

A campaign website for the former sheriff was visible Tuesday morning. When this story was first published, it had no information other than a photo of Lamb and a form for visitors to fill out to keep up to date on “Mark Lamb for Congress.” Several hours later, the website was updated to announce Lamb’s candidacy.

Since leaving law enforcement, Lamb has worked as a consultant, making AI videos of Bigfoot directed at members of law enforcement and the military looking to start their own business, which his consulting firm helps get off the ground.

In the political arena, Lamb has connections to the “constitutional sheriff” movement and has courted conspiracy theorists and the far right.

The constitutional sheriff movement, led by former Graham County Sheriff Richard Mack, is a sovereign citizen group in which its leader, Mack, believes that the “New World Order” is aiming to take away guns — and that sheriffs are on the front lines of stopping “election fraud.”

Lamb has claimed he is not a “constitutional sheriff,” though he appears as a signatory with the organization in some of their material, and Mack himself has called Lamb a constitutional sheriff.

The group takes a favorable view of armed citizen militias, including militias that are active along Arizona’s border with Mexico. Such groups are largely anti-government, and some of their leaders were in attendance at the Jan. 6 riot.

Lamb has signaled to these conspiracy theorists, signing a copy of a book for a QAnon influencer with the QAnon slogan “WWG1WGA.”

Other QAnon proponents have claimed to have been working with Lamb, like Melody Jennings, known online as “TrumperMel,” the woman behind an effort to organize armed observers to monitor drop boxes in Arizona during the 2022 election. The courts ultimately blocked Jennings and her group, which included members of the extremist Oath Keepers, from staking out the drop boxes.

Lamb has also appeared on a number of QAnon-related shows, including one that has a history of antisemitic comments. TruNews has published antisemitic rhetoric on its site, including a piece in which founder Rick Wiles spent an hour and a half saying that “seditious Jews” were “orchestrating” to impeach Trump and calling the Jewish people “tyrants.”

He was interviewed by conspiracy theorist Lauren Witzke and, during an episode in which Lamb also appeared, Wiles said that Jews “squash” and “crush” people. Witzke has echoed white nationalist beliefs herself. During an appearance on a white nationalist podcast, Witzke espoused the racist Great Replacement theory.

Lamb supported Witzke when she ran for U.S. Senate in Delaware.

Lamb has also endorsed the Great Replacement theory while on a QAnon talk show, saying that illegal immigration is a “benefit to their agenda.”

The Great Replacement theory, which is popular among white supremacists, that white Americans are being replaced by immigrants in order to shift the balance of political power. It has led directly to mass violence, including Anders Behring Breivik’s murderous rampage in 2011 at a Norwegian youth summer camp and the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, the deadliest attack against the Jewish community in United States history. Just before it took place, the killer took to right-wing social media site Gab to say he believed that immigrants were being brought in to replace and “kill our people.”

The next year in New Zealand, 51 people were killed and 40 injured, but not before the shooter would post a 74-page manifesto titled “The Great Replacement.”

Again in 2019, in El Paso, Texas, a shooter who killed 23 in a Walmart cited the Great Replacement in his manifesto, saying the murders were a response to the “hispanic invasion of Texas.”

While Lamb testified before Congress in 2023, he said he saw “zero evidence” of widespread voter fraud, he has continued to ally and work with groups that spread unfounded allegations of fraud in the 2020 and 2022 elections.

One of those groups is True the Vote, which was behind the debunked claims in the discredited film “2000 Mules.”

Lamb partnered with True the Vote on an election hotline that sent voters to True the Vote for election issues instead of to election officials. He wrote the “Sheriff’s Toolkit” for True the Vote and he attended an invite-only event the group held in Pinal County dubbed “The Pit.”

The event, which hosted QAnon influencers and other conspiracy theorists, pushed unfounded fraud allegations and allowed for many in the election fraud sphere to rub noses with the likes of Lamb and other high profile people in Arizona. In May 2022, Lamb also said he had “no doubt” that there was fraud in the 2020 election, later mentioning “2000 Mules” prior to its release.

In the 2026 congressional contest, Lamb will be facing seven other Republicans — though that number could grow — for the seat in the primary if they secure enough signatures to make it on the ballot.

Former GOP state Rep. Travis Grantham filed his intent to run very early on. The Gilbert Republican last year sponsored legislation to criminalize “grooming” that was ultimately signed by the Governor.

Also joining Grantham and Lamb is former NFL kicker Jay Feely, who told the New York Post that the July 2024 assassination attempt on President Donald Trump played a role in his decision to run. Feely is a major supporter of Trump and has even played golf with him.

Another Trump supporter running is Alex Stovall, who in 2021 courted controversy after he made claims he was a military chaplain while he was still in the process of becoming one, something that U.S. Department of Defense regulations prohibit.

Congressional District 5 is MAGA territory, and Daniel Keenan seems to be tapping into that part of the base for his candidacy, appearing on a number of MAGA talk shows. The Gilbert Republican lists ending birthright citizenship and the elimination of “woke indoctrination” from schools as some of his policy positions.

He’s appeared on shows with far-right commentators like Jack Posobiec, who has posted coded neo-Nazi messages multiple times online, and Keenan has pledged to join the far-right Freedom Caucus if elected.

Not all the Republican candidates appear as serious, though.

Linda Schaefer is running as a Republican under the slogan is “Humor vs. Hate.”

Schaefer said she intends to put up “humours” yard signs and has even pledged that if she were elected she’d write a “comedy” book about “what really goes on everyday at Congress.” She is currently writing a “humor” book about the campaign trail, her website says.

***UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect changes to Mark Lamb’s campaign website.

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