The sun may have set on the political contretemps of "Conspiracy Czar” Mark Finchem and "Windy” Wendy Rogers. But thanks to the November elections, they’ve been swiftly supplanted with new foot soldiers from the ranks of former President Donald Trump’s election-denying cesspool of political inexperience and ignorance.
One new acolyte stands out in a crowded field. Meet State Representative Rachel Jones, who took office on January 9 and has urped out her fair share of alt-right bombast on Twitter. When she’s not agreeing with QAnon followers or stealing other people’s tweets and slapping her own watermark on them, she’s spouting lies — that Governor Katie Hobbs is a dictator, that newspapers work actively to obfuscate the truth, and that at least 42 percent of ballots in the recent election weren’t counted.
Jones, a Tucson Republican, transitioned from stay-at-home mom to state lawmaker when she won one of two House seats in District 17, which includes portions of Pima and Pinal counties. Her campaign was bankrolled by a list of failed up-ticket Arizona Republicans including Blake Masters, Jim Lamon, and Elijah Norton.
Jones’ self-styled platform comprises “banning critical race theory,” which doesn’t exist in Arizona schools, “ending any and all lockdowns,” despite the fact that there are none, and “securing our elections,” which are already secure, according to experts.
She’s intransigent on the fantasy that she can “decertify” the November elections in Arizona, despite handily winning her own seat. It's a gambit that has been broadly decried as legally impossible.
Her most controversial tweet came on January 2: “I will NOT move on like everything is o.k. I will NOT pretend like Fake Katie Hobbs is the legitimate governor of AZ. I will NOT standby [sic] while my favorite state is stolen by radical leftists. I will NOT allow this election to be stolen. #decertifynow.”I will NOT move on like everything is o.k. I will NOT pretend like Fake Katie Hobbs is the legitimate governor of AZ. I will NOT standby while my favorite state is stolen by radical leftists. I will NOT allow this election to be stolen.#decertifynow@KariLakeWarRoom https://t.co/Fo51w6AmVd
— AZ Representative-elect Rachel Jones (@RJ4arizona) January 2, 2023
The tweet quickly amassed more than one million impressions and 10,000 likes.
When asked in a comment to her post how she would decertify the election, Jones responded, "The legislature must vote to decertify.” That’s impossible, according to one prominent Valley attorney and election law expert.
“There is no such thing as decertifying an election, and there is no such thing as a stolen election,” attorney and election law expert Tom Ryan told Phoenix New Times.
Another commenter facetiously questioned if Jones was planning to stage a coup at the Arizona State Capitol that mirrored the January 6, 2021, unrest at the U.S. Capitol. The lawmaker replied with debunked conspiracy theories about the riot.
By standing behind her January 2 tweet, the first-term lawmaker is asking for trouble, according to Ryan.
“Here’s a state rep who is already in violation of her oath of office,” he said. “If somebody gets more votes than somebody else, that person is the governor, period. We have domestic enemies here. People who refuse to accept the outcome of elections are domestic threats.”
On January 7, Jones retweeted a claim from District 17's new senator, Justine Wadsack, that falsely claimed that Hobbs signed an executive order that would jail schoolteachers for misusing pronouns. Wadsack also called the governor a dictator.
That's another potential violation of her oath of office by Jones, Ryan said.
“She says that she is not going to faithfully and impartially discharge her duties because she has a bad faith belief that somebody is not the legitimate governor of Arizona,” he said. “That is a violation of her oath of office.”
Jones worked at a UPS facility and later a preschool until God told her to stop working several years ago, according to her website. Her website also asserts that she is “a local leader on medical freedom,” which is a conservative movement that opposes health care regulations and supports nontraditional medical treatments. The movement gained traction during the pandemic to protect doctors who dispensed unproven remedies for COVID-19.
Jones was sworn in on Monday, and it didn't take long for her to create a disruption. As soon as Hobbs started her address to a joint session of the legislature, Jones was among a handful of Republicans that walked out.
Then Jones and other members of the Arizona Freedom Caucus held a press conference to announce plans for a new lawsuit targeting Hobbs. They claimed that Hobbs’ first executive order as governor, which reinforces nondiscrimination laws in state agencies to help protect LGBTQ workers, is unconstitutional.
Ryan said election deniers should face court sanctions and attorneys who bring frivolous legal challenges over elections should be investigated by the State Bar of Arizona and disbarred. Conservative attorneys who filed lawsuits in support of Trump after his 2020 election loss face bar investigations in other states.
“Arizona needs to do the same,” Ryan said. “When somebody falsely claims an election is stolen and there is no evidence of it, that should be referred to the state bar to investigate and remove their law license.”
Jones did not respond to numerous requests from New Times for comment via phone calls, text messages, emails, and Twitter direct messages over several days.
