PHOENIX \u2014 A top leader of the national conservative group Turning Point Action, which has amplified false claims of election fraud by former president Donald Trump and others, resigned Thursday after being accused of forging voter signatures on official paperwork so that he could run for reelection in the Arizona House.<\/p>\n
State Rep. Austin Smith (R) \u2014 who was senior director at Turning Point Action, the campaign arm of Charlie Kirk\u2019s Turning Point USA \u2014 was accused by a Democratic activist of submitting petition sheets with rows of voter names, addresses and signatures that \u201cbear a striking resemblance\u201d to Smith\u2019s handwriting, according to a complaint. Smith \u201cpersonally circulated multiple petition sheets bearing what appear to be forged voter signatures,\u201d the complaint said.<\/p>\n
The complaint was sent to the Arizona secretary of state, who forwarded it to the Arizona attorney general for review. State election officials do not assess the veracity of allegations made against candidates. A spokesperson for the state prosecutor\u2019s office, which runs a team that focuses on claims of voter and election fraud after widespread claims following the 2020 election, declined to comment. Both state offices are overseen by Democrats.<\/p>\n
Smith submitted his resignation to Turning Point Action on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about it publicly. Smith also publicly ended his reelection campaign.<\/p>\n
Smith did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the first-term lawmaker said the allegations against him were \u201csilly\u201d and part of a \u201ccoordinated attack\u201d by Democrats and \u201cthose unhappy with my politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith is aligned with some of the most conservative members of the Arizona House \u2014 sometimes referred to as the \u201cFreedom Caucus\u201d of the larger Republican caucus \u2014 and he has previously derided signature-verification work by local election officials as \u201ca joke.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his time with Turning Point Action, Smith worked to support the candidacies of conservatives who spread false information about elections. At a rally in Washington on Jan. 5, 2021, Smith tweeted a photo of himself speaking to \u201cthousands of patriots.\u201d In that since-deleted tweet, he urged followers \u201cDon\u2019t get comfortable\u201d and to \u201cfight like hell.\u201d The next day, as Congress met to certify the 2020 election results, the U.S. Capitol came under attack.<\/p>\n
Smith said the prospect of costly and public fallout from the allegations shaped his decision to drop out of the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recommendation I received most was that I bow out and live to fight another day,\u201d Smith said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. \u201cI might be confident of victory, but all it would take is a judge believing any one person, and all would be lost. \u2026 To be better protected in the future, if and when I run again for something, I\u2019ll rely exclusively on the online signature system, and eliminate paper petitions from my campaign. Then no one can make up any stories.\u201d<\/p>\n
The complaint alleged that Smith submitted multiple pages with dozens of forged signatures that he claimed to have collected, and it contained images of two of those pages.<\/p>\n
Smith\u2019s withdrawal drew immediate reaction from members of his own party, some of whom faced death threats and harassment for upholding the will of voters \u2014 and Republican losses \u2014 during the 2020 and 2022 elections.<\/p>\n
Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman (R), who lives in Smith\u2019s district west of Phoenix, cast Smith as a hypocrite. Hickman rejected attempts by Trump to talk to him in the weeks after the then-president narrowly lost the 2020 election. Hickman has faced death threats, threats against his family and protests at his home. On Thursday, he called on Smith to resign from office.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a man who has lied to the people of Legislative District 29 and the entire state about our election operations for at least three years,\u201d Hickman said in a statement. \u201cAnd now he is accused of lying about the signatures he personally collected to get on the ballot again. An investigation will reveal the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
PHOENIX \u2014 A top leader of the national conservative group Turning Point Action, which has amplified false claims of election fraud by former president Donald Trump and others, resigned Thursday after being accused of forging voter signatures on official paperwork so that he could run for reelection in the Arizona House. State Rep. Austin Smith […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}