Arizona fake elector indictments: How Republicans and Democrats reacted on social media

Social media exploded Wednesday when news broke that an Arizona grand jury had indicted 11 Republican "fake electors" and an additional seven allies of former President Donald Trump.

Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential front-runner, is an unindicted co-conspirator in the case. He carried Arizona in the 2016 election but narrowly lost here to President Joe Biden in 2020.

The group of fake electors and Trump allies conspired to keep Trump in office despite losing the election, the Arizona grand jury indictment says.

The indictments, announced Wednesday afternoon by Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, shook the Arizona political landscape.

The indicted fake 2020 electors are Republican National Committeeman Tyler Bowyer; Trump electors chair Nancy Cottle; state Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, who is up for reelection; state Sen. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, who is running for Congress; unsuccessful 2022 U.S. Senate contender Jim Lamon; former Cochise County GOP chair Robert Montgomery; former Gila County GOP official Samuel Moorhead; Trump electors chair Loraine Pellegrino; former Arizona Republican Party executive director Greg Safsten; former AZ GOP chair and two-time failed U.S. Senate candidate Kelli Ward; and Ward's husband Michael Ward.

Seven other Trump allies also were indicted but not named Wednesday because they hadn't been served. The Arizona Republic reported that the group appears to include attorney and Republican National Committee official Christina Bobb; Trump attorney John Eastman; attorney Jenna Ellis; Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn; Trump attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani; former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; and Trump adviser Michael Roman.

How Republicans reacted on social media

Hoffman, one of the indicted electors, went on the social media platform X to proclaim his innocence and slam Mayes as corrupt.

"Kris Mayes & the Democrats' naked corruption and weaponization of government will long be a stain on the history of our great state and nation," Hoffman wrote.

The Arizona Republican Party likewise used X to decry "Mayes' politically motivated indictments and blatant abuse of legal authority aimed to disrupt, distract, and interfere in the 2024 election."

Kari Lake, the Republican front-runner in Arizona's 2024 Senate race, commented on the indictments by saying on X, "Meanwhile in the Banana Republic of Arizona…"

Abe Hamadeh, Mayes' 2022 Republican opponent who is now competing with Kern for the GOP nomination in the 8th Congressional District, has continued to make baseless claims that Mayes wasn't the rightful winner of the attorney general race.

"Sham Indictment by Arizona’s Illegitimate Attorney General," Hamadeh wrote on X.

Liz Harrington, a former Trump spokesperson, also continued to make baseless accusations of election fraud on X.

"Arizona’s elections are rigged. They have to arrest you in order to keep their corrupt power," she wrote.

But Republicans who bore the brunt of false claims about elections offered a different reaction.

"I don't know how I feel right now," said Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman, a Republican who served as chairman of the Board of Supervisors during the 2020 presidential election. In the days after the contest, he rejected overtures from allies of former President Donald Trump to stop vote tallying and delay certifying election results.

"This has been a slog. Maybe true vindication will be felt when these people have to put their hand on a Bible and tell the truth."

Asked by The Republic if the reason he wasn't feeling vindicated was because charges still had to be proved in court, Hickman said: "That is exactly right."

"I am sure they feel they have been correct and righteous in their pursuits," he said. "I feel just as right and righteous as I have defended our county and our election workers and procedures. I hope they relish the opportunity to prove their actions were righteous and LEGAL."

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, who's also been a target of false election claims, blamed GOP leaders.

"I just think it's so sad that so many lives — some of the people who were indicted here, and the 1,300 plus people who have been indicted in connection to Jan. 6, and the people who have been indicted in connection to all of these false election schemes, and the people who have been indicted for breaking into election equipment in places in Michigan — that all of this is premised on a falsehood that is being perpetuated by so-called leaders who I guess are just okay with people, who trusted them, and believed them, who are now going to jail," Richer said.

"And that's so sad, and I hope that those people, many of whom know this is false, just realize that they are sending people who trusted them to jail.

How Democrats reacted on social media

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who is expected to face Lake in the Senate race, wrote on X that "Our country and our democracy are precious and I will do anything to defend them."

"No one is above the law. I respect the process and look forward to letting the legal process play out—even though it’s hard when people tweet out the crimes they’re committing," he said.

Steve Gallardo, the only Democrat on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors who previously served as a state lawmaker and was a Democratic presidential elector for Arizona in 2020, applauded the decision.

"Every one of these electors knew that Donald Trump lost the state of Arizona. They knew it. They were trying to push the Big Lie and they were trying to deceive the voters in the state of Arizona," Gallardo said. "They should be held accountable."

Tony Cani, a veteran Arizona Democratic political strategist, attempted to add context to the social media debate.

"People need to realize exactly what the indicted fake electors did in AZ. They claim they offered some sort of conditional protest slate of electors. No. They forged a phony Certificate of Vote, signed it, and sent it to the national archives and friendly US Senators," Cani wrote on X. "They did all of this as a part of a conspiracy to help Donald Trump stop a transition of power and seize the office of the presidency despite losing the election."

Marc Elias, a well-known Democratic elections attorney, took a snarky jab at Bobb over her role with the RNC.

"The RNC's senior counsel for election integrity was indicted today in Arizona for election conspiracy and fraud," he wrote on X.

"You can't make this up."

Reporter Sasha Hupka contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: What Kari Lake and others are saying about fake elector indictments