Republicans in Arizona’s Legislative District 3 (LD-3), located in northern Maricopa County and the largest legislative district in the state, issued a scathing censure of Republican Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates Friday for denying election fraud and opposing Republican candidates for office who believe there was. They called for him to resign and for the Maricopa County Republican Party to encourage Republicans to vote him out of office.
The censure of Gates began, “Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates has made and continues to make disparaging public comments about Republican Arizona Representatives and Republican candidates during interviews, all while seeming to support Democrat candidates running against them.”
The LD-3 GOP first cited a statement Gates made after the primary election on August 2, in which every Trump-endorsed candidate in the state won their races. “The election last night was a catastrophe for the Arizona Republican Party,” he said, “and, I would argue, our democracy.”
Next, the LD-3 GOP cited remarks Gates made during an interview on August 5. “I fear that if we continue to nominate people who deny the truth, then what may have to happen is that we lose elections,” he said. “I think the only way back is by humiliation at the ballot box, and the problem is the Democrats aren’t strong enough to do that. They’re still arguing that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, even though we’ve had numerous audits in Maricopa County, other independent examinations to show that that’s simply not the case. These folks continue to push this story and that is corrosive to our democracy. There’s no basis for it. And what it is doing is sowing doubt in our democracy. When we’re talking about the past and basically dredging up conspiracy theories, then we’re doing a disservice to the voters.”
Read the rest of the article at The Arizona Sun Times
