State Rep. Austin Smith (R), who was the senior director of Turning Point Action, the election arm of Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA, was accused by Democratic activists of filing the petition. Voter's name, address, and signature line The handwriting is “strikingly similar” to Smith's handwriting, according to the complaint. The complaint states that Smith “personally distributed multiple petitions bearing signatures that appeared to be forged voter signatures.”
The complaint was sent and forwarded to the Arizona Secretary of State. It has been submitted to the Arizona Attorney General's Office for review. State election officials have not assessed the veracity of the allegations against the candidates. A spokesperson for the state attorney's office, which runs a team focused on voter and election fraud claims following widespread claims after the 2020 election, declined to comment. Both state governments are overseen by Democrats.
Mr. Smith submitted his resignation to Turning Point Action on Thursday, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Mr. Smith also publicly ended his re-election campaign.
Smith did not respond to requests for comment.
The first-term lawmaker said in a statement that the allegations against him are “ridiculous” and part of a “coordinated attack” by Democrats and “people who are dissatisfied with my politics.”
Mr. Smith aligns himself with the most conservative members of the Arizona House of Representatives (sometimes referred to as the Freedom Caucus, a large Republican caucus), and has previously been involved in local election officials' efforts to verify signatures. He derided it as a “joke”.
During his time at Turning Point Action, Mr. Smith worked to support conservative candidates who spread misinformation about elections. Smith tweeted a photo of himself speaking to “thousands of patriots” at a rally in Washington on January 5, 2021. In the tweet, which has since been deleted, he told his followers to “don't get complacent” and “fight like hell”. The next day, the U.S. Capitol came under attack as Congress met to certify the 2020 election results.
Mr Smith said the high costs and potential public impact of the allegations led to his decision to withdraw from the race.
“The number one recommendation I received was to hunker down and survive to fight another day,” Smith said. statement Posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I may be confident of victory, but if the judge believes just one person, we will all lose. If I run for office, I will rely solely on the online signature system and eliminate paper petitions from my campaign, so no one can create a narrative.”
The complaint alleges that Smith provided pages with dozens of forged signatures that he claimed he had collected, including two pages of images.
Mr. Smith's withdrawal prompted an immediate reaction from members of his own party, including death threats and harassment for upholding the will of voters during the 2020 and 2022 elections and for the Republican loss. Some people faced
Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman (R), who lives in Smith's district west of Phoenix, painted Smith as a hypocrite. Hickman rebuffed Trump's attempts to talk in the weeks after the then-president narrowly lost the 2020 election. Hickman has faced death threats, threats against her family and protests at her home. On Thursday, he called on Smith to resign.
“For at least three years, this man lied to the residents of the 29th Legislative District and the entire state about election administration,” Hickman said in a statement. “And now he is once again accused of lying about the signatures he personally collected to put on the ballot. An investigation will reveal the truth.”
