Among the alternate Republican electors from Arizona were Jim Lamon, currently a U.S. Senate candidate; Jake Hoffman, a state representative; Anthony Kern, a former state lawmaker running for a state Senate seat; and Kelli Ward, the state Republican Party chair.
The names of all 11 electors, along with their Democratic counterparts, appeared on the 2020 general election ballot, though their names printed much smaller than the candidates whom they were pledged to support: Trump and Biden.
The Arizona Republican electors had a busy month after the election. They filed lawsuits in both Arizona and Texas, including two actions that were filed, or at least were attempted to be filed, at the U.S. Supreme Court.
And, despite Trump’s loss, they met in mid-December in an attempt to cast their electoral votes for Trump and Pence.
Each signed a document that declared the group the “duly elected and qualified” official participants in the Electoral College from the state of Arizona.
It is not clear exactly how they felt empowered to do so.
Tyler Bowyer, one of the alternate electors and head of Turning Point USA, a group that works to engage younger Republican voters, said he did so in his capacity as an “elector for the Republican Party.” Though he wouldn’t answer a follow-up question about what that duty entailed.
It is also not clear how the plan to meet as electors came together.
Bowyer said he was told by “the party” where to gather to cast the vote, but wouldn’t detail exactly who summoned him.