Mark Finchem
Mark William Finchem is an American far-right politician who serves as a member of the Arizona Senate. He was previously a member of the Arizona House of Representatives, representing District 11 from 2015 to 2023. He is the Arizona coordinator for the Coalition of Western States, an organization that opposes the activities of the Bureau of Land Management and supported the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016.
A member of the militia group Oath Keepers, Finchem was the Republican Party nominee in the 2022 election for Secretary of State of Arizona. In 2024, Finchem was elected to the Arizona Senate after defeating incumbent Ken Bennett in the Republican primary.
Early life and education
Finchem was originally from the Detroit, Michigan area. After graduating high school, he joined the Kalamazoo, Michigan department of public safety, working first as a firefighter and then as a police officer. While a police officer, he also worked as a rancher. He received an associate of applied science degree from Kalamazoo Valley Community College. Finchem retired from the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety in 1999; personnel records included the note "poor rating, would not rehire".Finchem moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1999, and became a real estate agent. He later became vice president of Clean Power Technologies LLC, an Idaho-based company that claimed to generate and distribute sustainable energy "without wires, anywhere around the world". He allowed his real estate license to expire in 2021.
Finchem received a Bachelor of Arts in public policy from Grand Canyon University in 2019 and later a Master of Legal Studies from the University of Arizona. In a 2021 paper that he issued through his nonprofit, Finchem falsely claimed to be a "legislative fellow in residence" at UA's James E. Rogers College of Law; Finchem does not hold a fellowship at the law school.
Political career
Arizona House of Representatives
Finchem was first elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2014, finishing second in the Republican primary behind Vince Leach before advancing to the general election in Arizona's top-two nominating process. Finchem and Leach ran successfully in the general election. Finchem came in first with 36,732 votes, ahead of Leach and Democratic challenger Holly Lyon.Finchem and Leach defeated Democrats Corin Hammond and Barry McCain in the 2016 general election.
As a member of the state House, Finchem was known for promoting extreme ideas. In 2016, Finchem introduced legislation that would prohibit Arizona from implementing presidential executive orders, directives issued by federal agencies, and U.S. Supreme Court rulings. In 2019 he introduced a bill to create a code of ethics for teachers which consisted primarily of text from a report published by the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He also sponsored in 2019 a bill that would seek to transfer management of federal lands in Arizona to the state government.
In 2020, Finchem ran for speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, challenging incumbent Republican Russell Bowers. Finchem said that if elected he would prioritize the development of viral content. He lost the speaker's election, receiving the support of less than one-third of the House Republican caucus.
Posting on Twitter in 2021, Finchem compared the cancellation of a fundraiser for Josh Hawley to the Holocaust. In the tweet, Finchem criticised Loews Hotels for cancelling the fundraiser, saying "This is what Hitler and Stalin did. What's next Camps? Ovens?"
As of 2021, Finchem was a member of the House of Representatives' committees on the Judiciary, on Military Affairs & Public Safety, and on Natural Resources, Energy & Water. He was granted a committee chairmanship only a single time in his eight years in the state House. He led the "Liberty Caucus" group of far-right Republican state House members. Republican state senator T. J. Shope described Finchem as a "political gadfly"'; another Republican state senator, Paul Boyer, described him as "one of the dumbest" members of the Arizona House of Representatives.. Finchem's rise to prominence reflected a broader rightward shift within the Arizona Republican Party; in the late 2010s and 2020s, the strength of the wing of the party aligned with John McCain diminished, and the party apparatus became increasingly dominated by the far right.
Coalition of Western States
As of 2016, Finchem was Arizona coordinator of the Coalition of Western States, a group founded by Washington state representative Matt Shea in 2014 to support Cliven Bundy and his family in their confrontation with law enforcement, which also supported the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Mark Pitcavage of the Anti-Defamation League described COWS as motivated by "anti-government extremism and anti-public lands extremism", and said that Finchem's membership indicated he shared extremist views.2022 Secretary of State campaign
In March 2021, Finchem announced he would run for Secretary of State of Arizona in the 2022 election. He received Donald Trump's endorsement in September 2021 and won the Republican primary on August 2, 2022. Finchem is a member of the America First Secretary of State Coalition. Finchem is a long-time affiliate with the Oath Keepers whose members donated almost $10,000 to his campaign.During the election campaign, Finchem published a tweet calling Arizona Democratic politicians "liars and deceivers" whose "loyalty is to George Soros and Mike Bloomberg." Finchem's invocation of an antisemitic trope drew criticism. On his Telegram account, Finchem invoked Soros' name 24 times, often describing himself as combating the "Soros machine" or his "Soros funded opponent" or claiming that the media is Soros-funded.
Finchem was also scrutinized for his endorsement of Jarrin Jackson, a Republican candidate for Oklahoma State Senate known for his antisemitic and homophobic views. After Jackson's writings were publicized, Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake rescinded her endorsement of Jackson, but Finchem did not. Finchem also attracted scrutiny for receiving an endorsement from Andrew Torba, the founder of the antisemitic and white nationalist platform Gab, and for publicly welcoming Torba's endorsement. On his own Gab account, Finchem has pushed the Soros conspiracy theory, as well as claims that the Central Intelligence Agency controls the media.
Finchem's comments were criticized by Jewish organizations, including the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix. He responded to criticism saying he "loved the Jewish people" and denying that his tweet was anti-Semitic. He later doubled down on his initial claims, saying that criticism of him was proof of a Soros conspiracy.
During his campaign, most of Finchem's media appearances were on right-wing talk shows. He is a frequent guest on Steve Bannon's podcast.
Finchem had said that if he lost the election, he would not concede. Democratic nominee Adrian Fontes defeated Finchem in the November 8 general election.
Lawsuit to ban electronic voting machines
In April 2022, Finchem and Kari Lake sued state officials, seeking to ban electronic voting machines from being used in his 2022 election. In August 2022, U.S. District Judge John Tuchi dismissed the suit, writing that Lake and Finchem "articulated only conjectural allegations of potential injuries" and thus lacked standing. In his ruling, Tuchi also cited the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, as well as the Purcell principle. In December 2022, Tuchi sanctioned Lake's lawyers in this suit, including Alan Dershowitz, for making "false, misleading, and unsupported" assertions during the case, and making claims without "an adequate factual or legal basis grounded in a reasonable pre-filing inquiry"; he ordered the plaintiffs to pay the defendants' attorney fees. Tuchi said the sanctions would show that the court does not tolerate litigants "furthering false narratives that baselessly undermine public trust at a time of increasing disinformation about, and distrust in, the democratic process". The sanction amount was set by Tuchi to be roughly $122,000.Finchem and Lake's appeal, aimed at banning electronic voting machines, was rejected in October 2022 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which highlighted that "counsel for plaintiffs conceded that their arguments were limited to potential future hacking, and not based on any past harm", and voiced agreement "with the district court that plaintiffs' speculative allegations that voting machines may be hackable are insufficient to establish an injury". Finchem and Lake in March 2024 appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which rejected their lawsuit in April 2024.
Lawsuit to overturn his election loss
Finchem filed a lawsuit in December 2022 to have the election "nullified and redone," but it was dismissed with prejudice that month by Maricopa County Superior Court judge Melissa Julian, confirming Democrat Adrian Fontes' victory, as well as the victory of Democrat Katie Hobbs over Republican Kari Lake who had also filed suit to overturn the election.Among other issues, the judge rejected the merits of Finchem's arguments on voting machines certification and voting software certification, and separately concluded that Finchem "does not allege that any of the votes cast were actually illegal" and does not allege that any legal vote was not counted, but only alleged "suspicions that some votes may not have been counted", which was insufficient to overturn an election. The judge also rejected Finchem's allegations of "misconduct" by Secretary of State Katie Hobbs as insufficient.
Judge Julian in March 2023 sanctioned Finchem and his lawyer to pay the legal fees of Fontes' campaign and office because Finchem's lawsuit was "groundless and not brought in good faith." The judge noted that a supposed expert called by Finchem asserted that there were "missing votes", but the number of "missing votes" claimed was not enough to change the result of the election. The judge cited Finchem's decision not to inspect ballots as indicating that Finchem "had no expectation that an inspection would yield a favorable outcome", which further "demonstrates that Finchem challenged his election loss despite knowing that his claims regarding misconduct and procedural irregularities were insufficient under the law to sustain the contest." Finchem reacted to the sanctions by calling for Judge Julian to be "removed from the bench for her abuse of judicial authority". In May 2023, Judge Julian ruled that the amount of legal fees and costs that Finchem is to pay to Fontes is $40,565.
Finchem appealed the rejection of his election challenge, then abandoned the appeal in July 2023, with his lawyer citing other failed 2022 election challenging lawsuits in Arizona; however Finchem continued to appeal the sanctions against him in this case. In November 2024, the Arizona Supreme Court rejected Finchem's appeal against his sanctions, thus Finchem was required to pay Fontes' legal fees.