Arizona congressional candidate Mark Lamb is embroiled in a new controversy involving allegations about his online activity.
Lamb, a former county sheriff, is running for outgoing Rep. Andy Biggs’ seat in Arizona’s conservative 5th District and has received President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
The Arizona Republic published a report last week on women who said Lamb had messaged them through his campaign’s official social media accounts, citing messages provided by one of his former campaign workers. One of the women alleged that he threatened her with prosecution if she shared his sexual images and messages.
According to the Republic, messages and photos allegedly sent by Lamb — who has made his Mormon faith central to his political biography — were previously shared with leaders at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
After the Republic requested comment from Lamb, who has previously denied claims of sexual impropriety, the newspaper said it was told by his campaign staff that he wasn’t available for comment. Lawyers for his campaign told the paper that many of the claims were “baseless and harmful” but did not elaborate.
The Republic published another report on Lamb on Wednesday, this time focusing on alleged Facebook exchanges with a right-wing anti-immigrant extremist. The outlet said Lamb did not respond to its interview requests.
The new messages, which the Republic said were shared by a former staffer who worked on Lamb’s first campaign, include alleged exchanges in 2016 with a man named Nick Steele, whom the newspaper identified as a member of the extremist vigilante group Border Narcotics Intelligence.
One of the messages appears to show Steele telling Lamb that he and other vigilante members supported Lamb’s campaign and that “BNI guys work like [N-words],” using the racist slur for Black people. The alleged reply from Lamb: “Hahahaha, so you don’t do anything?”
The former staffer, who handled Lamb’s social media accounts at the time and is Black, told the Republic that Lamb apologized to him for the responses.
The Republic also included screenshots showing Lamb responding with amusement after Steele allegedly made homophobic remarks about former Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, who was enmeshed in a 2012 scandal involving his romantic relationship with a Mexican man.
Another screenshot depicts Lamb expressing amusement after Steele referred to a woman as a “stupid b—-” and praising Steele for a social media post directed at her: “Hahahaha! You shut her up!”
It truly is no surprise to me that Trump — a man known for blatant racism, homophobic behavior, misogyny and sexual abuse — endorsed this candidate. That said, Lamb is arguably a prime example of the trend my colleague Hayes Brown recently wrote about, in which the president aligns himself with far-right primary candidates who could pose a headache for him and Republicans in a general election. Perhaps that’s why there have been unconfirmed whispers in conservative media about Trump potentially pulling his endorsement in Arizona.
If Lamb wins his primary in July, his prospects for victory in the general election are aided by the fact he’s running in a solidly conservative district. But with public sentiment broadly against Trump’s agenda — including among voters the GOP typically relies on — almost nothing feels like a sure thing these days.
And these reports about Lamb certainly doesn’t help his cause.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.