“Bombard the Arizona legislature”: Expelled Arizona state Rep. Liz Harris asked viewers of QAnon shows to help get her reinstated to the state legislature
Written by Alex Kaplan
Published
Former Arizona Republican state Rep. Liz Harris, who was recently expelled from the state legislature, went on multiple QAnon-supporting shows and asked their viewers to “bombard” Republican officials and the state legislature in order to get her reinstated.
On April 12, Harris — who was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives last year following her involvement with the state’s bogus 2021 “audit” and her promotion of QAnon — was expelled from the legislature after she had invited a conspiracy theorist to testify in February at a joint House and Senate Election Committee hearing. During that hearing, that conspiracy theorist, insurance agent Jacqueline Berger, baselessly alleged that numerous state and local officials and appointees — including several county supervisors, superior court judges, the mayor of Mesa, and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, among others — had taken bribes from the Sinaloa drug cartel in an elaborate money laundering scheme. According to The Arizona Republic, the entire alleged bribery scheme — which stems from the “delusional” divorce court proceedings of the witness’ boyfriend, in the words of one judge — could have been dispelled by “a few minutes of internet research.”
Afterward, as noted by The New York Times, the state’s “House Ethics Committee determined that Ms. Harris had violated legislative rules by inviting a witness to present false testimony.”
In the days following her expulsion — and as the process began for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to appoint a replacement for Harris’ seat — Harris went to campaign for a candidate to replace her: herself. And she appeared to see the audience for multiple QAnon shows as an avenue for that campaign.
On April 14, Harris appeared on Badlands Media, a QAnon Rumble channel founded and organized by QAnon influencers. At the end of the interview, after defending the actions that got her expelled, Harris urged the show’s audience to “please bombard the Arizona legislature with ‘reinstate Liz’” and to “get her election integrity bills, 12 bills, get them on the board.” Right after the interview, host, QAnon influencer and Badlands Media co-founder Jon Herald (known online as “Patel Patriot”) showed the Arizona legislature’s site and the names of state house members on screen and said, “These are the people that you got to reach out to. They have the phone number on here. They have the emails. Do your best. I mean, you can send one email, right, and just put in all the recipients. You can call, call anybody in your district. If you have friends down in Arizona. This is what Liz said we need to do, right? Bombard them and have them look for reinstatement. But most importantly, more importantly, get those bills on the floor.”
That same day, Harris appeared on another QAnon program, MatrixxxGrooove Show (or MG Show), to discuss her expulsion. During that interview, co-host Jeffrey Pedersen (known online as “intheMatrixxx”) told Harris that the show had “a big Arizona listenership” and asked her “what should we do” to help her. In response, Harris said to “call them, email them, write letters, ask them to please reinstate me,” and to “call the Arizona GOP.” The show also featured the phone number and email address of the Arizona Republican Party, with Pedersen urging the “digital soldiers” watching to contact the state party and to “say ‘reinstate Liz Harris.’”
The following day, Harris appeared on The AlphaWarrior Show, which is hosted by a Badlands Media member who urged the audience to “start sending emails and phone calls.” Another QAnon-supporting co-host then said to the audience that he was “encouraging … every single one of you in that district, that are in the party, that are precinct committeemen, precinct chairs, to do what you know in your heart is right, and that is send the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors a message” in support of reinstating Harris.
And two days later, on April 17, Harris again appeared on MatrixxxGrooove Show, where she told the audience to “continually reach out to the Arizona legislators, ask them to reinstate me, reach out to the Board of Supervisors,” and “tell them if Liz makes the final three tonight, ‘Pick Liz, pick Liz, pick Liz.’” (She also urged the audience to “become a [Republican] precinct committeeman” if they lived in Arizona; the “precinct strategy” has become embraced within the QAnon community.)
Later that day, Republican precinct committeemen in Harris’ district nominated her as one of three possible candidates for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisor to pick from to replace Harris. As noted by the Arizona Capitol Times, “Harris got the most votes.”
Harris is not the first candidate in Arizona to use QAnon shows to recruit support for their efforts. Then-gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and then-secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem both used MatrixxxGrooove Show to aid their campaigns. Nor was this Harris’ first use of QAnon shows, going on them in 2021 to promote her “canvassing” effort connected to the state’s supposed audit of votes in Maricopa County from the 2020 presidential election.