Maricopa County’s Hickman urges Arizona GOP leaders to push out Kelli Ward
Sep 24, 2021, 11:01 AM | Updated: 11:43 am
Clint Hickman, one of four Republicans on the five-member Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, is calling for Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward, left, to step down. (AP, Maricopa County Photos)
(AP, Maricopa County Photos)
PHOENIX — Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman on Friday urged the top Arizona officials in his Republican Party to call for the resignation of state GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward.
Hickman told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show that Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, Attorney General Mark Brnovich and Treasurer Kimberly Yee should push for the resignation of Ward, who has been heavily promoting the claim that President Joe Biden didn’t really win in Arizona.
Hickman targeted Ward a day after leaked versions of the Cyber Ninjas-led audit showed that the hand recount of nearly 2.1 million ballots produced results similar to the ones certified by state officials, including Ducey and Brnovich.
“I think the time has come. She has now led us to a part where our former president has lost publicly the Arizona vote again to Joe Biden,” Hickman said of Ward. “That is horrible and I will not stand for this type of leadership.”
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Hickman and the rest of the Republican-majority Maricopa County Board of Supervisors have been at odds with Ward and other state GOP leaders for months over the legitimacy of the audit, which began more than five months ago.
The final audit report will be presented Friday at 1 p.m. by contractors led by Florida-based Cyber Ninjas, which had no election experience prior to the review.
The leaked draft audit report found what previous reviews of the 2020 election confirmed: Biden won Arizona.
“She has caused a fracture in our party and has operated outside of it for the purpose of helping herself,” Hickman said.
Hickman also blamed Ward for the events that led to the resignation of fellow Supervisor Steve Chucri earlier this week.
“There is an elected official through our party that has blasted us, said we’ve broken the law and made video after video talking about my group and it’s finally led, apparently, to losing a great colleague in Steve Chucri,” Hickman said.
Chucri issued a statement Tuesday night saying he was stepping down from his District 2 seat effective Nov. 5 after serving for nine years.
The announcement came after conservative website Gateway Pundit released secret recordings of Chucri from a March 22 meeting with leaders from a group called We the People AZ Alliance as well as a Jan. 22 phone call in which he discussed the then-proposed audit of Maricopa County’s 2020 election.
In the audio, Chucri said Hickman “just didn’t have the guts” for an election review.
