A Freshman state representative Liz Harris (R-AZ), has been expelled just a few months into her first term in office. On Wednesday, the state House voted 46-13 to remove her, with 18 Republicans joining 28 Democrats.
She was expelled for disorderly conduct. The disorderly conduct was Harris bringing in an insurance agent to address the House about a potential election scandal and then allegedly lying about it. We reported the story here in February.
Harris ran on election integrity. “As we discovered in 2020, our elections are not secure,” she said on her website. “We need strong legislators who are willing to fight for election integrity — so that the true voices of the Arizona citizens will be heard.”
She was and is called an election denier.
The Story
In February, she brought in a witness who spoke before the state House and Senate elections committees. During her 40-minute presentation, Jacqueline Breger, an insurance agent from Scottsdale, claimed that two women associated with Sinaloa, a Mexican cartel, used fraudulent insurance documents to launder money that they then distributed to various officials, including Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, judges, some state legislators, members of the Mesa City Council, and even leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
An Arizona House Ethics Committee report claimed that Breger’s accusations were unsubstantiated. They added that Harris lied when she insisted she did not know in advance that Breger would make those accusations in her presentation.
“The committee finds that Representative Harris was not surprised or upset by Breger’s testimony and rejects Representative Harris’s testimony to the contrary,” the committee wrote in its report. “Representative Harris wrote that she knew that the Joint Elections Committee would shut down the presentation and that doing so took the committee ‘longer than [she] thought’ it would.
That was the sum of the evidence, but you can read the report on the link.
They said it was a conspiracy theory, and she damaged the integrity of the House.
The 9-page Ethics Committee Report
Kari Lake Blasted the Expulsion
Kari Lake blasted the expulsion. She posted on Twitter after Harris was expelled, condemning Arizona’s House for having “kicked out a duly elected member,” adding that the voters in Harris’ district “should have the final say in her future.”
“And the most corrupt individuals in the entire state (the ones who sabotaged the election) will pick the replacement,” Lake said in a following tweet. “Arizona, we are truly living in a banana republic.”
When asked for additional comment, Lake’s communications team directed Newsweek to a clip from an interview between Lake and Steve Bannon, host of the War Room podcast and former adviser to President Donald Trump.
Arizona is a red state. It always has been.
But our yellow elections officials are trying to turn us into California by rigging our elections and calling us purple.
I will not sit idly by and watch the state I love be transformed into a banana republic. pic.twitter.com/yPh9ryUydS
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) April 13, 2023
Liz Harris Responds
After the vote, Harris said the accusations against her were a “lie.”
“God knows the truth,” Harris told reporters in a parking lot as she packed her belongings into the trunk of her vehicle. “This was an example of how you need to toe the line. If you don’t toe the line, this is what happens.”
Arizona law requires that the successor must be a member of the same party when a state representative vacates a seat in the middle of a two-year term — because of death, resignation, or expulsion. Thus, precinct committee members from the Chandler area will soon convene and select three Republican candidates to fill Harris’ seat. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors will then select Harris’ replacement from among those three candidates.
She could be selected, but it’s not likely.
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