'I would lynch him': Arizona GOP leader threatened to murder top election official

Shelby Busch, who is vice chair of the Maricopa County, Arizona Republican Party, was recently heard threatening the life of county recorder Stephen Richer — the top election administrator for the Grand Canyon State's most populous county.

MSNBC columnist Jahan Jones reported that during a recent GOP event, Busch made the remark about Richer, who is Jewish, to laughter from the audience.

"If Stephen Richer were in this room, I would lynch him," she said. "I don’t unify with people who don’t believe in the principles we believe in and the American cause that founded this country."

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Busch added that she would prefer the county have someone in the office who would be "a good, Christian man that believes what we believe."

Richer, in the meantime, has been subjected to numerous death threats, particularly in the wake of the 2022 gubernatorial and U.S. Senate elections in which Democrats prevailed in both races. This is despite Richer being a Republican himself.

“If lynching is in your vocabulary you need to have a heart to heart with yourself,” Richer said, according to AZfamily.com. “That shouldn’t be in your vocabulary given the history of that term and it shouldn’t be on your vocabulary to say about anyone you with whom you disagree.”

According to Phoenix-based TV stations KTVK and KPHO, Busch is now facing calls to walk back her statement, though she insists the comment was made "in jest." The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix (JCRC) condemned both Busch and the Maricopa County GOP in an official statement.

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"We urge Ms. Busch to retract and apologize, and the Maricopa County Republican Party to stand against such rhetoric," the JCRC stated.

Maricopa County has been instrumental in Democrats' recent success in Arizona. Democrat Katie Hobbs defeated Republican Kari Lake by approximately 17,000 votes, with her victory made possible by her 38,000-vote advantage in the Democratic-leaning county. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) had a more robust margin of victory over Republican challenger Blake Masters, whom he dispatched by a 51-46 margin.

Click here to read MSNBC's column, and click here to read AZfamily.com's report.

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