ARIZONA DEMO-CRAZY: Gerrymandering Sets Up A 2-Way Far-Right Fringe-Femme Fatale Smackdown

Who's running now against each other in the August Primary Election - Rogers and Townsend have been close political allies who late last year found themselves drawn into the same legislative district, despite living hundreds of miles apart.

Rather than face off in 2022, Townsend opted to declare her candidacy for a southern Arizona congressional district — that she doesn’t live in — and Rogers swiftly endorsed her. 

Wendy Rogers refuses to condemn white nationalist leader after GOP senator challenges her

Jerod MacDonald-Evoy

Arizona Mirror |

"A day after the Arizona Senate voted to censure Flagstaff Republican Wendy Rogers for comments she made at a white nationalist conference and a string of inflammatory social media posts, another one of her colleagues challenged her to condemn those she had praised in a fiery speech on the Senate floor. 

“I contend that this is unbecoming rhetoric, it is inappropriate rhetoric,” Sen. Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa, said on the Senate floor Wednesday. . .

“I received ugly blowback from people on my side,” Townsend said. “Like being in a piranha tank — but I’m not afraid of the piranha tank anymore.”

Townsend herself is no stranger to controversy. In 2019, Townsend toured the border with the extremist group AZ Patriots whose leader walked around the Arizona State Capitol with a “kekistan” flag, a white nationalist symbol used to troll liberal events. 

And last year, Townsend compared vaccine supporters to Nazis and sharing an image of needles in the shape of a swastika on social media. When the Anti-Defamation League sharply criticized her rhetoric, Townsend rebuked the 108-year-old Jewish organization. “Learn your history,” she retorted."