Arizona GOP pushes highly provocative line following election losses

After decades of Republican dominance in Arizona, the GOP had an unexpectedly difficult year in the Grand Canyon State. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris narrowly carried the state, becoming only the second Democratic ticket to carry Arizona in the last 70 years, and Arizonans elected Sen. Mark Kelly (D), meaning the state is represented by two Democratic U.S. senators for the first time since the early 1950s.

One of the questions is what Arizona Republicans are prepared to do in the wake of these setbacks.

So far, the answer is, "Nothing good." As Politico noted this morning, the chair of the Arizona Republican Party, Kelli Ward, recently told Gov. Doug Ducey (R) via Twitter to shut up as part of a feud over the integrity of Arizona's election. The governor replied soon after, "I think what I would say is the feeling's mutual to her."

But as it turns out, the state GOP is not just fighting with Arizona's Republican governor. TPM noted this morning:

The first example came when the state GOP's official Twitter account promoted content from a pro-Trump "Stop the Steal" organizer who declared, "I am willing to give my life for this fight."

Soon after, the Arizona Republican Party added, "He is. Are you?" seemingly asking if followers are prepared to die for "this fight."

In case that wasn't quite clear enough, the state GOP then posted a clip from a "Rambo" movie, which quoted Sylvester Stallone's character saying, "This is what we do, who we are. Live for nothing, or die for something."

The "Rambo" tweet was ultimately taken down, though as of this minute, the other remains up.

Hopefully, nothing will come of this, and the public will dismiss the Arizona Republican Party's missives as overwrought hyperbole -- in effect, a tantrum thrown by a party struggling to accept defeat.

But it's hard not to feel a degree of discomfort with the circumstances. There's a Republican president eager to invalidate election results he doesn't like; there's a GOP base that doesn't seem to realize how ridiculous the party's conspiracy theories are; and there are partisan officials like the Arizona Republican Party that seems a little too eager to stoke a dangerous flame.

No good can come of this.

Update: A state party spokesperson told the Arizona Republic, this morning, “The Republican Party of Arizona condemns all forms of violence in the strongest terms." There was no additional explanation about the purpose of the state GOP's highly provocative tweets.

Arizona Sen. Martín Quezada (D) added in response to the Republicans' online messages, "You're asking people to die for this conspiracy theory? What in the living hell is wrong with you people?"