Meet Mark Finchem. He's the Republican running for secretary of state in Arizona against Democrat Adrian Fontes. He's endorsed by Trump, a QAnon believer, a supporter of the big lie (that Joe Biden stole the election), and a supporter of the far-right extremist group the Oath Keepers. According to CNN, he's also recently been caught sharing "anti-government conspiracies and posts about stockpiling ammunition on social media."
Finchem's most extreme content came on the social media platform Pinterest, which allows users to save, categorize and share posts called pins into digital mood boards. While Finchem has some light-hearted and conventional boards on food, fashion and dogs, he also has a board titled "Treason Watch List," featuring photos of Jesse Jackson, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and former Secretary of State John Kerry.
In another board labeled "Thought Provoking," Finchem pinned a number of extremist posts, comparing Democrats to Nazis and invoking the Holocaust to argue against gun control, along with posts calling for stockpiling ammunition.
One pin compared Obama to Adolf Hitler with a cartoon featuring the former president raising his arm while speaking and a cartoon of a Nazi just behind him in similar fashion saying "tyranny is always lurking just around the corner." Another pin shared by Finchem showed hundreds of boxes of stockpiled personal ammunition saying "you need to be prepared."
Another of Finchem's pins, arguing against gun control, depicted Jews being rounded up by Nazis saying, "What makes us think IT CAN'T HAPPEN IN AMERICA?"
Yet another pin showed an image saying "a war in America" will have "no rules of engagement."
Other posts Finchem pinned on his "Thought Provoking" board included conspiracy theories that the Mexican Army was making incursions into the United States in preparation for a full-scale invasion and repeated anti-Muslim posts arguing Sharia law was coming to the US soon.
But that's not all! Twitter user @ShawnInArizona recently tweeted a photo of Finchem at a campaign event, and it looks shockingly different from the photo on Finchem's Wikipedia page. The tweet says, "This isn't photoshopped, this isn't the result of natural sunlight and this isn't what you want for Secretary of State." One Twitter user replied, "Wow that's a heavy shade of bronzer! I think it's called 'Fake Chicano #22'". Another replied, "Blackface isn't the best way to seek support from POC," and another said, "Wait, that's a white guy? That's almost a blackface."
The dark bronzed look definitely seems different and new, and I don't really have much to say about it, I can't really judge if he's going for blackface or not. BUT, regardless, he's still awful and would be terrible for the state of Arizona. CNN makes the case strongly:
If Finchem wins his race against Democrat Adrian Fontes, a former county clerk of Maricopa County, Arizona, Finchem would be tasked with running the state's elections in 2024. In Arizona, the secretary of state is second in line to the governorship.
A person who believes and propagates conspiracy theories about stolen elections that are DECIDEDLY NOT TRUE shouldn't be running elections. Period.
