# Alexander Kolodin Arizona state representative, election lawyer, and the **2026 Republican nominee for Arizona Secretary of State** — the office that administers elections in the state that was the epicenter of post-2020 [[Election Denialism]]. He faces Democratic incumbent [[Adrian Fontes]] on November 3, 2026. ## The 2026 primary Kolodin won the July 21, 2026 Republican primary roughly **60–40** over former Arizona GOP Chair Gina Swoboda. The contest was a direct proxy fight between the election-denial wing and institutionalist Republicans, and it was decided for the deniers: Swoboda, though she had served as [[Donald Trump]]'s 2020 Arizona Election Day operations director, spent the primary largely defending Arizona's election systems and arguing Kolodin was unelectable. He campaigned on eliminating vote centers, shortening the early-voting window, and requiring identification for mail ballots. ## 2020 litigation and State Bar discipline Kolodin was counsel in the Trump campaign's Arizona "kraken" suit seeking to void all mail ballots in the state — dismissed by the court as "sorely wanting of relevant or reliable evidence." In **December 2023** the **State Bar of Arizona placed him on 18-month probation** over evidence-free claims of election fraud. > [!important] Why this nomination is the finding > Arizona has spent six years as the laboratory for post-2020 election litigation, and the standard reading of 2022 was that its voters had rejected the denier slate for offices that run elections. The 2026 Republican primary tested the party rather than the electorate, and returned the candidate whose license was disciplined for the fraud claims themselves — over an opponent who had worked for the Trump 2020 operation and still defended the system. **The disciplinary record was not a disqualifier inside the primary; it was arguably the credential.** The general election is the remaining test. ## See Also - [[Adrian Fontes]] — the Democratic incumbent he faces - [[2026 Key State Races Hub]] · [[Battleground Election Officials Hub]] - [[Election Denialism]] · [[Stop the Steal]] · [[Voter Suppression]] · [[Lawfare]] - [[Jim Marchant]] · [[Tim Fleming]] — the other 2026 Republican nominees for chief election officer in battleground states