51 Facts About Mark Finchem

Mark William Finchem was born on April 24,1957 and is an American far right politician who serves as a member of the Arizona Senate.

Mark Finchem was previously a member of the Arizona House of Representatives representing District 11 from 2015 to 2023.

Mark Finchem is the Arizona coordinator for the Coalition of Western States, an organization that opposes the activities of the Bureau of Land Management and supported the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016.

In 2024, Mark Finchem defeated incumbent Arizona State Senator Ken Bennett in the Republican primary election and later won the general election.

Mark Finchem received an associate of applied science degree from Kalamazoo Valley Community College.

Mark Finchem retired from the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety in 1999; personnel records included the note "poor rating, would not rehire".

Mark Finchem moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1999, and became a real estate agent.

Mark Finchem later became vice president of Clean Power Technologies LLC, an Idaho-based company that claimed to generate and distribute sustainable energy "without wires, anywhere around the world".

Mark Finchem allowed his real estate license to expire in 2021.

Mark Finchem received a Bachelor of Arts in public policy from Grand Canyon University in 2019 and later a Master of Legal Studies from the University of Arizona.

Mark Finchem was first elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2014, finishing second in the Republican primary behind Vince Leach before advancing to the general election in Arizona's top-two nominating process.

Mark Finchem came in first with 36,732 votes, ahead of Leach and Democratic challenger Holly Lyon.

In 2016, Mark Finchem introduced legislation that would prohibit Arizona from implementing presidential executive orders, directives issued by federal agencies, and US Supreme Court rulings.

Mark Finchem sponsored in 2019 a bill that would seek to transfer management of federal lands in Arizona to the state government.

In 2020, Mark Finchem ran for speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, challenging incumbent Republican Russell Bowers.

Mark Finchem said that if elected he would prioritize the development of viral content.

Mark Finchem lost the speaker's election, receiving the support of less than one-third of the House Republican caucus.

Mark Finchem was granted a committee chairmanship only a single time in his eight years in the state House.

Mark Finchem led the "Liberty Caucus" group of far-right Republican state House members.

Mark Finchem's rise to prominence reflected a broader rightward shift within the Arizona Republican Party; in the late 2010s and 2020s, the strength of the wing of the party aligned with John McCain diminished, and the party apparatus became increasingly dominated by the far right.

In March 2021, Mark Finchem announced he would run for Secretary of State of Arizona in the 2022 election.

Mark Finchem received Donald Trump's endorsement in September 2021 and won the Republican primary on August 2,2022.

Mark Finchem is a member of the America First Secretary of State Coalition.

Mark Finchem is a long-time affiliate with the Oath Keepers whose members donated almost $10,000 to his campaign.

On his Telegram account, Mark Finchem invoked Soros' name 24 times, often describing himself as combating the "Soros machine" or his "Soros funded opponent" or claiming that the media is Soros-funded.

Mark Finchem was scrutinized for his endorsement of Jarrin Jackson, a Republican candidate for Oklahoma State Senate known for his antisemitic and homophobic views.

Mark Finchem attracted scrutiny for receiving an endorsement from Andrew Torba, the founder of the antisemitic and white nationalist platform Gab, and for publicly welcoming Torba's endorsement.

On his own Gab account, Mark Finchem has pushed the Soros conspiracy theory, as well as claims that the Central Intelligence Agency controls the media.

Mark Finchem's comments were criticized by Jewish organizations, including the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix.

Mark Finchem responded to criticism saying he "loved the Jewish people" and denying that his tweet was anti-Semitic.

Mark Finchem later doubled down on his initial claims, saying that criticism of him was proof of a Soros conspiracy.

Mark Finchem is a frequent guest on Steve Bannon's podcast.

Mark Finchem had said that if he lost the election, he would not concede.

Mark Finchem filed a lawsuit in December 2022 to have the election "nullified and redone," but it was dismissed with prejudice that month by Maricopa County Superior Court judge Melissa Julian, confirming Democrat Adrian Fontes' victory, as well as the victory of Democrat Katie Hobbs over Republican Kari Lake who had filed suit to overturn the election.

In May 2023, Judge Julian ruled that the amount of legal fees and costs that Mark Finchem is to pay to Fontes is $40,565.

Mark Finchem appealed the rejection of his election challenge, then abandoned the appeal in July 2023, with his lawyer citing other failed 2022 election challenging lawsuits in Arizona; however Mark Finchem continued to appeal the sanctions against him in this case.

In 2024, Mark Finchem challenged and defeated incumbent Arizona State Senator Ken Bennett in the Republican primary election for Arizona's 1st legislative district.

Mark Finchem has promoted the "independent state legislature theory"; after Biden's victory in 2020, he called for the Arizona legislature to appoint presidential electors of its own choosing.

Mark Finchem promoted the then-fringe theory before it gained currency among mainstream Republicans.

In 2021, Mark Finchem shared on social media a "report" falsely claiming to have uncovered tens of thousands of missing or lost votes, and tens of thousands of votes fraudulently cast, in Maricopa County, Arizona.

In 2022, two years after the election, Mark Finchem introduced a resolution in the state legislature to "reclaim" Arizona's electors on the basis of his false claim that the results in three Arizona counties were "irredeemably compromised"; the resolution did not receive a hearing in the House.

Mark Finchem said the payment was for security costs related to his meeting with Giuliani.

Mark Finchem traveled to Washington, DC to take part in the January 6,2021, protest that was followed by an attack on the US Capitol.

Mark Finchem claimed, without offering any evidence, that "this election was a fraud", and tweeted photographs of protestors massed on the steps of the Capitol building.

Mark Finchem was later interviewed as a witness by the Justice Department and the House committee investigating the Capitol riots.

In 2017, Mark Finchem baselessly described the white supremacist Unite the Right rally as a "deep state psyop" carried out by Democrats.

Mark Finchem endorses a variant of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory.

Mark Finchem embraced QAnon conspiracy theories, and attended a conference of QAnon followers that opened with a video trafficking in antisemitism and repeating debunked conspiracy theories.

Grid, a tech news website, confirmed Mark Finchem's site did not appear in Google results, but Google apparently had nothing to do with it.

Mark Finchem did not respond to Grids request for an explanation when they called him.

Mark Finchem has been married four times, and has been estranged for over two decades from two adult children and has not met his grandchildren by them, according to family members.