Arizona legislators expel Republican member over baseless election claims

PHOENIX - The Republican-controlled Arizona House of Representatives expelled a GOP member from the chamber Wednesday after an ethics committee concluded she committed “disorderly behavior” for lying about false testimony given during a February legislative hearing on elections.

The resolution to expel state Rep. Liz Harris, which passed with bipartisan support, said her conduct undermined the public’s confidence in the House, violated the “inherent obligation” to protect the chamber’s integrity and “violated the order and decorum” needed to do the people’s work.

In February, a speaker invited by Harris to testify at the election-focused hearing baselessly accused Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, Republican House Speaker Ben Toma, Maricopa County leaders and local judges of accepting bribes from a drug cartel.

The decision to punish Harris, a first-term lawmaker who represented an area east of Phoenix, amounted to a rare moment of Republicans holding one of their own to account for engaging in conspiracies about elections and democratic institutions. Arizona has been a locus of baseless theories about supposedly fraudulent ballots.

The vote on Harris capped weeks of debate within the GOP caucus over how to handle the matter and followed last week’s expulsions of two Democratic lawmakers in Tennessee who interrupted statehouse proceedings by joining protesters calling for gun control after a mass killing. The two Tennessee lawmakers have since been reinstated by local authorities.

Arizona House members voted 46-13 to expel Harris, a tally that included 18 Republicans voting in favor. Immediately after the vote, she gathered her belongings from her desk and left the chamber as observers in the gallery shouted “Shame on you!”

Toma, who voted in favor of expelling Harris, told reporters after the vote he was saddened that the chamber had to consider the matter. “It’s not to be taken lightly and I don’t think it was taken lightly,” he said.

Harris told The Washington Post ahead of the vote, “I didn’t lie and God knows the truth. The truth will come out.”

In voting no, Rep. Alexander Kolodin (R) said expulsion “sets a bad precedent.”

The House Ethics Committee on Tuesday found that Harris was aware that an insurance agent she invited to address a Feb. 23 Joint Elections Committee would allege criminal activity and election fraud by various public officials.

The five-member panel asked House members to read their report and consider whether disciplinary action should be taken.

Republicans will begin the process to replace Harris and send the names of three possibilities to the governing board of Maricopa County, which helps administer elections. The board must choose one of those individuals to fill Harris’s seat.