A Republican in Arizona’s largest county threatened to “lynch” the county’s top elections official during a public event three months ago, according to a newly discovered video clip circulating on social media.
Election official Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer posted a video of the comment on X on Monday. In it, Maricopa Republican Party Vice Chair Shelby Busch singles out one of Richer’s re-election campaign opponents and calls him a “good Christian man.” She then contrasts him with Richer, who is Jewish.
“If Stephen Richer walked into this room, I would lynch him,” Busch says in the video. “I do not join people who do not believe in the principles we believe in and the American cause that founded this country.”
In a statement to POLITICO on Tuesday, Busch said the comment “was a joke.”
“Everyone knows I don’t like Richer,” Busch wrote. “The statement was a joke and was made in a joking tone. I do not condone and would never tolerate violence against anyone. “It was hyperbole.”
The comment was made during a March 20 campaign event in Mesa, Arizona, for Republican Jerone Davison, who is running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the first to broadcast live on the conservative social media platform Rumble. Davison on Monday defended Busch in X as a “woman of faith” and said she did not express “any type of racial hatred.”
“No one knew or cared whether you were Jewish or not,” Davison wrote to Richer.
Richer learned of the video of Busch’s comment over the weekend. He told POLITICO that he has not received any message or apology from her since the video appeared online.
“I don’t think the word lynching should be part of your vocabulary,” Richer said in an interview Tuesday, emphasizing that the Republican Party should not support Busch’s sentiment.
Busch’s comments drew condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix, which noted that Richer is Jewish and condemned “extremists” in X for amplifying “his hatred of the Jews.”
Richer’s opponent whom Busch highlighted as a “good Christian” at the event, Don Hiatt, did not respond to a request for comment.
Busch’s comments come amid escalating rhetoric against election officials in Arizona, who have been “in the crosshairs” of ongoing threats, the state’s U.S. Attorney’s Office reported. said earlier this year. Busch is an activist with We the People AZ Alliance, a conservative group that has falsely claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and that he has been cited in the past by Senate candidate Kari Lake. Richer has publicly worked to combat conspiracy theories about elections in Arizona, including through an alliance with the state’s Democratic secretary of state.
Richer noted that Busch’s rhetoric was especially sensitive in Maricopa County, after an Iowa man was jailed last year after threatening to lynch the county’s Republican supervisor because he failed to investigate false allegations of voter fraud.
Busch’s comments, Richer said, underscore how public officials must be aware of how what they consider a “joke” or “hyperbole” can spread online.
“His words have reach and have impact,” he added.