Arizona GOP chair resigns following leaked recording
According to DeWit, the recording, first reported by the Daily Mail, was selectively edited and taken out of context.
Arizona GOP Chair Jeff DeWit resigned Wednesday amid controversy over a leaked audio recording in which he appeared to attempt to bribe former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake to not to run for Senate.
DeWit, who had served in the role since January 2023, said in a statement that Lake’s team had issued him an ultimatum: “resign today or face the release of a new, more damaging recording.”
“I am truly unsure of its contents, but considering our numerous past open conversations as friends, I have decided not to take the risk,” DeWit said.
According to DeWit, the recording, first reported by the Daily Mail, was selectively edited and taken out of context. DeWit explained his comments in the recording by explaining that he had been exercising his duty as party chair to “assess and enhance the viability” of GOP candidates.
“I am resigning as Lake requested, in the hope that she will honor her commitment to cease her attacks, allowing me to return to the business sector — a field I find much more logical and prefer over politics,” he said in his statement.
In the recording, DeWit appears to ask Lake to name her price to stay out of politics for two years — but Lake pushed back, saying she would not leave the Senate race and could not be bought. POLITICO has not verified the veracity of the recording.
Lake, a vocal ally of former president Donald Trump, is running for Senate after a failed 2022 bid for governor. She ran as a hard-charging conservative outsider who embraced conspiracy theories and was quick to turn her ire on fellow Republicans.
She is now running for the GOP nomination for Senate in Arizona and is expected to face Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego. Independent incumbent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has not announced whether or not she will run for reelection.
Lake called for DeWit’s resignation at Trump’s New Hampshire victory party Tuesday, telling an NBC reporter that “he’s got to resign. We can’t have somebody who is corrupt and compromised running the Republican Party.”