OUR TARGETS
iVote has run and won campaigns for Secretary of State in the toughest battlegrounds in the country.
In 2022, 26 states had Secretary of State elections, including five of the 10 closest states in the 2020 election.
In 2018, iVote targeted Arizona, flipping the Secretary of State's office for the first time in decades to elect pro-voting advocate Katie Hobbs. We also ran successful campaigns in Michigan (Jocelyn Benson) and Colorado (Jena Griswold). In 2022, we ran data driven, multi-media campaigns in Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, and Minnesota.
Given the rise in importance for Secretary of State races, and their sweeping power over access to the ballot, the race to control who occupies the Secretary of State seat across battleground states requires greater resources than ever before. After the successes of 2018, iVote expanded its focus in the 2022 cycle by defending crucial voting rights champions and picking up additional seats in key battleground states.
2022 Candidates
MICHIGAN
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Sec. Jocelyn Benson (iVote Candidate)
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Jocelyn Benson was elected Secretary of State in 2018 by nearly nine points, taking back the office for Democrats for the first time since 1995.
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Since being elected, she has worked tirelessly to make sure every eligible voter can cast a ballot in Michigan, and stood up to Trump to ensure every vote was counted in the 2020 presidential election – even in the face of threatening, armed protestors outside of her home.
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In 2022, Benson won the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award because she "defended the will of Michigan voters and assured them that she would protect and defend the integrity of Michigan's vote in accordance with state law."
Kristina Karamo
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Michigan Republicans chose Kristina Karamo, who accused police officers and others who testified to Congress about the January 6th attack on the Capitol of being “actors and actresses,” as their nominee for Secretary of State during an April endorsement convention.
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In his endorsement of Kristina Karamo, Donald Trump said, "Good luck Kristina, and while you're at it, check out the fake election results that took place in the city of Detroit."
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Along with baselessly claiming the 2020 election was rife with fraud, Karamo has attended QAnon-backed events, is an anti-vaxxer, and has spoken out against LGBTQ individuals.
MINNESOTA
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Sec. Steve Simon (iVote Candidate)
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Steve Simon was elected Secretary of State in 2014 by a margin of 1.2 points. He was reelected in 2018.
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Under Simon's leadership, Minnesota has led the U.S. in voter turnout 3 cycles in a row.
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Previously, as a State Representative, he helped lead the fight against what would have been the most restrictive Voter ID law in the country. He also authored the groundbreaking “No-Excuses” Absentee Voting law and the bill that now allows online voter registration in Minnesota.
Kim Crockett
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Attorney Kim Crockett won the endorsement of the Minnesota GOP at their May convention.
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She denies the results of the 2020 presidential election, spreads conspiracy theories, was suspended from a previous job for making racist comments, and the largest newspaper in Minnesota called her campaign a "far-right bid."
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She called the 2020 elections "rigged" and "illegitimate" and said she will cut back on early voting and restrict vote by mail.
ARIZONA
Adrian Fontes (iVote Candidate)
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Democratic Nominee Adrian Fontes was elected Maricopa County Recorder in 2016, becoming the first Democrat to hold the office in 50 years and the first-ever Latino to hold an office in Arizona’s largest county.
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He revolutionized a broken, outdated, and unjust voting system by making elections more accessible and more secure than ever before.
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Fontes set up an election infrastructure that led to record voter turnout in 2020. He worked with organizations across the political spectrum to increase registered voters by 500,000 people, making Maricopa County the second-largest voting jurisdiction in the country.
Mark Finchem
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Arizona Republicans selected State Rep. Mark Finchem as their nominee in August. Finchem has said that if he had been in office in 2020 “we would have won. Plain and simple.”
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The January 6th Committee found that Mark Finchem “was in Washington on January 6th, 2021 and stated that he had evidence to deliver to Vice President Pence in an effort to postpone the awarding of electors.” He has been subpoenaed by the Committee.
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After he left the Kalamazoo Department of Safety as a police officer and firefighter in 1999, a note in his file read “Retired, poor rating, would not rehire.”
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NEVADA
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Cisco Aguilar (iVote Candidate)
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Cisco Aguilar, the Democratic nominee for Secretary of State, has built strong relationships with community leaders and organizations across partisan and ideological boundaries.
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Aguilar is an attorney, former Special Counsel to the Chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education, and served as Chairman of the Nevada Athletic Commission.
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He is running for Secretary of State because he wants to defend every eligible American’s right to vote, remove barriers to voter participation, and make our elections as transparent as possible to maintain the public trust.
Jim Marchant
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Jim Marchant, who won the GOP primary in June, was one of the fraudulent electors in 2020 and said he's “been told I can fully expect to be served a subpoena by the January 6th Committee."
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Marchant said he would not have certified the 2020 election in Nevada, even though President Biden won by over 33,000 votes. He claims both he and Trump were victims of election fraud in 2020 - he lost a Congressional race by 5 points.
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He said that "people that are very close to Trump” recruited him to run, and has promised to "abolish mail-in ballots."