PHOENIX — It was early on a Sunday morning when Mary Shreves went to unplug her electric vehicle in front of her home and noticed her Harris-Walz yard signs were gone.
Instead, a large mound of dog poop was splattered across her driveway.
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“I thought, ‘Oh my God,’ I couldn’t believe it. At first you’re a little shaky, you’re like ‘Wow what the heck?’ You look around and wonder who did this,” Shreves said, speaking to the Washington Examiner.
The incident in Shreves’s front yard is emblematic of the tension felt across the battleground state from cul-de-sacs in the suburbs to the national campaign’s field offices in the center of the Valley of the Sun. In recent weeks, three shootings targeted a Democratic National Committee office which was then shut down, Republican Kari Lake’s Senate campaign office was evacuated after reports of an anthrax scare, and a mailbox containing ballots was set on fire.
In a state where elections have become virtual toss-ups and races are won on razor-thin margins, Arizona voters and campaigns are on edge in the days before the Nov. 5 election.
For Shreves, 70, and her husband, John Anderson, 74, the political dumping at their doorstep meant a call to the police and filing a report. The couple cleaned off their driveway and replaced their yard signs only to find that the new ones had been stolen two days later, but this time, the perpetrator left behind a threatening letter full of expletives, assailing them for their political views.
“This is not how civil discourse works; everybody has a right to free speech. I have a right to have these signs in my yard; it’s the First Amendment,” Shreves said, mentioning she filed a second police report.
“I respect their right to it; I might not agree with it, but I absolutely respect it,” she added.
The retired civil engineer said she has felt more angry than scared but said they’ve locked all of their gates as a precaution in the neighborhood where neighbors display both Trump and Harris signs.
“I feel like this is happening on both sides — if it’s happening on my side, it’s probably happening on the other and it has to stop,” she said.
Former GOP state Rep. Robin Shaw was made aware of incidents during a phone banking event with several dozen volunteers part of the “Republicans for Harris” coalition on Oct. 8.
“I’ve got this letter right here in my back pocket,” Shaw said, opening the letter during the gathering. “It is more than disparaging. It’s frightening.”
Shaw, the co-chairwoman of the Arizona Republican task force working to elect Vice President Kamala Harris, said the environment is so heated that many of the members of the group are afraid to be openly associated.
“I have these people in my ‘kitchen cabinet’ who have to be unidentified but they are helping behind the scenes,” she said. “There are just a lot of people that are afraid.”
Shaw’s family has had a difficult time accepting that the lifelong Republican who publicly announced she’d be voting for Harris and heading up the group with Mesa Mayor John Giles, mentioning her son isn’t speaking to her.
“Equally as disturbing, the way that this vitriol has ripped families apart and how all of the hate and fearmongering and the illusion of hate from each side. It’s unfathomable,” she said.
The Grand Canyon State has become an center for political threats after years of former President Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen. An audit ordered by the Republican-led Senate confirmed President Joe Biden won the state by 10,457 votes.
An Arizona prosecutor on Thursday charged a suspect arrested in connection with three shootings targeting a Democratic National Committee Office in Tempe, though nobody was inside during the early morning hours of Sept. 16, Sept. 23, and Oct. 6.
After Jeffrey Michael Kelly, 60, was arrested near his home on Wednesday, federal agents found over 250,000 rounds of ammunition and more than 120 guns, leading officials to believe he was “preparing to commit an act of mass casualty.” He was held on three felony counts of terrorism and four other counts related to the shootings.
The Phoenix campaign office for Republican senate candidate Kari Lake was forced to evacuate on Tuesday after a campaign staffer opened an envelope with a “suspicious” substance. A hazmat team arrived with local law enforcement agencies and firefighters, and ultimately the powdery substance was ruled “nonhazardous” by the Phoenix Police Department.
The Phoenix Police Department tested the powdery substance and revealed it was “nonhazardous,” according to reports. No injuries or other health concerns were reported among Lake’s campaign staffers, who were able to return to the office later in the day.
On Wednesday night, a U.S. Post Office mailbox in Phoenix was set on fire, destroying several ballots and other pieces of mail, according to officials.
With the election less than two weeks away, the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office said the election headquarters have now added metal detectors, armed guards, temporary fencing, and concrete barriers. They are even taking precautions due to recent suspicious mailings to election offices and stocking up with drugs used to reverse opioid overdoses.
“We’ve seen mailings to some election offices throughout the country with white powdery substances, and as a precaution, we’ve actually added Narcan to our medical kits in the office,” said Josh Heywood, the executive assistant to Maricopa County’s top election official for voting by mail.
That official, Stephen Richer, who called out false claims of election fraud and as a result faced death threats alongside other county supervisors, lost his primary race to a Republican challenger this cycle.
Heywood said this cycle they are more prepared after making significant investments in security for staff and poll workers. Election workers have been trained in active shooter drills as a precaution.
“We saw some protests in 2020 and after some threats against some of the election officials in Maricopa County, these investments can help voters and election workers to feel safe,” Heywood said.
“We’re fully prepared this election cycle. Elections are important to many, and with some races tightening, Arizona has become even more of a battleground than in 2020. All eyes are on Maricopa County,” he added.
In Maricopa County, the fourth-most populous county in the United States, and where Biden was able to win by the slimmest of margins, officials said they’ve had issues finding places to serve as polling sites due to safety concerns.
“I think a lot of schools and places of worship have shied away, given that the election and politics is such a hot topic right now and some of the threats; I think they are worried,” Heywood said.
Nearly three-quarters of voters in the U.S. are concerned about political violence following the Nov. 5 election, according to a recent poll. However, liberals responded they were much more concerned than moderates and conservatives.
Stacy Pearson, a Democratic political consultant in Phoenix, said the anxiety level is high in Arizona as the election draws closer.
“The fear of violence is remarkably high. Arizona has not left the news cycle; you’ve got county recorders who were being stalked and doxed and harassed and continue to be — this wasn’t just in 2020,” Pearson explained. “You’ve got a senate candidate in Kari Lake who still claims she won the election and is the rightful governor.”
Pearson noted a number of people from Arizona faced federal charges for their role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, which only added to the agitation.
“We’ve had some really notable insurrectionists; for example, the Qanon Shaman, he went to Moon Valley High School,” she said of the Jan. 6 attack rioter. “There’s an Arizona contingency that has always been a little extreme.”
According to reporting from Reuters, the U.S. is experiencing the “biggest and most sustained increase in political violence since the 1970’s,” recording 51 incidents so far this year. The most notable are the assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump, in which a gunman was able to climb a nearby building and fire shots at the Republican presidential candidate and the rally crowd in Butler, Pennsylvania, and a separate time when he was out golfing at the Trump National Golf Club in Florida when gunshots were heard.
Following the assassination attempts, the New Tolerance Campaign evaluated violent comments against both Trump and Harris and found Trump faced many more threats. A report found 44 cases of public figures threatening Trump and 17 against Harris.
“In a democracy, we should have no room for nor should we ever condone any form of political violence. In a democracy, people will debate, people will disagree, but not resort to violence,” Harris said Monday. “Everyone should speak out about this, including and especially anybody who is running for president of the United States.”
The Trump campaign is trying to make the point that Harris’s closing argument is not a winning one.
“The walls are closing in on Kamala Harris as the American people have come to see her for who she is: a radical liberal, a phony politician, and the worst vice president in American history,” said Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner on Thursday.
“That’s why Kamala is resorting to the attacks Democrats have been hurling at President Trump for years. Unfortunately for Kamala, despite these old and tired lies, President Trump is still more popular today than he ever has been since 2016.”
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Many Trump supporters point directly to the rhetoric coming from Democrats as a reason why the former president was targeted.
“Their claims he attacked democracy and called him a dictator, it’s sad that the other side is willing to stoop this low and how come other people aren’t recognizing it as an issue,” Trump supporter, Judy Cornell, 73, said ahead of a rally in Prescott Valley on Oct. 13.
“I’m really upset by that; everyone should be paying attention to what’s going on. I don’t think the American people should want to win that way,” she added.
Elizabeth Quinlan, 64, who lives in Prescott Valley and works as a substitute teacher said she’s too afraid to wear her Trump apparel in this political climate, despite living in a relatively red area.
“If you wear one of those Make America Great Again hats, it’s almost like you’re a target, like people are going to say something or do something,” she explained. “I’ve seen people who have been bullied.”
Even some involved in Republican politics in the state told the Washington Examiner that they are staying away from publicly displaying signage this cycle.
“Our state — it feels like a tinderbox, and it’s not worth it to me to be super public about at least the presidential race,” a Republican consultant based in Paradise Valley speaking on condition of anonymity said. “I don’t work for Trump, so I don’t feel that obligation to hang up signs and posters, but I’m voting for him.”
“I think right now, a lot of us are just trying to keep our head down and get through the next couple of weeks,” the Republican consultant said. “It’s not worth having a turf war with our neighbors.”
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However, Shreves feels differently. She said these recent incidents have failed to intimidate her or silence her political expression.
“I was down to two signs; now I’ve got about 10 signs out there, so I put up all the local candidate signs and I put American flags out there,” she said. “I consider myself a patriotic American. I love my country; this is why I feel so strongly about my right to free speech.”
