Guests - Alex Kolodin, Laurie Moore, Jared Knott
The Debate That Revealed Everything, the Mobile Unit With No One Watching, and What Happened in Beijing
Friday on Winn Tucson closed the week the way it opened: with elections. Alex Kolodin came in fresh from a face-to-face debate with his primary opponent — the first statewide debate moment in the secretary of state race — and what he brought back from it was not just a contrast of positions but a contrast of worldviews. Laurie Moore called in from the grassroots with ground-level intelligence that confirmed everything Kolodin had been arguing. And Jared Knott — decorated combat infantry officer, author, and one of the most grounded historical analysts on the Winn Tucson rotation — gave a sober assessment of what happened in Beijing, what's coming in Iran, and why the midterms are still very much winnable.
Alex Kolodin: The Debate, the Opponent Who Defends the Indefensible, and Why Pima County Is the Key to 2028
Representative Alex Kolodin of LD-3 joined Winn Tucson directly from the previous evening's Horizon debate appearance against his primary opponent, Gina Sabota — and his account of what transpired was less a victory lap than a surgical dissection of what a candidate who carries water for Adrian Fontes sounds like when pressed.
The Debate Moment That Defined the Race
The most revealing exchange of the debate, in Kolodin's telling, came when he pressed Sabota about a provision of the Arizona Elections Procedures Manual written during her tenure working for then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs — a provision that purported to authorize county recorders to exclude lawful political party observers from early voting locations.
The provision was not some minor technical question. The right to have observers at voting locations is, as Kolodin noted, a foundational principle of election integrity recognized by organizations across the ideological spectrum — including the Carter Center, a liberal elections watchdog whose very mission depends on the premise that legitimate elections require witnesses.
"One of the most telling moments of the debate is when I questioned Ms. Sabota about the portion of the elections procedures manual that was written while she worked for Katie Hobbs — and that she has been defending even more than Katie Hobbs," Kolodin said.
What actually happened when Winn and the Pima County GOP challenged the provision: they went directly to Katie Hobbs, demonstrated how flagrantly illegal the authorization to exclude observers was, and Hobbs agreed it had to come out — forcing Adrian Fontes to remove it from the manual. Only after that removal did Pima County pivot to mobile voting units. And only then did Kolodin introduce legislation making clear that no matter what you call a voting location, observers must be permitted.
Sabota's version of events at the debate contradicted documented reality. Her claim: Kathleen Winn's team called it out, and eventually Kolodin changed the law. "That is not what happened," Kolodin said. "I was there. The law didn't change the provision. The team calling out the illegality of the provision is what changed it."
Then there was the endorsement Sabota denied on camera — while Kolodin has her on video endorsing him for secretary of state. Her denial, in a live debate, of a documented video record, drew the comparison he was happy to make.
"This is somebody who just flagrantly misleads the voters of Arizona — just like Adrian Fontes did, just like Steven Richard did. It doesn't matter if we have a Democrat or a Republican misleading and lying to voters. Either way, it's unacceptable."
Left of Katie Hobbs — and Proud of It
Sabota's debate performance also confirmed, in Kolodin's assessment, something even more concerning than her willingness to misrepresent facts: she didn't try to hide her positions.
She donated to Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in 2016. She worked for Katie Hobbs right through 2020. She consistently defends the positions and actions of the Pima County recorder — whom Kolodin describes as Fontes's protege, socialist-endorsed. And she opposed Kolodin's Arizona Secure Elections Act measure, deferring to county recorders — including Pima County's — who claimed they couldn't administer it.
On the SAVE Act specifically: Sabota openly opposed the provision requiring that only citizens appear on voter rolls, framing it as a conservative federalist stand. Kolodin's rebuttal cut straight to the hypocrisy: Arizona voters approved exactly that principle in 2004. It is federal law that has been undermining Arizona's will on citizenship voting. The SAVE Act would fix the federal interference.
"Most politicians in a Republican primary would at least try to hide those views," Kolodin said. "But she didn't — to her credit. And to her credit, she also didn't try to hide her opposition to the SAVE Act."
Her stated position that her stakeholders are the county recorders — not the voters of Arizona — was, for Kolodin, the clearest expression of what separates the two candidates. His stakeholders are the people of Arizona. Their confidence in elections cannot be restored by protecting the interests of the officials administering them.
The Heap Victory: Courts Rejecting Administrative Power Grabs
On the Justin Heap case in Maricopa County, where the Board of Supervisors stripped the newly elected recorder of his staff, budget, IT systems, and operational capacity the week before he took office: the court has now ruled in Heap's favor. The county requested a stay of the ruling. The court denied the stay.
"I think the judge is getting a little teed off," Kolodin said. "Because one thing courts really don't like is when you try to do an end run around the will of the voters. Voters in Maricopa County put Justin Heap in that office — with all the benefits of that office. And the Maricopa County supervisors decided to usurp his authority."
Kolodin has been part of Heap's legal team throughout the case — firsthand experience with a dynamic that mirrors what has happened to election integrity advocates in Pima County: elected officials using administrative and legal mechanisms to nullify a democratic outcome they didn't want.
The Oversight Project Lawsuit: Still in Motion
The Pima County Republican Party's lawsuit — filed with the Oversight Project against Fontes and Attorney General Chris Mays over the Elections Procedures Manual — has been assigned to a federal judge. An update is expected Monday.
The suit targets provisions prohibiting uniformed law enforcement from voting in their duty uniforms, banning audible activity near polling places (which effectively bans protest on election day in urban Democratic-leaning areas), and restricting voters from raising concerns about what they observe at the polls.
Fontes has already tried this. A panel of Ninth Circuit judges — every one of them appointed by Democratic presidents — ruled that he violated the First Amendment the first time. He is trying it again.
"To me, that is beyond the pale," Kolodin said. "The Pima County GOP is out there standing up for the First Amendment rights of Arizona voters — which are the most fundamental right of any American citizen."
HCR 2001: The FASTER Act Heading to the General Election Ballot
Before closing, Kolodin outlined his major legislative priority heading to voters in November: HCR 2001, which he expects to name the FASTER Act.
The measure would make election results faster; require government-issued ID for all ballots cast; reaffirm citizenship-only voting as the state's constitutional commitment; and ban foreign money from Arizona elections — a direct response to Fontes, whose campaign funding sources include the Arabella network, itself partially funded by a foreign billionaire.
"That is going to piss off Adrian Fontes very much," Kolodin said. The measure is awaiting final votes in the House and Senate. If it passes, it will appear on the general election ballot.
The Most Important Message for Pima County
Kolodin closed with a message he said directly, without softening.
Pima County Republicans are not second fiddle. In a statewide race, a vote from Pima County counts exactly as much as a vote from Mojave County or Maricopa County. There are no bonus points for county of origin.
"Pima County is the key to winning this election for conservative candidates in the primary and for Republican candidates in the general election. If we lose Pima County by 10 points, we win. Your vote has never been more important than it is this election."
Arizona is going to be one of the most consequential swing states in the 2028 presidential cycle. The secretary of state elected in 2026 will be the chief elections officer who runs those elections. That is the actual stakes.
His calls to action: sign up to observe at early vote centers and mobile voting units through the Pima County GOP; volunteer with Turning Point to chase ballots; and vote in whatever way guarantees you will actually do it.
Campaign: alexforaz.com | Fundraiser: Thursday, May 28th, 5:30 p.m., Union House on Grant Road, Tucson
Saturday: LD-18 at 3445 N. Dodge Boulevard, 9 a.m. | Northside Regulators at TO Benz, 3682 W. Orange Grove Road, noon.
Laurie Moore: No Observers, No Signatures, and a Board Chair Who Won't Let Her Colleague Ask Questions
Laurie Moore — 30-year educator, LD-17 precinct committeeman, and the woman who shows up to every Board of Supervisors meeting regardless of what time they schedule it — called in during Kolodin's segment with intelligence from the most recent board session that confirmed his arguments in real time.
Steve Christie's Questions — and Jen Allen Trying to Shut Them Down
At the new 5 p.m. board meeting, Supervisor Steve Christie had questions for Pima County Recorder Gabriella Casares Kelly about the mobile voting unit. Board Chair Jen Allen attempted, twice, to stop him by demanding he submit his questions in writing.
"He said, in a very dignified way, 'Chairwoman Allen, I only have a few more questions — I'll be done in a second,'" Moore recounted. "And she persisted. It's like nothing to see here, but there's everything to see here."
Christie pressed through and got his answer. The recorder confirmed that the mobile voting unit has two observers — when they show up. Not two observers per hour. Not two per day. Two observers, when they show up.
"There are days when there are no observers there," Moore said. "So that's number one. I'd like to see that shut down immediately."
Signature Verification: Gone
The recorder also confirmed — presenting it as an efficiency improvement — that they are no longer checking voter signatures. Moore's reaction was direct: that is a layer of protection, and it should stay in.
Kolodin's response explained why the citizenship issue runs deeper than signatures alone: the driver's license used as voter ID has a behind-the-scenes citizenship check that is not working as reliably as it should. And Fontes has already stated publicly that a Social Security number can be used to prove citizenship — even though you don't need to be a citizen to obtain one.
"If you're not there to have your eyes on the process, they can say they checked somebody's ID, but you don't actually have to have the voter physically present to tap on the screen that you checked their ID," Kolodin explained. "You can just say, 'Oh, I checked their ID,' print out that ballot, put it in the box."
The only protection against that is an observer physically present in the room.
Moore also raised the citizenship question directly with the recorder at the public comment podium — asking to clarify: does voter ID verification in Arizona currently guarantee that the voter is a U.S. citizen? The recorder's presentation had not addressed that distinction. Steve Christie confirmed he would pursue the answer.
The Mobile Unit's First Deployment
Moore offered the full picture of how the mobile voting unit's inaugural use went. Four different locations were announced. The announcement timing was haphazard — people showed up at the wrong places. One observer did make it to a location: Marlene from LD-17. On the day she went, the machines in the mobile unit weren't working. They were just gathering ballots in boxes outside the unit.
"You can't make this up," Winn said. "It's a circus."
The Green Valley Polling Closure Pattern
Kolodin connected the Green Valley polling location closures to the same playbook Fontes established in Maricopa County: remove access in communities that vote against you.
"The Pima County recorder is his protege. She's doing the same thing. She doesn't want you to have easy access to the polls. She wants her people to vote."
His instruction: double your efforts. Get to the polls however you have to. Don't let your voice be taken by making it inconvenient to use it.
On Primary Season Attack Politics: A Message Worth Hearing
Before moving to the final hour, Kathleen Winn used the transition time for something she does rarely — a direct, personal statement addressed at candidates and campaigns.
In recent days, outrageous claims had been circulating. Personal attacks. Allegations about events allegedly occurring 30 to 40 years ago, surfacing for the first time in the final weeks of a primary. Claims made through surrogates.
"When a candidate looks or feels like they're behind in their race — instead of looking to see what they can do, what they can say about who they are — we've got this standard operating procedure of attacking opponents. And even if you're doing it through surrogates, I always look to see who benefits when someone's trying to hurt somebody."
The Spencer Pratt contrast in Los Angeles was the positive model: factual, specific, resonant. Data about Karen Bass's record. An RV parked on the ashes of a burnt-down house. A message that reaches younger voters on social media without abandoning substance.
"When a candidate thinks it's their job to disparage and diminish their opponent, they don't have a game. All they have is being a bully. And I quite frankly don't want to elect bullies into our elected high offices in this state. We've watched that with Chris Mays suing the president 41, 42 times. We've watched it with Adrian Fontes — and I'm suing him again right now."
Jared Knott: Beijing's Outcomes, Iran's Tipping Point, and Why the Midterms Are Still Winnable
Jared Knott — decorated combat infantry officer with the First Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam, author of Tiny Blunders, Big Disasters (now in its second volume), and father of five — joined for an extended assessment of the Trump-Xi summit, the Iran situation, and the national political landscape heading toward November.
The Beijing Summit: Business Is Good; China's Iran Commitments Are Not
Kolodin's opening assessment was measured and historically grounded.
The Boeing aircraft sales — 250-plus confirmed, more potentially in the pipeline — represent real downstream value for American workers. The delegation of CEOs with some $12 trillion in combined market capitalization were not decorative. They were negotiating, and their presence signaled that American business has both the leverage and the will to engage on favorable terms.
"It's the two countries doing business together, which is nothing but good," Knott said.
The critical ambiguity: what China actually agreed to do about Iran. Xi Jinping stated publicly that China won't provide weapons to Iran. Knott's assessment of the credibility of that pledge was blunt.
"Are you serious? They've lied before."
Weapons have been reaching Iran through multiple channels — the Caspian Sea, railway connections through Pakistan, and through financial intermediary networks the Treasury Department has been actively sanctioning. Chinese satellite companies have also been providing imagery identifying the locations of U.S. military installations — effectively marking targets for the IRGC. Xi's promise should be weighed against that documented pattern of behavior.
Trump's comment that the farmers were going to be happy was the most concretely encouraging signal. Knott confirmed what that almost certainly means: a deal for massive purchases of American soybeans, delivering relief to agricultural producers who have been suffering under retaliatory tariffs.
"If we can get the war resolved — if it can be solved — then we have a good fighting chance of holding the House as well as the Senate."
Iran: The Math of a Problem Without an Easy Solution
On Iran, Knott was direct about the strategic reality.
The regime has enough enriched fissile material for approximately ten or eleven warheads. The operational military — the IRGC and associated forces representing roughly a million armed personnel — is not a rational governing class willing to cooperate with a successor arrangement the way Venezuela's institutions did after Maduro. They are believers. They expect to die and regard death as fulfillment.
"The people in Iran — perfectly willing to die for their cause, and to take the whole world with them if they can. They cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons. They're just too unstable, too irrational, too fanatical."
The options he laid out: a massive invasion producing regime change (thorough, costly); a targeted military operation to neutralize or extract the fissile material (less costly, but leaves the regime intact to rebuild); or some form of covert action that could theoretically resolve things in days.
The problem with a limited strike that doesn't achieve regime change is that the material and the will to use it can be reconstituted. The problem with full regime change is that it is by nature costly and carries the risk of a prolonged occupation.
Knott's honest assessment: the administration has brilliant people working on this, the military is excellent, and something is in the pipeline. He doesn't know what it is. He hopes it works.
"There's something in the pipeline and I don't know what it is. But I hope and pray it's successful."
Redistricting, California, and the Congressional Math
The Supreme Court's movement against racial gerrymandering and the Virginia state Supreme Court's rejection of the Democrats' unconstitutional mid-cycle redistricting attempt could mean as many as 13 to 14 additional Republican House seats nationally.
His Massachusetts illustration: roughly 42 to 43 percent of voters in the state cast Republican ballots. Massachusetts has nine congressional representatives. One is Republican. That gap is the product of gerrymandering, not voter preference.
California's jungle primary — a system designed to benefit Democrats by forcing all candidates into a single first-round vote — is now working against them as their strongest candidates have collapsed. Swalwell, the former frontrunner for governor, is off the ballot. Spencer Pratt is making real inroads.
The Socialism Failure Case Is Winnable
Knott's closing argument on the political environment drew on what he called an obvious, visible, documented experiment that is concluding in real time: compare Florida to California, Texas to New York, Tennessee to Illinois. The results are not ambiguous.
"48,000 individuals in New York City pay close to 50 percent of the city's income tax revenue," he said. When those individuals leave for Miami or Texas — states with no income tax — the city's revenue base doesn't adjust proportionally. It collapses. New York City now faces a $5.2 billion deficit. The governor who taxed them away is now pleading for them to come back.
"Vote for me and I will send you government checks — that's an easy sell. But socialism has always been that eventually you run out of other people's money. That's where they are."
He connected this directly to the NGO fraud infrastructure that J.D. Vance has been tasked with exposing: learning centers with no children, daycare operations receiving subsidies for non-existent clients, hospice claims for patients who don't exist. California and Minnesota are the documented examples. Arizona is next.
"The DOJ is here in Arizona to do the same kind of thing that's being done in California. I think they're making progress and going to continue to make progress in arrests and convictions."
On Europe: elections across the continent the previous week showed liberal parties taking significant losses. Conservative and nationalist movements are gaining ground from England to France to Germany. Nigel Farage is within striking distance of becoming Britain's next prime minister. The global trend toward conservative governance, Knott argued, is not coincidental — it is the product of people who have lived under the alternative long enough to want something else.
"I want to make sure that we leave them something better than we found it. And right now we're not doing that. But there's a good reason for hope."
Jared Knott's books are available at tinybigdisasters.com — portrait gallery with 27 historical personalities, free chapters, Instagram reels, a fun quiz, and a book trader. "It's like an amusement park for history buffs." Father's Day is coming.
Winn Tucson airs Monday through Friday, 9 to 11 a.m., on KVOI 1030 The Voice.
Alex Kolodin for Secretary of State: alexforaz.com | Fundraiser: May 28th, 5:30 p.m., Union House, Grant Road, Tucson
Saturday appearances: LD-18 at 3445 N. Dodge Blvd., 9 a.m. | Northside Regulators at TO Benz, 3682 W. Orange Grove Rd., noon
To observe at Pima County vote centers or mobile units: contact the Pima County Republican Party
To chase ballots: Turning Point Action
Any voter registration mailer with a postage permit from another state is not from your county recorder.
Primary registration deadline: June 21. Early ballots: June 23. Primary: July 21.