Jenny Beth sat down with Dr. Kelli Ward in Arizona. Kelli is the former Chair of the Arizona Republican Party. She's also a former candidate for US Senate and a former State Senator from Arizona. Kelli, a physician by trade, was inspired to run for office to fight against the policies being pushed in Obamacare and how they would negatively impact the American medical field. In the process, Kelli became a fierce fighter for freedom and our Constitution.
Jenny Beth sat down with Dr. Kelli Ward in Arizona. Kelli is the former Chair of the Arizona Republican Party. She's also a former candidate for US Senate and a former State Senator from Arizona. Kelli, a physician by trade, was inspired to run for office to fight against the policies being pushed in Obamacare and how they would negatively impact the American medical field. In the process, Kelli became a fierce fighter for freedom and our Constitution.
Twitter/X: @kelliwardaz | @jennybethm
Website: https://kelliward.com/
Kelly Ward (00:00):
We expose so much in 2020 here in Arizona with America's audit, Maricopa County in particular, they are despicable and it supposedly is run by Republicans, right? It's not the Democrats really destroying the country. It's those Republicans joining with those Democrats and allowing it to be done to all of us, to we the people
Narrator (00:19):
Keeping our republic is on the line, and it requires Patriots with great passion, dedication, and eternal vigilance to preserve our freedoms. Jenny Beth Martin is the co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. She's an author, a filmmaker, and one of time magazine's most influential people in the world. But the title she's most proud of is Mom To Her Boy, girl Twins. She has been at the forefront fighting to protect America's core principles for more than a decade. Welcome to the Jenny Beth
Jenny Beth Martin (00:51):
Show. Kelly Ward is a strong America loving conservative warrior with a backbone stronger than most men, a physician by trade. She was motivated to run for the state Senate in Arizona when she realized a devastating impact Obamacare would have on American healthcare. Kelly most recently served as the chair of the Republican Party in Arizona, and she continues to fight for freedom in her home state of Arizona to this day. Kelly Ward, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm so glad we get a chance to talk. We've known each other for several years, and you are a person who loves this country. You were a Tea Party candidate and you were an America first person. You became the chairman of the Arizona Republican Party just in time to learn all of the problems we have with elections in this country.
Kelly Ward (01:44):
Yes, yes. And Jan Beth, it's great to be here with you. And I know the Tea Party, tea Party Patriots, I mean, it was an inspiring time. It used to be just about taxed enough already, right? I mean, the Tea Party was about being taxed. Now it is so much more. It is the taxes, I mean obviously they're still bad, but our elections are in jeopardy. The integrity of our elections, it's not just in jeopardy. They are kaputt right now and watching what's happening around the country, watching what's happening in Arizona is very, very frustrating because there are so many things that we saw in 2020 that needed to be fixed and so few that have actually come to fruition to be fixed before 2024.
Jenny Beth Martin (02:28):
And I think that there are Republicans and legislators across the country who actually think that, well, they honestly think we're crazy because we think something went wrong with the election. They see how Biden lies and the mainstream media lies about everything, and yet they believe these lies from the mainstream media. There's a disconnect. Disconnect doesn't make any sense to me at all in Arizona. The problems really haven't been fixed and they cost Arizona in 2022. Yes, they did. I'm just shocked at how bad the problems were. And then now this podcast may not air for several more weeks, but just this week as we're recording in Cochise County, two people were indicted because they couldn't vote to certify the election in 2022. Kelly, why do you have an board of elections or a board of supervisors vote to certify if it's just supposed to be a rubber stand?
Kelly Ward (03:30):
That's exactly right. Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby to Republican supervisors, which are commissioners for other people. Some counties have commissioners in Arizona. Our counties have supervisors. They wanted a hand count. They wanted to be sure that what was presented in front of them was actually legitimate. And our illegitimate attorney general in Arizona at this time basically has taken it upon herself to punish them politically and punish them in real life, not just in politics by electing them, but by trying to put them in jail for not being willing to be a rubber stamp on something that they are unsure of. And I can tell you that one of the major roles of a supervisor is to assure that those elections have integrity and none of them should be willing to just sign on a line based on something that's put in front of them. And I had this issue with Maricopa County big time in 2020 and got into a lot of arguments with Republican supervisors in Maricopa County that they basically told me, well, what they showed us looked fine.
(04:36):
And I said, it's not the things that they're showing you that are not fine. It's the things that are being hidden from you, from me and from the general public, the things that have caused our election integrity to tumble and voter confidence to tumble. It's those things and those are the things you have the responsibility as an elected official to look into. And I'm very, very proud of Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby for taking the stance that they did and being willing to put themselves on the line because a supervisor position is not an administrative job. It's not one where the attorney general puts something in front of you and forces you in handcuffs to sign off that you're okay with it. You're representing the people and so they've been willing to stand up. Now maybe we'll get our day in court over it.
Jenny Beth Martin (05:24):
I hope that when you get your day in court, it's a fair trial. It's hard to tell what will happen with that, but it just seems so cut and dry to me. If it didn't matter how they voted because they had to vote, then what difference did it make anyway?
Kelly Ward (05:43):
Well then why bring it to the supervisors at all? Just bring it to the county clerk and say, here's the election department is the be all end all of everything what our word goes and then just submit it to the county clerk and that's it. Don't involve this other body of elected officials who have the responsibility for making sure that those elections are legitimate and then be upset or then indict them for a crime because they refuse to sign off on something that's bogus.
Jenny Beth Martin (06:14):
Yeah, it's just so maddening and being,
Kelly Ward (06:20):
Well, we saw the same thing in my county in Mojave, just this earlier this week or late last week. They had a vote on doing a hand count on the presidential preference election and other elections and doing away with a lot of the machinery or at least double checking the machinery in a more robust manner. And we have a five member board and three voted no because they were intimidated by the Attorney General saying that if they dared to say that the way they, we in Mojave County were going to count our votes was going to be a hand count, then they were all going to go to jail.
Jenny Beth Martin (06:56):
This happening here in Arizona, I'm from Georgia, the same kind of things have happened in Georgia. So in Georgia, two examples that are very, very similar in DeKalb County in 2022 in the primary in Georgia, DeKalb County is a Democrat county. A democrat lady was running for a county commissioner and she voted for herself. Makes sense. She's running, she votes for herself. And in her precinct she got zero votes, no votes at all, not even for the votes she cast. So she knew something was wrong and she took it to the Board of Elections and they did the right thing. And the Republicans and the Democrats worked together. They recounted through the machines twice. The machine still gave her zebra votes in her own precinct and in other precincts. And then they did a hand count and as it turned out, she had come in last in the primary, well, she came in first, went on to the runoff, and then the general election, it's a Democrat county, so she's now She became the commissioner.
(08:00):
Yeah, she became the commissioner. Well, those members of the Board of Elections, both the Democrats and the Republicans were not sure about certifying the entire election. They didn't trust it, and they were advised by their county attorney, if you don't do this, then you are going to wind up going to jail. You have to get it done. You have to get it done by this deadline or you're going to have charges brought against you. So of course, they went ahead and signed it, and I just was like, why do you even have to vote then? Why vote?
Kelly Ward (08:31):
That's right. And why should another level of government be able to intimidate other elected officials with jail time for doing something that is in their job description and they don't want you to see what they're doing? I mean, I can tell you, we exposed so much in 2020 here in Arizona, America's audit. They came, we saw the problems. We saw the envelopes with no signatures that were accepted as votes, the envelopes with squiggle marks and scribbles that were accepted as votes, thousands of votes that came from addresses where people had moved away, but somehow an entity had cast a vote. There. We saw these problems. Maricopa County in particular, they are despicable, despicable here in Arizona and it supposedly is run by Republicans. They are Republicans who would do the same thing that we just saw recently with the rep from New Jersey, Santos being expelled from Congress by all of the Democrats and a little over a hundred, I think 113, 115 Republicans. Republicans kicked him out of Congress, decreasing the Republican majority and shooting ourselves in the foot as we're trying to save this country. Those kind of Republicans really are tearing the party apart, but also it's not the Democrats really destroying the country. It's those Republicans joining with those Democrats and allowing it to be done to all of us, to we the people.
Jenny Beth Martin (10:09):
That is exactly right. And it's what Steve Bannon calls a uni party. We've called the establishment, which whatever you call it, it's right. We're
Kelly Ward (10:19):
Not allowed to call 'em rhinos anymore because that's just so derogatory. But they are Republican in name only when they vote for Democrat priority after Democrat priority, when they fight against our priorities of life, of liberty, of happiness by joining with the Democrats, then they are Republicans in name only.
Jenny Beth Martin (10:38):
That is exactly right now in Georgia, there was another county, Cherokee County that did a hand count like an audit of the election in 2022, and they wanted to go back. The state law says you can do an audit by only selecting a certain number of ballots from a certain number of precincts, and there's some calculation on it rather than just, we're going to count everything. And they wanted to count everything. And they were advised by their attorney that if they did that, the entire election process may be removed from them and given to the Secretary of State. And ultimately they wound up not doing that full on hand count because they were concerned about that. Well, in the case in Georgia, who was going to file charges against the county, the Board of Elections, it probably would've been coming from the Attorney General in Georgia who's a Republican who's going to remove the power from the Board of Elections. Oh yeah, that'd be the Republican Secretary of State.
Kelly Ward (11:43):
That's right. That's right. And it's shameful. It is. It's shameful what has gone on. It's shameful the lack of support that Republicans have gotten here. We had the dream slate in 2022. You did? Okay. We had the dream team from the Senate with Blake Masters to the Governor with Carrie Lake, to the Attorney General with Abe Ade. I mean, that was a dream team. Mark Finchem as Secretary of State, that, and everyone loved them. And I believe me, this is my opinion, that Maricopa County made sure that that election was stolen from that dream team and from all of us by the way that they set up their polling by the problems that were happening at the polling places from 6:00 AM I started getting messages as soon as the polling places were open, these machines aren't working. And where did they not work? Only in Republican strongholds. It was funny because Carrie, Carrie Lake, she went to vote near a SU because she knew that their machines wouldn't be down. And in the Democrat areas, I didn't hear reports of voting machines being down in the Democrat areas anywhere across the state.
Jenny Beth Martin (12:55):
That is ridiculous. Yes, that's absolutely ridiculous. Yes. And those problems by probably 10 o'clock Arizona time. So a little bit later in the day in Georgia, I had seen videos of what was going on. I texted with Floyd Brown from Western Journal and I said, it doesn't even matter who wins this election. This is so flawed. It needs to be redone because no one is going to have faith in the outcome of this election. They have to stop this. And of course that doesn't matter. Who needs faith in your election? Just trust us. Trust us, we'll tell you what to think.
Kelly Ward (13:33):
And no one trusts them. No, no one trusts them. And I hope that there are moderates, so-called moderate Republicans or independents and even Democrats who are seeing the devastation that in our state, the three top three, I guess the governor, the Secretary of State and the attorney general, their political persecutions and prosecutions across the board, their willingness to demean and devalue and de-legitimize human beings here in our state just because they happen to be conservative Republicans. And I think if anything good comes out of it, it's going to be this expose. But also here in our state and across the country, I think Democrats are waking up, especially minority Democrats who have been stepped on in the climb to the top by the Democrats and then never remembered. They're now seeing, I've seen some men on the street reports that say, they say things were better under Trump, things were much better.
(14:36):
We had money in our pocket, we felt safe at home. And now these Democrats have brought in illegal aliens into our communities. They're living here, they're taking over. It's making us feel unsafe, and we want to get Trump back because they want to put America first and they want to put Americans first. Of course, supporting people who need help. My thought has always been, we should be exporting great American freedom and capitalism across the world, not bringing everybody here. There's no way that that can be done. We should be exporting that so that all the boats around the world will rise. And instead we're trying to import people who don't have the skills, don't have the language, don't share the culture, don't like the food, don't like the places they live and are causing trouble for the people who have been here forever, families generation, after generation, after generation, and they're affecting our election systems by now. Many of them can already vote in some places, whether you're here legally or not. And Joe Biden and his so-called administration want to normalize that across the board with millions of people.
Jenny Beth Martin (15:44):
And we just have to do everything we can between now and November, 2024 to make sure that we're getting out the vote, that we've got poll watchers, poll workers in place everywhere that we can and that we have eyes on the ballots. I don't know what more we can do right now because the laws aren't going to change before the election, so we just have to make sure that we're watching everything and that we're there, and then we need the judicial system to step up and enforce the
Kelly Ward (16:15):
Law.
Jenny Beth Martin (16:16):
I know that's a novel concept for them, but they need to uphold, not enforce the law, but uphold
Kelly Ward (16:21):
The law. That's right. And so many of them, because you hear the liberals repeat again and again, every case, every court case, Trump lost. No, that's not true. At the ones that actually went forward, Trump and the Republicans won the majority of those. There were very few that were allowed to have any evidence actually presented in 2020 or after 2020. We had one here in Arizona and we got to look at ballots or ballot envelopes, and we got to look at absentee, how they were filled in and adjudicated, and there was a swing to Trump. There was a 3% swing to Trump on the people that duplicated the ballots. So if your ballot doesn't run through in many states, people probably don't even know. A nice worker from the county will just copy your ballot for you and then they'll run it through. In that copying process in a hundred ballots out of over 2 million in Maricopa County, we found a 3% swing to Trump because of inaccurate copying by the nice county people with the signatures.
(17:28):
We got to look at a hundred envelopes, and I think the judge just thought he was throwing us a bone. Really. I think he thought, nobody's going to find a thing. So we found that the 3% swing to Trump on the envelopes, we had an expert and the Democrats had an expert. Our expert said six out of a hundred likely weren't a match. So 6%, the Democrats expert said 11 out of a hundred likely weren't a match. But what did Maricopa County say? No, we accept them all. When you look that there were 50% more absentee ballots sent in 2020 in 20 16, 20 16, but 60% fewer were rejected. They rejected under 600 ballots out of 1.9 million. The signature verification is a sham. How it matches up with the voter rolls is also a sham. And the resistance to fixing that is appalling, especially when it's coming from Republicans.
Jenny Beth Martin (18:31):
It is just mind boggling. In Georgia in 2020, I know for certain that in Cobb County there was a person who worked at the Parks and Rec department and she was pulled in to process the absentee ballot applications. So not the ballots themselves, but the applications and the signatures were not matching on the applications, and they're supposed to match, but they were not matching. And she mentioned this to her supervisor and the supervisor's response was just let the next person catch it. So the ballots went out without matching. And then what was supposed to happen is that when you get the ballot back, the signature should match two signatures on file. Well, our Republican Secretary of state changed the process, so it only had to match one signature on file. So if somebody was nefarious, and we don't know for certain what I'm saying here or not, I do, but if somebody was nefarious and asked for a ballot in an improper manner and sign the name, well, their signature now is going to match when they turn it in because they're on file now and
Kelly Ward (19:44):
They can change the phone number, they can change anything. So then they say, well, we verified it. We called you called the crook. And the crook said, oh, I didn't rob the bank.
Jenny Beth Martin (19:54):
So they audited. They audited the signatures in Cobb County. Well, what did they audit it on? They audited on the return ballots. And those return ballots are matching against signatures that were entered into the file that never should have been because they didn't match in the first place. That's right,
Kelly Ward (20:11):
Yes.
Jenny Beth Martin (20:12):
So you weren't even auditing where you should have been auditing.
Kelly Ward (20:14):
Yes, and that's one of the reasons I think they don't want Kerry Lake's case to go forward on looking at the actual ballot envelopes. They have fought that tooth and nail, and I think that it would go a long way to restoring confidence in our voters in the electorate, in what's going on if they shine a light on it, shining a light is the best disinfectant, right? Sunshine is the best disinfectant, and we are getting nothing but darkness as it relates to elections. And speaking of Republicans that just kind of irritate you. We had good legislation that was passed through both the House and the Senate during that 20 21, 20 22 period. And unfortunately, governor Ducey, Doug Ducey, Republican vetoed a lot of that legislation, not because he didn't think it was good law, but because he was throwing a little snit fit about his budget not being passed on his timeline.
(21:15):
And so he vetoed all of these bills. There were election integrity bills, there were life bills, there were education bills that were thrown out. And then he said, well, you can just fix it. You can just put it into the budget reconciliation. When you pass the budget, you can put it in. And they've tried that trick and they've succeeded with that trick again and again and again. Well, guess what? This year or that year, they were taken to the court by the Democrats. They said they were not germane. And all of that good work that had been done through the legislative session for the people was thrown out all because of a Republican sni fit. I
Jenny Beth Martin (21:51):
Do not understand for the life of me, I do understand because they're not interested in the people. They're interested in themselves, they're interested in
Kelly Ward (21:59):
Power. They're donors, they're consultants. It's the slime that has really put a dull, disgusting pata on the political process in general. The power that consultants have in particular, the money comes in. The money then is given to consultants to win elections. They don't win. They make millions of dollars. They line their own pockets and then they go on to the next year. And we as the people who are governed by the people who are installed into office, we suffer. And so I think that consultancy class definitely has to be exposed for what they are. And then we have to teach the donors because the donors don't always all know. Some of them, especially on the left nefarious, just there to change the very fabric of our culture, of our country, to turn us to socialist, to communist, to live under an authoritarian state. Yes, those do exist.
(23:05):
But I think that the vast majority of donors, and I've talked to people I've asked for, I've probably asked many of the people that are listening for money when I was running for office and when I was in the Republican party, but you have to teach them who is actually good and who isn't. Because sometimes there's this aura of fame around anybody who comes before you, the congressman, the senator, whoever it is, and that sucks them in and they give them money, and then the money is not used for the purposes that they think it's going to be coming for. And so we have to help them to be more discerning, to look into people's eyes, to see if they have that passion, if that light is shining through them and that they have the honor and the integrity and the ability to do the job that you're sending them, whether it's to the supervisory position, the state legislature, Congress or to the White House. And I think many times we're just electing people that don't have the skills, don't have the heart. Many have already lost their souls and they're going and they're there. Then we wonder, why is this happening to us? Why are our politicians doing it? It's because we're electing the wrong people.
Jenny Beth Martin (24:17):
Yeah. We are electing the wrong people. And then they just get sucked in, especially in Washington DC to that power. I remember I met a congressman after he was elected from California, and he was a good guy. And the Tea Party people really, really liked him when he got elected. Well, he was elected going into one of the government shutdowns or the end of the year spending battles that happens after Christmas and over New Year's. Right. And those are the absolute worst. It's when everything bad happens, and they're designed to be that way because they know everyone wants to go home or they want to toast in the new year. And so they'll just sign whatever, yes, you have my vote. Let me go. So he went up for his orientation and he was there between Christmas and New Year's with his wife, and he saw that the light over the Capitol Dome was on. And he thought, oh, and I just remember sitting there hearing this from the man, and he was so proud that they were working so hard to try to solve the problems. And I was thinking, they aren't working hard right there. What was passed out of that was absolute junk. And it is no surprise to me at all that he's been a very consistent bad vote over the years, but that they just get up there and they see the power and they become intoxicated by it. They
Kelly Ward (25:38):
Do. They do. And it's much easier to go along to get along.
Jenny Beth Martin (25:43):
Oh yes. It's
Kelly Ward (25:43):
Much easier. You get invited to many more parties. You get to rub elbows with many more famous people. You get more perks for yourself and for your family if you're a go along, get along. But if you are a light shiner you, you're hated all
Jenny Beth Martin (26:00):
The roaches
Kelly Ward (26:01):
Scatter. They scatter from you, they scatter away. And I'm glad that we still have a few of those light shiners that are there. I want more. I want more. But also those light shiners have to remember the light shining on them, and they have to uphold that honor and that integrity and do it even in the face of not being liked by everyone. And politicians love to be liked. It's difficult to be a light shiner some of the stuff that we've been going through here in Arizona, me as the chairman of the party being subpoenaed by the J six committee, having to take court cases all the way to the Supreme Court to fight for, to privacy the alternate electors who are being persecuted across the board, not just here in Arizona, but in Nevada, in Georgia, Michigan, Michigan, everywhere that we're only following legal advice and following legal precedent to make sure that should our court cases come out in favor of President Trump, that he had electors there that were able to be counted. There is absolutely nothing in the world wrong with that. It was the right thing to do. It is the right thing to do. But these political hacks and political hatchet, men and women are coming after good American patriots because they want to chill that kind of speech. They want to chill that kind of activity. They want to chill, the ability to speak freely and to live freely by persecuting and publicizing what they're doing to all of us.
Jenny Beth Martin (27:38):
And it is frightening, but more than being frightening. And maybe it's just because you and I seem to run towards the fire and not away from the fire, but it just makes me angry. I just get so mad. My friends are under indictment right now, and it is wrong. The former president of the United States is under indictment and they're trying to destroy his business through the court system, through this kangaroo
Kelly Ward (28:04):
Court. That's right.
Jenny Beth Martin (28:06):
The only way I know to deal. Every time I get too angry, I just keep going. Then we have to secure and win secure and win secure. And it becomes my mantra because we have to win and then our work only begins.
Kelly Ward (28:20):
And one thing that people have to start paying more attention to is the judges, because so many of the judges are elected, most of the people have no idea who the judges are. It's not very, very few of them go out and campaign because they don't want to be known. They just want to be a name on the ballot. And if they're the incumbent, most of the time people are going to fill in that bubble. We need everybody. We need all of the Tea Party Patriots and Patriots across the country to be looking at the records of these judges, the ones who are coming up for elections. And we need to unelect a lot of these judges. I think that our legislators and our congressional people and Senate, they should start impeaching some of these judges because they've gotten so much wrong and they've been so fearful of some kind of repercussions just by interpreting the law and following it the way that it's written, that they've just done nothing and they're leaving our country wide open to despair and decline. And so I want to know where are the strong jurists? Where are the principled attorneys who are out there fighting for the things that have made this country great. We need more of them and we need more of them on the bench. And so that's one thing in 2024 that I will charge everybody out there, go in your local community, find out about your judges at the state level, find out about the judges, and then educate the voters so that we can get rid of the bad ones and get some better ones in.
Jenny Beth Martin (29:49):
That is a very good point. And I think that people, they hardly ever know anything about the judges, and then the judges want to appear nonpartisan, so they take no position on anything. Yes. So you have no idea what they are, but you have to then actually understand the court cases that have been before them to know whether they've done a good job or
Kelly Ward (30:09):
Not. Well, we know we have a Supreme Court justice that doesn't know what a woman is. So I mean, the Democrats clearly don't care. They want activists on the bench and they've succeeded in having activists on the bench in many, many cases. There are several in Maricopa County that we're going to work to oust, but people have to be more informed. You can't just have that glimmer of fame around someone or what their name sounds like, and then pick them. You have to know, because whenever our founders created the country, they created it for an educated electorate, people who understood what their vote meant and what the work that was going to be done on their behalf was supposed to be. And now we've dumbed down education. We, we've created activists rather than intelligence, and we're on a swift slope down. I hope that we can save it at the last minute because this is the last bastion of hope and freedom in the world.
Jenny Beth Martin (31:09):
And if we don't have freedom and hope here, I shudder to think what the rest of the world will look like because it will be nowhere.
Kelly Ward (31:17):
I mean, there are some glimmers, I think on the world stage when you look at Argentina, you look at Poland, there are some strong people who have been pretty fearless in their beliefs. Now we're going to see, I think they have been delivering in Poland. We'll see what happens in Argentina. But I am worried here because you've got the leftist media and leftist talking heads talking about basically assassinations. And I really, really hope that none of those crazy people that listen to them go far enough to start that kind of terribleness in our country.
Jenny Beth Martin (31:56):
Absolutely. Kelly, how did you decide to get involved in politics? You were a doctor, you had so many other things you could have been doing that don't involve being subpoenaed by the J six committee or taking cases to the state Supreme Court.
Kelly Ward (32:10):
Yes, it all revolved around Obamacare. And I'm still practicing now. I just do a little bit though I'm not as, I don't own my own practice anymore. I just do telemedicine. But I'm a family doctor and I believe in taking care of the whole patient, the whole family. And when Obamacare came, it was an assault on healthcare liberty and healthcare freedom. It was the biggest problem that was ever going to arise for my patients, my profession. And I found myself saying, why isn't somebody, somebody's got to do something about this. What the heck? Why isn't somebody not doing something? And our state senator was termed out because we do have term limits in Arizona though many of our legislators kind of get skirted around that by switching back and forth with their partners in the house and the Senate, and they just go back and forth and stay forever.
(32:57):
I don't think that's the intent. But our senator was termed out Ron Gould, he was running for Congress, and I was down actually at a lobbying day for our physician group, the Arizona Osteopathic Medical Association. And I said, well, I'm thinking I might run. I might run for the house because there's two spots. And he's like, there's no doctors in the Senate at all in Arizona. At that time, there were two very liberal doctors in the house. And he said, basically he said, have some testosterone, but he didn't say exactly that, have some testosterone run for the Senate. You should run for the Senate because we need that kind of voice, especially as we're contemplating Medicaid expansion and state-based exchanges and all of these things. And so I took him at his word and I ran for the Senate. Nobody thought I could win except for my family.
(33:45):
I think even my consultant, I had a consultant then because you weren't considered legitimate unless you had a consultant at that time. And none of 'em thought I would win. And somehow miraculously I was able to win the primary. And we live in a very, very red part of the state. Thank you, Jesus. I'm glad that's where we live. And once I won the primary, then I was pretty much a shoo in to become the state senator. And it was one of the best times of my life being in the state senate because I loved campaigning and I loved being with the people. And I was worried that once I got into office, would I like it and would I be good at it? And one of my supporters said, you are going to be good before I went in, because you are with the people, because you seek out their opinions because you don't think that everything, because as a family doctor, we know we don't know everything.
(34:34):
We know that we know a lot, but that many times we need a consultant. And so that's how I approached politics. And I was a very effective legislator. I had many, many bipartisan bills. Most of my bills were supported by both sides of the aisle, but they were based on conservative principles. And I was able to argue that with my colleagues on both sides to bring them into my camp. And I think that we need more of that. We need less compromise on your principles, which is what I think we see way too much of and more communication about why these things are good for the people that we represent and how they will benefit them, not how they will benefit us. So then you ran for other offices, right? Yes, I did. I ran for, so I served for two terms in the state senate here, and then I ran against John McCain.
(35:26):
And maybe I was naive, maybe I was crazy, but maybe I was just in the place where I was supposed to be at the time where I was supposed to be, because many, many people in our state and across the country complained about John McCain, not about his military service. We were thankful that he had served and we were horrified by the things that he had to go through when he was a POW. But his service in the political arena after almost 40 years really had a sour smell about it. And so I was like, well, I'm going to take him on. I went to some of our congressmen who had said they weren't that happy with John McCain either. I said, why don't one of you guys run? I'll support you. I'll get all these people that I'm their senator for. They just, I don't know, they were too fearful.
(36:14):
I'm just going to say. And they said, you shouldn't have to be a sacrificial lamb. You should just wait. You should just not do it. Just like the pass the buck about the election signatures about the verification, it was kind of the same thing. You can't wait forever. You have to put those principles on display. You have to expose what's going on, and then you have to try to get elected. Now, I'll tell you, I didn't have money and I wasn't known, but I do thank John McCain and the establishment machine and the people who put out so many negative ads about me before my feet hit the floor on the day that I was announcing I was going to run against Senator McCain. There were attack ads out on the internet. I thanked them because it gave me the name recognition, it gave me the platform.
(37:01):
It gave me the ability to connect with so many people that I never would have before. It gave me an opportunity to talk about faith, family, and freedom on a scale that I never thought would be possible. It gave me, despite not being able to win that election. But I do say we should go back and look at 2016 too, because on election day, I got 57% of the vote in that primary in a four-Way race. And John McCain barely got 50%. He got like 50.4% and was able to squeak by my mom tells me all the time that I really won. I love my mom, but we all love our moms. That's right, that's right. And they love you and they love us. But despite not being able to defeat him, despite getting Jeff Flake out of the political arena, the establishment still had to bring people in.
(37:52):
But I'm thankful because they gave me the opportunity to go on to become the chairman of the Republican Party in Arizona at a time in our country where we needed a strong person with a backbone, with a heart, with a soul and a brain to be able to fight against what we were seeing. Now, I didn't win that fight either because we're still where we are right now, but if we don't have people who are willing to make those sacrifices, I mean, it was a big sacrifice for our family financially to no longer have a physician income to have a $24,000 a year state Senate gig and then a $0 job as a candidate and as the chairman of the Republican Party. That's an unpaid position here in Arizona too. But those sacrifices have to be made for the things that you believe in. And we believe in our country, we believe that it was divinely inspired.
(38:44):
We believe that there's something still here that's worth saving. And so not just me, but my husband, our kids now, we have two grandkids. They're all willing to make those sacrifices too. And I don't think people realize how hard it is on the families behind the people who are in the front because we got into it because we knew, well, I thought we knew what I was getting into, but I really didn't know what I was getting into. But you put yourself out there and they come along for the ride, and it's really, really tough on 'em. And I'm glad that I have such an awesome family, such an awesome husband who supports me, who holds me up, who prays for me, who does everything to make sure that my life is good so that I can use the platform that I have to help to save this country.
Jenny Beth Martin (39:35):
Now, if people are listening and they're thinking about running for office, what would you tell them to consider and how would you guide them on making the decision whether to
Kelly Ward (39:44):
Run? Yeah, so whenever I was going to run, I first asked 10 people in different areas, like somebody that was in education, somebody in banking, somebody that did finance, like taxes, those kinds of things, mortgage, water, energy. I tried to reach out, not to my friends who were just going to say, oh yeah, whatever you want to do, I'll just pat you on the hand. But people who I respected in those industries, but that I had some kind of acquaintance with, I think I'm thinking about running for office. What do you think? And the vast majority said, why would you want to get into that cesspool? But if you do, you would be great. So I would start out just kind of getting some opinion. You have to remember that it's going to be hard on you and it's going to be hard on your family.
(40:28):
I would look at your electorate to see what's out there. And if you live in a heavily Democrat area, still be willing to run because there are people who have never heard a Republican message, a real Republican message. All they've seen is the cartoon characters that they create Republicans to be. And so even if you don't win the election, you are winning over some hearts and some minds, and you are bringing people into the fold. Even if it doesn't happen that time in that election, over time, you really can make a difference. And what you do then might take all the way, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years to really make a difference, but it still can make a difference. So you just have to be willing to do it. You have to be willing to jump in. You have to know that it costs money because you hear people all the time, well, well, Trump didn't put all this money in Trump when he first ran in 2016 Trump.
(41:23):
It was Trump. No one should ever compare themselves to what Trump does. It always takes money. It'll either take your own money or well, it should be, and it should take money from people that support you. I kind of have a bias against self-funded, completely self-funded candidates, because if you can't get people to invest in you financially as you're running for office, then I think you're more easily enamored by the money side. But when you realize that somebody sent you $10 and their paycheck that week was 500 and they sent you 10, it is a humbling, humbling thing. And I think just think about it, put yourself out there and then go do it. Make sure you have a good support system. Make sure you're always checking in with your family to make sure that they're doing okay. And also, you got to grow a thick skin because there'll be a lot of lies told about you.
(42:23):
There will be a lot of attacks made against you. One of the most egregious, when I was running against McCain and then again against McSally, they put out ads saying that I was an ISIS supporter. Okay, that's how far they went. My husband was serving in the military at that time. My husband's a 33 year veteran of the Air Force, and they're putting out ads on television and in people's mailbox that I was for ISIS with me with a flag, an ISIS flag. And the sad thing is there were a lot of little old people in particular who actually believed that they would write me letters and say, please don't support isis. And I was just like, I don't support isis. But those are the kind of lies that will be out there. Now, that one's pretty outrageous, but you have to know the truth about yourself and not care what other people, what your opponents, what the media is saying about you, or you can't go on being the light shiner that you want to be in the political arena.
Jenny Beth Martin (43:20):
That is so true. I always tell people who are thinking of running for office, you never need to pay attention to the good that is said about you in the media. If you get a high on that, they will crush you when they attack you, and inevitably they're going to attack you. Yes. So you just have to be able to have binders on and ignore it
Kelly Ward (43:39):
All or laugh about it. I mean, sometimes just about a week ago, I got a message, a horrible message on my phone, how they got my cell phone. I don't know. I mean, it was all vile cuss words, cussing. And they're like, we're Antifa in Arizona and there's nothing you can do about it, and we're coming after you. And I just laughed whenever I heard it because maybe I should be scared. I don't know. But I live in faith. I don't live in fear. And so if Antifa is after me, I guess they're after me, but I'm not really paying any attention to them. I'm living my life the way I want to live it, which is a free America loving, patriotic, conservative Christian woman, real woman. And so they can't stop that. And I think that they really hate that. They hate conservatives because we're happy, we're joyful, and it comes out from inside of us, and it just makes 'em so mad when we're happy. So be happier.
Jenny Beth Martin (44:40):
I think they also don't love the country the same way we do. And it makes our love for the country is something that bothers them.
Kelly Ward (44:48):
Yes,
Jenny Beth Martin (44:49):
They're ashamed of America rather than proud of America, and I want the best for America. And I'm not saying America's always been perfect, but neither have I and neither have any of them,
Kelly Ward (45:00):
And neither has any country on the face of this earth who has man ruling over them because we are ultimately not good. And yeah, they're very judgmental, they're very negative, and they don't love America. Mao, he was the king of that where he taught the Chinese to love him and to love his China, but to hate everyone else. Here we're doing the exact opposite, telling our students, our elementary school students, our college students hate America, hate this place. Well, that's a sure way to destroy the country.
Jenny Beth Martin (45:43):
100%. And it's terrifying that right now there are students around the country and young people who are graduating from college now in high school, maybe going on into the workforce, who really don't love our country, don't appreciate the country. And one of the things that has alarmed me since October 7th with the massacre massacres in Israel is watching the college students standing up for terrorists whether they realize that that's what they're doing or not, and I think some of them just don't understand it. And I've had conversations with people and I'm like, they were attacked. We were attacked on nine 11. The world supported us. We have to stand around Israel right now,
Kelly Ward (46:33):
But worse than nine 11 even really? Maybe not in terms of casualties, but that was a faceless attack of planes going into a building. These are horrible animalistic monsters. I'm just going to say they're animalistic monsters going into people's homes and killing, raping and kidnapping, burning human beings simply because they don't agree with their religion and because they feel like the Jewish people have something that they want and then celebrating it and
Jenny Beth Martin (47:09):
The celebration of it is the worst. It is the absolute worst.
Kelly Ward (47:14):
We saw it as young as I think these kids were in either elementary school or junior high where there was a Jewish teacher who dared to go to say with a sign that said, support Israel. And they basically had a riot in their school with these kids where she had to hide to protect herself. She was fearful for her life. I have a physician friend who is, she's Jewish. She works in a rural community, but she's very fearful because the people that work in her office and in her circle have all changed their flag, their Facebook moniker to the Palestinian flag, and she feels worried for herself and for her family where she's in this place trying to care for a community and the community could turn against her at the snap of a
Jenny Beth Martin (48:01):
Finger and watching what has played out, including in the Thousand Oaks area of California. I understand why they're fearful and it's wrong. It's so wrong, and they shouldn't have to be afraid like that. And that's why we have to stand up for them, and it's why we've got to fix what's wrong in our schools.
Kelly Ward (48:21):
Yes. What
Jenny Beth Martin (48:22):
We're doing matters, right?
Kelly Ward (48:23):
Well, we aren't teaching that there's a value of life, whether it's the Hamas supporters who are saying that they're justified, if they are attacking people that they decide they don't like, they don't have to just be Jewish. They could be anyone, whether it's the young black community that's gone done those clubbing of people behind as they walk by in order to get into a gang, the targeting of Asian Americans. It goes on and on and on, and it's designed divide us. It's designed to create hatred, distrust among groups who really naturally should probably be banding together to make things better for everyone around them rather than trying to ostracize and separate and decimate populations.
Jenny Beth Martin (49:17):
Right During, right after George Floyd was killed in 2020, and as the Black Lives Matter movement broke out across the country, we wound up asking people on the 4th of July, it was Covid, so it was weird how things were playing out, but we just said, go outside. You'll be safe outside if you're afraid. I'd been interviewing doctors, so I really wasn't afraid of much of anything and hold signs and remind people, United, we stand. We are the United States of America. God bless America. Just make sure that you're highlighting the united part because right now what's happening across the country is they want to divide us, and we cannot fall for that. Every life matters. Every race matters in our country, and we need to remind people the way that we are going to be successful is to unite together. That's
Kelly Ward (50:14):
Right. And meanwhile, the Democrats here in Arizona had a celebration on the 4th of July called F the Fourth. They actually put that out as a flyer. That is their mantra. They want to celebrate American greatness, American exceptionalism, the founding of our country. They want to say F the fourth, and it's just disgusting. So I mean, I hope that we as Republicans, as conservatives, as people who love this country, we can bring some people into our fold, and I think that right now it is pretty easy to do because they are experiencing the high gas prices. They're not able to find housing, food, and clothing has skyrocketed people. There's jobs available, but people aren't filling them M for some reason because of government intervention, and so hopefully we can bring them in so that we are able in 2024 to just overwhelm any kind of cheating that they decide to do. I still believe that there was cheating in our elections in 2020 and 2022. I believe there was corruption. I believe that, and as of now, I'm allowed to believe that, and I'm allowed to say it now. If ever it comes a time where you aren't allowed to express what you believe, then our country, not sure our country can come back from that,
Jenny Beth Martin (51:44):
Which kind of brings this full circle because the people who were indicted were doing what they thought was right, and it's why what you are doing, what I'm doing, what the people who are listening to this, we have to do everything we can to secure the elections and to win, and we can't give up hope. It is tempting to just focus on all the bad and walk away and wash your hands of it, but we cannot do that.
Kelly Ward (52:08):
That's right. No, we can't. And I've taken, there's a lot of people who say, why are you out on a sailboat? It's your job to do this, this. I go, why do you think it's my job? You're the head of the Republican party. Go. No, no. I haven't been the head of the Republican Party for almost a year now, but I'm still working behind the scenes. I don't always have to be the one out in the front taking the arrows. I took the arrows for over a decade, and so now it's my turn to help people to be strong enough to take the arrows. And so anybody who thinks that I've left Arizona, I've run away because the left always loves these little stories that I've retired that I've, no, I'm just working in different ways to do just what you said, to unite people and to make sure that we have every opportunity possible to be sure that we win those elections in 2024.
Jenny Beth Martin (53:00):
That is wonderful. One last thing before we go. You've got your book there. Tell people about your book and how they can get it, because then they will understand why you believe the election was stolen.
Kelly Ward (53:10):
Yeah. This is my book. It's called Justified, the Story of America's Audit. I named it America's Audit because it was for all of America. Whenever we did that audit in Maricopa County, you could get it on Amazon, you can get it also at Kelly Ward dot Kelly with an eye. I care about the people. I'll even sign one if you get it on the website. But it tells you step-by-step chronologically, what happened in the 2020 election and then actually the last chapter I was just reading over it before I came in, I was like, Hey, that's pretty good. There are steps that can be taken to help secure the elections. Simple things. In Maricopa County, they had the same sign in and password for every single person that worked on things. So any nefarious character could go in and do anything. People could make mistakes and no one would know. People could do mistakes on purpose and no one would know. Simply change that. Give everyone a username and password so that there's an audit trail. I know as a physician in my electronic medical record, I have to have an audit trail to know who did what and who opened the chart and who looked at what. If we can do it for medicine, we certainly should be able to do it for our elections.
Jenny Beth Martin (54:21):
Absolutely. So Amazon or Kelly Ward with an i.com. Dot
Kelly Ward (54:26):
Com. That's right. Go get it. I also have another book called Inspired by what's right. This one makes you mad, that one uplifts you,
Jenny Beth Martin (54:33):
So make sure that you check it out. Well, thank you so much for spending time with me today, Kelly. I really appreciate
Kelly Ward (54:39):
It. Thanks, Jenny. Beth, it's always great to be with you. I mean, you were one of the reasons that Tea Party Patriots was one of the reasons I got into politics. It wasn't just Obamacare. There were people that were inspiring me and teaching me and guiding me along the way, and you were definitely one of those voices.
Jenny Beth Martin (54:53):
Well, thank you very much. That is Kelly Ward, and I am Jenny Beth Martin, and this is the Jenny Beth Show.
Narrator (55:00):
The Jenny Beth Show is hosted by Jenny Beth Martin, produced by Kevin Mohan and directed by Luke Livingston. The Jenny Beth Show is a production of Tea Party Patriots action. For more information, visit tea party patriots.org
Jenny Beth Martin (55:20):
Party. If you like this episode, let me know by hitting the light button or leaving a comment or a five star review. And if you want to be the first to know, every time we drop a new episode, be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications for whichever platform you're listening on. If you do these simple things, it will help the podcast grow and I'd really appreciate it. Thank you so much.