Arizona public officials are members of extremist anti-government group, ADL report finds

SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER

Four Arizona public officials, including the Republican candidate for secretary of state, appeared on a membership list of the Oath Keepers, an extremist anti-government group whose founder and leader has been charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

On Sept. 6, the Anti-Defamation League released its report analyzing 38,000 names on the membership list and additional information leaked a year ago by Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets), a nonprofit journalist collective.

The ADL’s report offered the caveat that simply being included on the list does not mean that any individual participated in the Oath Keepers’ activities or even still holds to its ideology; however, the list offers evidence of the organization’s success in inserting itself into mainstream American civil and public life.

Alex Friedfeld, one of ADL’s Center on Extremism (COE) researchers, told Jewish News that the Oath Keepers “view the government as an evil entity, and thus, legitimize action outside the bounds of a normal democratic society.”

He said this data leak provided a rare opportunity to learn “not only how far the group has spread, but also about the people holding key positions who have paid dues to the Oath Keepers.” This matters because they are perpetuating an ideology that threatens democracy.

“Whether they’re in law enforcement, politicians, military or first responders, they have influence, and the community looks up to them. They’re supposed to be paragons and leaders and they have access to real power. Their affiliation raises questions as to how they’re wielding that power,” Friedfeld said.

The COE researchers identified members who “hold sensitive positions” by comparing names in the data with public information, including from social media.

The researchers discovered a total of 1,471 Arizonans had signed up as members of the Oath Keepers. Of those, 13 are members of law enforcement, five are first responders, five are military members and four are elected officials:

Mark Finchem, Arizona House of Representatives

David L. Megahey, Young Public School District board member

Wendy Rogers, Arizona State Senator Jeff Serdy, Pinal County, District 5 supervisor

Finchem, the Republican candidate for secretary of state, has been public about his membership since he first ran for the state house to represent Tucson and Casa

Grande in 2014.

“I’m an Oath Keeper committed to the exercise of limited, constitutional governance. I stand against policies that expand the role of government in our lives which include Common Core, Medicaid expansion, extinguishment of long-standing water and land-use rights,” he stated on his campaign website.

Rogers, Flagstaff’s Republican state senator, is also a self-proclaimed member of the Oath Keepers and spoke to its Cottonwood chapter two months after the insurrection. She tweeted about the event on March 6, 2021:

“Had a great time speaking to the Cottonwood Oathkeepers {sic} tonight. I am a member of the Oathkeepers and I really like their dedication to our Constitution and to our country.”

Additionally, Arizona Rep. Quang Nguyen, R-Prescott Valley, who did not appear in the data leak, tweeted his membership in the group on May 30, 2022: “I’m an Oath Keeper. Do not ever forget it. Now what?”

Finchem’s and Rogers’ involvement with the Oath Keepers is well documented but Megahey’s and Serdy’s is not. Jewish News reached out to Megahey and Serdy, but they did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

While the ADL did not release the names of private citizens or most military and law enforcement officers on the membership list, it did name Allen Muma, Jerome’s chief of police.

Muma told Jewish News that he is not a member of the Oath Keepers nor would he be because of the group’s extremist elements, which he abhors. However, he does remember being contacted by the group about a decade ago and taking their oath, which, he said, “is the same as my constitutional oath.”

He said that it’s possible he signed up at that time and perhaps even sent a small check, but he doesn’t recall doing so.

“It was a pretty benign situation at the time, the group and their goals,” Muma said. “They wanted to know that the police wouldn’t become what they were in Nazi Germany. I stand behind the constitutional rights of every man, woman and child in the United States.

“As law enforcement, we’ve gone through training to protect people’s rights, not to step on them.”

Muma has been in law enforcement for nearly 40 years and is currently the longesttenured police chief in Arizona. He says his success, in part, comes from knowing how to treat people with respect.

He said there are members of the Oath Keepers who are “nice, ordinary people,” but “the radical idiots you see in the news” make him wary of the group.

As far as appearing in the ADL’s report, he said, “It’s appalling to me that an agency grabs this data and goes running with it and accuses people. If you think I support that you’re strongly in error. I don’t promote anyone breaking the law on any side. My duty is preserving the law and the peace in my community. If they [Oath Keepers] were involved in Jan. 6, they should go to jail.”

The report also presented various comments found in the leaked data made by ordinary people who suggested they could act as missionaries for the Oath Keepers.

One of these comments came from an unnamed Phoenix resident: “I can recruit others to become Oath Keepers. Having produced over 900 Comedy shows for Veterans (in hospitals and homeless shelters, or outings that veterans could attend for free), I am good at producing shows and Friedfeld said the ADL is “very concerned about the rise of extremism in Arizona, particularly the rhetoric key figures are espousing about the election, such as Finchem saying he won’t concede if he loses, and Rogers, who is on the ballot even though she has espoused antisemitism and the language of white supremacy.”

Friedfeld said many people became members of the Oath Keepers once the group hit the mainstream in 2014. The part that worries him is that the group has held an extremist ideology from its founding and has never tried to hide it.

“These people didn’t just sign their name with no knowledge,” Friedfeld said. “You had to actively send money to the group.”

The Oath Keepers was founded in 2009 by Elmer Stewart Rhodes and promotes various conspiracy theories centered around a tyrannical U.S. government out to take civilians’ liberties. Members are encouraged to disobey orders they believe violate the U.S. Constitution. Rhodes and 10 other Oath Keeper members or associates have been charged with seditious conspiracy for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election and keep then-President Donald Trump in power, according to the Associated Press.

Friedfeld said that the group has struggled to maintain recruitment since Rhodes’ arrest and the legal scrutiny it faced after the Jan. 6 insurrection, because people became frustrated with the Oath Keepers’ disorganization and lack of local outreach.

“People get so upset when they don’t get their swag or the things they were promised when they signed up,” he said.

Still, Rhodes has never moderated his message. He continues to tell his followers to be armed and ready to fight back.

“We’re living in a time when extremism of all kinds is booming,” Friedfeld said. “We’re watching all of it in concert and these groups all feel emboldened to act publicly. They feel it’s OK to threaten and harass people, saying they [the federal government] are evil people doing evil things, making the idea of violence more plausible, and that is deeply alarming for the security of our communities and the future of our democracy.”