A memorandum provided to the Washington Examiner from the Arizona GOP treasurer Elijah Norton detailed an audit of the 2022 financials of the party, which found mismanagement of resources from the party’s former chairwoman Kelli Ward that presented a “clear failure to properly deploy assets in the right areas.” Some believe the financial decisions could have been responsible for election losses that led to Democrats controlling the Arizona governor’s office and two U.S. Senate seats for the first time since 1950.

2022 Azgop Audit by web-producers

Norton’s audit found no evidence that Ward or executive director Pam Kirby had engaged in theft or fraud or received kickbacks from vendors.

“Based on the numbers, I think there was gross incompetence and mismanagement and just a lack of political knowledge on how to deploy resources properly,” Norton said in a phone interview with the Washington Examiner on Friday. “I think maybe Kelli and Pam Kirby were just unqualified to lead a large, important political party.”

The Washington Examiner reached out to Ward and Kirby for comment.

Norton found that Ward’s administration did not prioritize voter contact and instead placed a higher value on “events, travel, and fundraising expenses,” leading him to conclude “the end result spoke for itself.” 

“In 2024 we had massive wins, from expanding the state legislative majorities to keeping congressional races, both of the toss-ups we kept in Republican hands. President Trump won by 158,000 votes, even bigger than he did in 2016,” Norton said.

The audit found that only 6% of the entire party budget was spent on contacting voters. The party spent $365,611 on “voter contact” in 2022. In comparison, in 2024 the Arizona GOP spent $14,610,764.17 to reach out to voters, which amounted to 74% of the entire 2024 budget.

“We sent out millions of pieces of mail in 2024,” Norton said. “We sent out thousands of text messages. We had hundreds of thousands of impressions on digital ads and all of those things. We were focused on reaching the voter that maybe wasn’t paying as much attention to what was going on politically.”

In 2022, there were a number of close races in the state including an Arizona attorney general race in which Democrat Kris Mayes narrowly defeated Republican Abraham Hamadeh, one of the closest elections in state history, following a recount. Mayes ultimately finished 280 votes ahead of Hamadeh.

The audit also highlights “excessive event expenditures” in a non presidential election cycle. The 2022 administration spent $614,681, which amounted to 10% of the budget on “event expenses.” A major point of contention was an election night party in 2022 at a swanky Scottsdale resort which cost the party $406,231.99. 

“We didn’t even know the results for three to four weeks. So there’s nothing really to celebrate until we know who wins,” Norton said. “It was a nice party, but it wasn’t worth the money. If we would have spent $50,000 on a ballroom at a hotel and spent the remaining $250,000 on voter contact for the attorney general’s race, we could have seen a better result.”

In 2024, Arizona Republicans ultimately decided against throwing an election night party. The party spent $512,007.63 on event expenses which often are dramatically higher in a presidential election year due to state conventions, the Republican National Convention, and events associated with those functions. 

Another major revelation in 2022 the audit revealed was the party spent over 51% of its budget on fundraising expenses. They also spent nearly 20% of their budget on salaries in comparison to the previous election in a presidential cycle where payroll only amounted to about 6%.

Norton admits the state party had a significant amount of help from outside groups that typically swoop in during a presidential cycle. 

“We had those outside groups in 2022 as well, but in 2024, we learned from what happened in the past — and everyone together had a collective effort, and it really paid off,” he said. 

The Arizona Republican Party has faced its share of controversy in recent years. Senate candidate Kari Lake released a secret March 2023 audio recording she made of her conversation with Jeff DeWit, then-state party chairman, in which he offered Lake what she viewed as a bribe to keep her out of the Senate race. The recording ultimately forced DeWit to resign, shaking up the state’s Republican Party in the battleground state.

Since the 2020 election, the spotlight has been on Arizona as a center of debunked GOP voter fraud theories. Ward was targeted by her own party following losses, with many calling for her resignation. Two years later, Republican officials in the 2022 midterm elections were charged after they refused to certify election results.