Alexander Kolodin

Chat(GPT), are we cooked?: An Arizona ad-hoc committee came together on Friday to discuss the threat of artificial intelligence in politics, Jerod MacDonald-Evoy writes for the Mirror. The Committee on Election Integrity and Florida-style Voting Systems, led by Republican Rep. Alexander Kolodin, brought in AI experts to unpack “protecting elections in the age of artificial intelligence.” Diane Cooke, an AI fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. said AI has created new political threats and deepfake videos have targeted politics. “It is critical to understand we have reached an inflection point with AI technologies,” Cooke said. (November 17, 2025)

New election rules: Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bill into law that was crafted in part to force Pima County to allow observers to watch ballot-counting at more locations. Republican Rep. Alexander Kolodin’s HB2022 also moved up the date of primary elections from the first Tuesday in August to the second-to-last Tuesday in July, making that the permanent primary date after lawmakers temporarily changed it for the 2024 election, per the Republic’s Ray Stern. (February 9, 2026)

Not a yes-or-no question: Republican Rep. Alexander Kolodin scored some political points at a recent hearing when three lobbyists for immigrant rights groups stumbled after he asked them whether U.S. citizens should be the only people who can vote in local and state elections, Camryn Sanchez reports for KJZZ. The lobbyists couldn’t give a straight answer. Instead, they said there was no evidence that non-citizens were voting and they’d have to go back to the groups they represent, like ACLU Arizona or LUCHA, for an answer to his question. (February 11, 2026)

Finder’s fee: Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman’s political communications firm has made more than $200,000 from statewide candidates he recruited to run, Axios’ Zach Buchanan reports. So far, Hoffman’s Forged Communications firm received $121,000 from the campaigns of Republican superintendent of public instruction candidate Kimberly Yee and $90,000 from Republican secretary of state candidate Alexander Kolodin. Hoffman said the contenders are “the most qualified candidates in their respective races” and accused Axios of “cooking up wild conspiracy theories about phantom conflicts of interest.” (August 27, 2026)

Finder’s fee: Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman’s political communications firm has made more than $200,000 from statewide candidates he recruited to run, Axios’ Zach Buchanan reports. So far, Hoffman’s Forged Communications firm received $121,000 from the campaigns of Republican superintendent of public instruction candidate Kimberly Yee and $90,000 from Republican secretary of state candidate Alexander Kolodin. Hoffman said the contenders are “the most qualified candidates in their respective races” and accused Axios of “cooking up wild conspiracy theories about phantom conflicts of interest.” (August 27, 2026)

Siphoning is not a (bigger) crime: Republican Rep. Alexander Kolodin delivered another of his many impassioned floor speeches yesterday, spitting fire at the lobbyists who push for special crimes to protect their industry — like the one contained in SB1540, which failed on the House floor yesterday. Then we heard him name-drop lobbyist Mike Williams, who was pushing the bill on behalf of the Arizona Petroleum Marketers Association. “I love Mike Williams,” he said, we assume sarcastically. (June 10, 2026)

Taking aim at mail-in voting: As the race for Arizona secretary of state heats up, Gina Swoboda claims her rival for the GOP nomination, Rep. Alexander Kolodin, is trying to get rid of mail-in voting, David Iversen reports for KTAR. Last year, an attorney for Hobbs raised concerns that a provision in Kolodin’s elections bill “looks like a bullet in the head” of the early voting list used to automatically send out ballots to voters, Swoboda said on the Mike Broomhead Show. Kolodin “laughed in her face and said, ‘That’s because it is,’” Swoboda said. Kolodin didn’t deny the account. Instead, he responded by criticizing Democratic incumbent Adrian Fontes. (March 30, 2026)

Watering down the anti-anti-ICE bill: A watered-down version of Arizona’s “civil terrorism” bill is going up for a vote in the House this week, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports. The initial version of HB2136 didn’t sit right with Republican Rep. Alexander Kolodin. He said it would infringe on First Amendment rights, so he got his colleagues to sign off on several amendments, including tweaking the bill’s description of civil terrorism as planning or coordinating acts “that are designed to cause widespread fear,” which Kolodin said could be applied to lawmakers themselves. (March 10, 2026) “Well, I recently put out a communication that was designed to cause widespread fear,” Kolodin said, referring to a bill he proposed that would have notified Arizonans about the dire consequences if the state can no longer get Colorado River water. (March 10, 2026)

Pick a lane!: Gina Swoboda, the former AZGOP chair and Donald Trump’s co-endorsed candidate in Congressional District 1, filed a statement of interest to run for secretary of state yesterday, setting up a showdown between her and Republican Rep. Alexander Kolodin, who had hoped to have a clear path to challenge Democrat Adrian Fontes in November. Presuming Swoboda is actually switching course, that would also open up the field in the competitive CD1, where David Schweikert is retiring to run for governor and 11 Republicans have already filed statements of interest, including Trump co-endorsee Thomas "Jay” Feely, and state House Freedom Caucus leader Joseph Chaplik. (February 4, 2026)