Arizona Republican Risa Lombardo filed as a Green Party candidate for governor, misrepresenting her affiliation to split the Democratic vote

Risa Lombardo, an elected Republican Precinct Committeewoman for Arizona's Legislative District 2 since October 2024, left that post around late February 2025 and, on March 5, 2025, filed a statement of interest to run for Arizona governor as a Green Party candidate. Her husband, Michael Lombardo, remained an active member of the LD2 Republican Committee's executive board. Lombardo had previously sold MAGA-branded merchandise and supported Republican candidates including Kari Lake.

Lombardo's Green Party candidate statement described her platform in general terms consistent with the party's stated values, but she did not otherwise campaign as a Green Party candidate would: her campaign had no website, solicited no donations, and used a Google Voice number that later passed to someone else's possession. She was represented in ballot-signature litigation by Republican election attorneys whose past clients include the Arizona Republican Party and Donald Trump's presidential campaign, and her nominating petition signatures were gathered by Uncle Sam Petitions, a firm whose owner has donated to numerous Republican campaigns.

Updates

2025-12 — Arizona Green Party publicly warned Lombardo was a GOP-planted "sham" candidate [2]

The Arizona Green Party told its members it did not know Lombardo and that she had never been involved with the party, warning that petition circulators for her campaign were describing her to voters as an "independent." The party said the pattern was designed to hijack its ballot line and split votes away from Democrats.

2026-04-15 — Reporting detailed Lombardo's Republican ties and GOP-aligned campaign vendors [2, 3]

Phoenix New Times and State Affairs Pro reported that Lombardo is the statutory agent for a conservative political group, that her legislative district's Republican committee had paid her small sums for postage in 2025, and that Republican election attorneys and a Republican-aligned signature-gathering firm helped her make the ballot. A judge ruled April 16, 2026 that her petition signatures were sufficient despite legal challenges to their validity.

2026-05-26 — Lombardo received $1.1 million in public Clean Elections funds [1]

The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission disbursed $1.1 million in public campaign financing to Lombardo after she collected the qualifying $5 contributions required under the program.

2026-07-13 — Reporting found Lombardo paid 78% of her public funds to an undisclosed shell company [1, 4]

The Arizona Mirror reported that Lombardo paid more than $887,000 — 78% of her public funding — to Bootstrap Campaigns, a Nevada company incorporated just 13 days before her first payment to it, for services including consulting, mailers, canvassing, and petition gathering, despite her signatures having already been gathered months earlier by a different firm. Bootstrap Campaigns had no online presence and no other reported campaign clients; combined with Duwayne Collier's own payments to the company, the two candidates routed more than $1.2 million in public funds to it.