Mark Finchem
 | This article needs to be updated. (October 2026) |
Mark Finchem | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Finchem in 2022 | |
| Member of the Arizona Senate from the 1st district | |
| Assumed office January 13, 2025 | |
| Preceded by | Ken Bennett |
| Member of the Arizona House of Representatives from the 11th district | |
| In office January 5, 2015 – January 9, 2023 | |
| Preceded by | Adam Kwasman |
| Succeeded by | Oscar De Los Santos |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Mark William Finchem April 24, 1957 |
| Party | Republican |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Kalamazoo Valley Community College (AAS) Grand Canyon University (BA) University of Arizona (MLS) |
| Website | Campaign website |
Mark William Finchem[1] (born April 24, 1957)[2] is an American far-right[3][4][5][6][7] politician who serves as a member of the Arizona Senate. He was previously a member of the Arizona House of Representatives, representing District 11 from 2015 to 2023. He is the Arizona coordinator for the Coalition of Western States, an organization that opposes the activities of the Bureau of Land Management and supported the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016.[8]
A member of the militia group Oath Keepers, Finchem was the Republican Party nominee in the 2022 election for Secretary of State of Arizona. In 2024, Finchem was elected to the Arizona Senate after defeating incumbent Ken Bennett in the Republican primary.
Early life and education
[edit]Finchem was originally from the Detroit, Michigan area.[9] After graduating high school, he joined the Kalamazoo, Michigan department of public safety, working first as a firefighter and then as a police officer.[9][10] While a police officer, he also worked as a rancher.[10] He received an associate of applied science degree from Kalamazoo Valley Community College.[10] Finchem retired from the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety in 1999; personnel records included the note "poor rating, would not rehire".[11][12]
Finchem moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1999, and became a real estate agent.[9][10] He later became vice president of Clean Power Technologies LLC, an Idaho-based company that claimed to generate and distribute sustainable energy "without wires, anywhere around the world".[9] He allowed his real estate license to expire in 2021.[10]
Finchem received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in public policy from Grand Canyon University in 2019 and later a Master of Legal Studies (MLS) from the University of Arizona (UA).[10] In a 2021 paper that he issued through his nonprofit, Finchem falsely claimed to be a "legislative fellow in residence" at UA's James E. Rogers College of Law; Finchem does not hold a fellowship at the law school.[10][13]
Political career
[edit]Arizona House of Representatives
[edit]Finchem was first elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2014, finishing second in the Republican primary behind Vince Leach before advancing to the general election in Arizona's top-two nominating process. Finchem and Leach ran successfully in the general election. Finchem came in first with 36,732 votes, ahead of Leach and Democratic challenger Holly Lyon.[14]
Finchem and Leach defeated Democrats Corin Hammond and Barry McCain (write-in candidate) in the 2016 general election.[15]
As a member of the state House, Finchem was known for promoting extreme ideas.[9] In 2016, Finchem introduced legislation that would prohibit Arizona from implementing presidential executive orders, directives issued by federal agencies, and U.S. Supreme Court rulings.[3] In 2019 he introduced a bill to create a code of ethics for teachers which consisted primarily of text from a report published by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.[3] He also sponsored in 2019 a bill that would seek to transfer management of federal lands in Arizona to the state government.[16]
In 2020, Finchem ran for speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, challenging incumbent Republican Russell Bowers.[9] Finchem said that if elected he would prioritize the development of viral content. He lost the speaker's election, receiving the support of less than one-third of the House Republican caucus.[9]
Posting on Twitter in 2021, Finchem compared the cancellation of a fundraiser for Josh Hawley to the Holocaust. In the tweet, Finchem criticised Loews Hotels for cancelling the fundraiser, saying "This is what Hitler and Stalin did. What's next Camps? Ovens?"[17][18]
As of 2021, Finchem was a member of the House of Representatives' committees on the Judiciary, on Military Affairs & Public Safety, and on Natural Resources, Energy & Water.[19] He was granted a committee chairmanship only a single time in his eight years in the state House.[9] He led the "Liberty Caucus" group of far-right Republican state House members.[9] Republican state senator T. J. Shope described Finchem as a "political gadfly"'; another Republican state senator, Paul Boyer, described him as "one of the dumbest" members of the Arizona House of Representatives. (Finchem responded by calling Boyer an "utter disgrace").[9] Finchem's rise to prominence reflected a broader rightward shift within the Arizona Republican Party; in the late 2010s and 2020s, the strength of the wing of the party aligned with John McCain diminished, and the party apparatus became increasingly dominated by the far right.[9]
Coalition of Western States
[edit]As of 2016, Finchem was Arizona coordinator of the Coalition of Western States (COWS), a group founded by Washington state representative Matt Shea in 2014 to support Cliven Bundy and his family in their confrontation with law enforcement, which also supported the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.[8] Mark Pitcavage of the Anti-Defamation League described COWS as motivated by "anti-government extremism and anti-