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More Than 10K Republican Voters In Maricopa County Have Left Party Since U.S. Capitol Insurrection

Nearly 4,000 Maricopa County voters left the Republican Party within a week of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. New records show the exodus continued long after. 

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer tweeted Friday that 10,261 Republican voters changed their registration between Jan. 4 and Feb. 12

That’s more than four times the number of voters who left the Democratic Party over the same period.

Political consultant Chuck Coughlin says the events at the U.S. Capitol were just the beginning of the GOP’s troubles in Arizona.

“Obviously there’s an ignition point for this conversation, this exodus from the party. I would cite that as the ignition point,” Coughlin said. “But it takes something more than that.”

Coughlin said the narrow re-election of controversial party chair Kelli Ward didn’t help, nor did the party’s reprimand of Gov. Doug Ducey.

“The fact that they censured the sitting governor would speak to a serious divide amongst Republican Party leaders in this state,” he said.

Records show that most voters are opting to disengage with any party and registering as unaffiliated.

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Ben Giles is a senior editor at KJZZ.