The Green Party candidate for Arizona secretary of state helped a Republican qualify for the ballot in the state’s Corporation Commission race, records show.
Duwayne Collier won the Green Party’s secretary of state primary on July 21 with around 400 votes despite facing open opposition from the party faithful and allegations that he’s a spoiler candidate focused on drawing votes away from Democratic incumbent Adrian Fontes in the general election.
The Arizona Mirror reported that Collier and Green Party gubernatorial nominee Risa Lombardo have existing ties to Republican politics, including sending millions in public campaign funds from the Clean Elections Commission to a mysterious Nevada firm tied to GOP operatives.
The Arizona Green Party disavowed both Collier and Lombardo.
“These ‘sham candidate’ tactics are a predictable outcome of the system created by the Republican and Democratic parties,” the Arizona Green Party posted on its website. “Political operatives are incentivized to use third-party ballot lines to split the vote and benefit their preferred candidates.”
Now, a complaint with the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission filed against Republican Corporation Commission candidate Ralph Heap has exposed other ties between Collier and the GOP.
That complaint accused Heap of failing to disclose who paid the individuals who collected the more than 15,000 voter signatures he submitted to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office to qualify for the ballot.
According to that complaint, Collier collected nine signatures for Heap and his wife collected hundreds more.
Collier did not respond to a request to comment on why he supported Heap’s campaign and if he has lended any similar support to Mike Cease, a longtime Arizona Green Party member who is running against Heap in the general election.
In Arizona, campaigns can pay circulators to collect signatures or rely on volunteers, though it’s unclear which category Collier and his wife fall into as it relates to Heap’s campaign.
State law requires circulators to register with the secretary of state only if they live out of state or are paid by an initiative or referendum campaign. Circulators paid by candidates do not have to register.
Heap’s campaign has only disclosed a total of $6,880 in payments to a company called Uncle Sam Petitions for signature-gathering efforts.
The secretary of state’s public portal shows Collier had worked for that company as recently as 2025, though he and his wife are now registered as paid circulators for a different firm, Petition Partners, for a defunct school voucher initiative.
Collier also circulated petitions in the successful effort to recall Mesa Councilwoman Julie Spilsbury last year. That effort was backed by the influential far-right group Turning Point Action after Spilsbury, a Republican, backed Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
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