The Republican primary in Arizona’s 5th Congressional District started out as a competition to see which candidate could out-Trump the other in the deep-red region, but sordid allegations against the front-runner have flipped the race on its head.
Congressman Andy Biggs’ decision to run for governor left an open seat in 5th District, a safe Republican district where the winner of the GOP primary is virtually guaranteed to win the general election.
Former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb and local homebuilder Daniel Keenan are both vying to replace Biggs.
Last year, President Donald Trump endorsed Lamb, who made a name for himself nationally through popular YouTube videos and television shows focused on his work enforcing the law in the state’s third-largest county.
Since that time, Lamb has spent much of the campaign posting more videos in support of Trump’s key issues, like the SAVE Act, a controversial voter ID bill that is stalled in Congress.
“I couldn’t think of a more important time in our history to ensure that the people who are voting in our elections are American citizens,” Lamb said in a Facebook video posted earlier this year.
Keenan, an East Valley native, isn’t phased by the endorsement.
“Look, he did endorse my opponent, but I am confident that I will be getting that endorsement as well, whether that's before the primary or after the primary,” Keenan said.
Trump does have a history of changing up endorsements in Arizona races, having issued double endorsements in 8th Congressional District in 2022 and this year’s Republican gubernatorial primary.
And Keenan believes the president could do that again in 5th District, claiming Lamb has not always supported the president in the past.
For instance, Keenan says he, not Lamb, believes Trump’s false claims that his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 was the result of widespread voter fraud, saying that Lamb has “abandoned” the president on that front.
“Mark Lamb got in front of Congress and said he saw no fraud in our elections. Got on a Spanish-speaking television show, and said that our elections were safe and secure,” Keenan said. “He also testified in front of Congress and said Donald Trump lost the election.”
The sordid allegations
And there are other headwinds facing the Lamb campaign.
In May, the Arizona Republic began publishing an extensive series exposing allegations of sexual impropriety against Lamb, who is married, including that he regularly sexted with other women and engaged in other sordid behavior. A former friend also told the Republic that he had multiple sexual encounters with Lamb’s wife after Mark Lamb sent him nude photos of her.
Republican voter Dennis Poulin said he’s read the allegations.
And he thinks the behavior doesn’t line up with the Lamb’s campaign messaging, which pitches him as a family-values candidate and active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Well, I have a philosophy in my life that behavior never lies, so if what you say and what you do is in conflict, well then, that’s a problem,” Poulin said.
Lamb’s attorneys called the claims baseless but didn’t rebut the specific allegations, according to the Republic.
The candidate himself has largely avoided the subject, though his wife, Janel, took to Facebook to claim they are the subject of a smear campaign.
Lamb canceled a planned interview with KJZZ after the Republic published its first article.
Ed Morabito, his campaign manager, claimed a longer-than-expected flight interfered with the interview and promised to reschedule. He did not respond to subsequent requests to reschedule the interview.
Lamb also did not participate in a June debate with Keenan, who accused his opponent of hiding.
“He’s afraid to answer the tough questions regarding his recent disqualifying behavior,” Keenan said.
An investigation by Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller concluded that Lamb did not violate any laws after several women accused Lamb of using his powerful position to stop them from speaking up. Miller’s investigation did not address the broader allegations included in the Republic’s reporting.
Tennessee
Beyond the sexting scandal, Lamb is also facing claims he doesn’t live in the district. That’s because his family recently opened a ranch, complete with rentable cabins and event space, on 140 acres the family purchased for $3 million in rural McNairy County, Tennessee — about 1,500 miles away from Arizona’s 5th District.
“Owning your own food source, your cattle, growing gardens, chickens, eggs. Honestly that’s the American way. We wanted to get back to it as a family,” Lamb said in a video on the YouTube channel his family set up to market the ranch.
The ranch is Lamb’s latest business venture following a pest control business he owned in Arizona and a paintball company he owned in Utah that went bankrupt in 2003.
Lamb also founded a nonprofit in 2018 called the American Sheriff Foundation. The IRS revoked its tax-exempt status in 2021, and Lamb violated Arizona law by failing to disclose his prior bankruptcy on state incorporation forms, which he called an honest mistake, the Arizona Luminaria reported.
McNairy County property records show the Lambs purchased the property for their newest business through an entity called American Sheriff LLC with a $2 million loan from Venture Bros Lending LLC. That lender is owned by Queen Creek residents Nicole and Casey Upshaw.
The Upshaws hosted a fundraiser for Lamb and other Republicans in January, the Republic reported, though Casey Upshaw maintained he only had a professional relationship with the Lambs.
The U.S. Constitution does not require members of Congress to live in the districts they represent, but they are required to reside in the state.
Lamb claims he still lives in Arizona and only plans to visit the ranch.
“I’m going to be here when I can,” Lamb said in the video. “Janel will be here when she can. But our family is full time here and really building this out.”
He said he was drawn to Tennessee after visiting the area when he won an award for sheriffs named after Buford Pusser, the now-infamous McNairy County sheriff who took on bootleggers with a homemade bat and inspired the 1973 film "Walking Tall."
“Buford Pusser is a legendary sheriff,” Lamb said.
Pusser was a larger-than-life personality known for taking on crime with tough talk and bravado, whose mythology was later undermined by damning revelations about his personal life after a Tennessee Bureau of Investigations implicated Pusser in his wife’s murder, which he had blamed on a mob hit.
In YouTube videos, the Lambs said the ranch will help their family to supplement the income Lamb will lose by ending his consulting business to run for Congress, though they haven't said anything about why he chose not to build his new ranch in Arizona’s sprawling 5th District.
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