The Fine Print Below “Democrats for Biggs”

Updated Sept. 23, 12:15 p.m. with comment from Turning Point-PAC

Who, exactly, are the “Democrats for Biggs”? That’s the question behind a wave of blue campaign signs popping up around Greater Phoenix, claiming Democrats are backing Republican gubernatorial candidate Andy Biggs.

The signs don’t say which Democrats. They don’t name any supporters. And the people promoted online as Democrats supporting Biggs aren’t current Democrats at all: They are people who were once registered as Democrats but changed their party affiliation years ago.

And the group behind the signs is not a Democrat-led organization, but Turning Point PAC - Arizona, part of the conservative political nonprofit group Turning Point USA. 

The signs haven’t gone unnoticed. 

Arizona Reddit users have posted photos and accounts of the signs appearing throughout South Phoenix, Laveen, Mesa and Chandler. A post in the Chandler subreddit garnered hundreds of comments after claiming the signs were at nearly every intersection on the user’s morning commute.

If the sign looks or sounds familiar, that’s because earlier this month, two Turning Point activists posted now-deleted photos of an artificial intelligence-generated image that looked very similar to progressive state Rep. Lorena Austin, D-Mesa, posing with the signs written in Spanish. 

With the help of AI detection tools, Austin was quick to clarify that the images were not of them and threatened to sue Turning Point PAC for misusing their identity. 

The Biggs campaign distanced itself from the AI posts and told KJZZ News that they are “not connected in any way to our campaign.”

Amid all this, it is still not clear what Democrats are supporting Andy Biggs’s campaign. 

LOOKOUT asked Turning Point PAC - Arizona for interviews with currently registered Democrats they identified supporting Biggs through the effort and whether any would be willing to speak about why they are backing him.

Turning Point PAC- Arizona submitted three videos showing former Democrats expressing support for Biggs. One of those videos features a former vice president of the Young Democrats at the University of Arizona saying that returning to church gave her insight on how the party had become "so far left."

"Democrats are really upset about these signs because they know they're true. They have no answers for Biggs' momentum, just complaints," said Turning Point PAC - Arizona spokesperson Andrew Kolvet. "They are mad that this is a growing movement, so they're filing complaints over a technicality that the ads don't meet a sizing requirement (they do). It's very petty and reeks of panic."

In a social media post from Turning Point PAC, people who once registered as Democrats and then changed their party affiliation during the first Trump presidency were the ones being promoted. LOOKOUT couldn’t independently verify the individuals’ identities or whether they were, indeed, former Democrats who became Republicans.

Arizona Doesn’t Fact-Check Its Own Voter Guide

A LOOKOUT analysis of 594 submissions found that more than 200 were handled by just four people working across political groups, while the state does not fact-check the arguments it prints.

LOOKOUTLorenzo Gomez (he/him)

Most recent spending reports up to the end of June that Turning Point - PAC has spent more than $30,000 on the current election cycle, with $15,067 being paid to a Mesa-based sign printing shop, though it’s unclear if that payment was for the new signs posted across the Valley. The next filing deadline is on October 15. 

The misleading campaign raises a basic question about political advertising: What can a political group legally put on a sign? And when an ad makes a claim about who supports a candidate, what, if anything, does Arizona law require the group to prove?

Generally, false or misleading claims in political ads aren’t regulated or overseen. 

Arizona law restricts the distribution of certain deceptive synthetic depictions of candidates within 90 days of an election unless they contain a clear disclosure that the content is not human-made. The statute, though, is specifically aimed to rein in AI-style media that falsely depicts a candidate as saying or doing something they did not do. It does not, by itself, regulate every potentially false or misleading claim made in political advertising.

Arizona also has separate laws governing disclosures on political advertisements. Those provisions require campaign advertisements to identify who paid for them and whether a candidate authorized them, among other requirements. Not whether claims or marketing is accurate or true. 

That lack of oversight goes into official state-distributed materials, as well. In August, LOOKOUT published a story examining the election laws governing claims published in the official Secretary of State voter publicity pamphlet.

Until Turning Point PAC Arizona identifies the Democrats referenced in the campaign, voters have no way to independently evaluate who is behind the claim, the most visible “Democrats for Biggs” in Arizona are the signs themselves and the conservative group that paid for them.