PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Senate voted Tuesday to censure Republican Wendy Rogers, whose embrace of white nationalism and calls for violence drew bipartisan condemnation.
Rogers is in her first term in elected office but has built a national profile among the far right with inflammatory rhetoric and vociferous support for former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Rogers has long faced fierce opposition from Democrats and a handful of Republicans for offensive comments on social media.
Pressure mounted within the GOP this week after she said over the weekend that her political opponents should face a “newly built set of gallows.” She spoke in a video played at the America First Political Action Conference, a white nationalist gathering.
“We do support First Amendment freedom of speech,” said Republican Senate President Karen Fann, who voted to censure. “We absolutely support it. We fight battles over it. But what we do not condone is members threatening each other. To ruin each other. To incite violence. To call us communists. We don’t do that to each other.”
The censure, a formal condemnation that carries no practical consequences, was approved in a 24-3 vote, with all Democrats and most Republicans in support.
Rogers stood as Senate Majority Leader Rick Gray read the censure aloud. When it was her turn to speak, she portrayed the censure as an attack on her constituents and her supporters.
“You’re really censuring them,”...
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