The Central Arizona Conservatives hosted incumbent freshman U.S. Rep. Eli Crane [R-District 2] and Pinal County Sheriff and U.S. Senate candidate Mark Lamb during the group’s monthly meeting at the American Heritage Academy in Camp Verde on Thursday, July 18.

The event occurred shortly before former President Donald Trump took the stage on the last night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wis., to formally accept his party’s nomination for the presidency.

Eli Crane

“We were in Wisconsin this morning at the convention, we flew back just for this event,” Crane said. “That was the first time I’ve ever been to that convention, and it was pretty cool. We got to go speak to the Arizona delegation this morning … I think you’re going to be pleased with the nominee, not that you guys don’t know who the nominee is. He’s also had a pretty crazy week himself.”

Trump has endorsed Crane in the District 2 race. Crane, who sits on the House Committee on Homeland Security, said that the committee wants FBI Director Christopher A. Wray to testify before them regarding an assassination attempt made on Trump in Butler Penn., on July 13, as well as “director of Secret Service Alejandro Mayorkas.”

Mayorkas is U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, whose department oversees the U.S. Secret Service, led by Director Kimberly Cheatle.

“We’re trying to get those guys in there next week without subpoenas. We might have to throw subpoenas to get them to come in to testify. So we can conduct oversight over a complete and utter failure by our federal government,” Crane said. Crane then discussed his first term and his primary challenger, Jack Smith, seeking to connect Smith to former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.

Crane was one of eight Republicans who voted Oct. 3 with 208 Democrats to remove McCarthy, a move that spurred an effort by McCarthy donors to support primary challengers against the “Gaetz Eight.”

Crane’s Challenger Jack Smith

A Yavapai County District 5 Supervisor from 2012 until 2019, Smith later held positions with Yavapai College and the Arizona Department of Administration. Smith has touted his 2019 appointment by Trump to head the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural development program. Smith’s campaign pitch is that is Crane out of touch with rural voters because his residence in Oro Valley, north of Tucson, is outside District 2, according to his 2022 federal election filings. 

The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office requires that candidates be Arizona citizens; they do not have to reside in the district in which they are running for office.

The Citizens Clean Elections Commission held its CD2 Republican debate on June 24, which was only attended by Smith. During the event, Smith updated his position to say that he would not have voted to remove McCarthy.

“No, I would not,” Smith said. “We’ve got a choice come July 30: You can either choose to keep things the way they are, or you can choose to elect me and I’m going to go in and we’re going to build team synergies around working together to basically bring stuff back for our District CD2.”

Mark Lamb

During the event, Lamb stated that he had received a call from a party that he did not identify to run a primary campaign against Crane, adding that he chose to not to because of loyalty to Crane.

“I have zero desire to run for Congress and have to politick every two years, so that’s another reason,” Lamb said. “And No. 3, if I step out this race, this is as good as giving it to [U.S. Rep.] Ruben Gallego [D-District 3]. Because we experience now, we need honorable men and women that have the experience to do the job.”

Lamb has been trailing behind GOP frontrunner Kari Lake, a former newscaster and failed 2022 Arizona gubernatorial candidate, across all polls on FiveThirtyEight.com by 25 to 33 points.

Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes, who is running for relection, was scheduled to introduce Lamb but was unable to attend.

“As long as immigration is broken, and they only allow 65,000 people a year come in here on [the Diversity Immigrant Visa] lottery system, and the courts have backed up 3 [million] to 5 million cases, some of these people are automatically going to try to cross the border illegally because our immigration is broken as well,” Lamb said.

Lamb also called for increased energy independence for the United States, which comes a year after U.S. oil production hit an all-time high, “continuing to outpace rivals Saudi Arabia and Russia,” Reuters reported in March. “The U.S. also produces more natural gas than ever, pulling record volumes from wells that spread from Texas to Pennsylvania. As a result, American ports are sending record volumes of both abroad, including to allies in Europe who are weaning themselves off Russia for energy supplies.”

Water

Camp Verde Town Manager Miranda Fisher briefly spoke with Crane on the Yavapai-Apache Nation’s Water Rights Settlement Agreement that the tribal council approved on June 26 to resolves long standing Y-AN water rights claims.

“The centerpiece of the settlement involves construction of a pipeline over existing Forest Service roads from the C.C. Cragin Reservoir on the Mogollon Rim to the Verde Valley that will deliver water to the Nation for treatment in a modern surface water drinking plant and distribution to the Nation’s reservation communities,” the YAN stated in a press release.

“We really want to talk with him about our water settlement agreement and have him support it as it continues to move through [Congress],” Fisher said of Crane. “But we spoke with him briefly about wanting his support. His office alreadyreached out to us, and we answered a bunch of their questions, but we hope to sit down and talk more … He seemed supportive … seems to be understanding of the need.”

Fisher stressed that it is important to the Town of Camp Verde that the matter moves forward in order to secure the town’s water for future infrastructure projects.

One of the petitions that circulated during the event called on the Camp Verde Town Council to delay any decisions on city ordinances until after the election.