phoenix — A former Republican lawmaker who questioned the integrity of Arizona elections and served as a leader of the conservative group Turning Point Action is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday for using nominating petitions containing forged signatures in an attempt to qualify for the 2024 primary.
Austin Smith, 30 years old plead guilty In mid-November, he was charged with attempted fraudulent schemes and practices, and illegally signing election petitions. He admitted trying to use petitions with forged signatures that he knew were false and forging a dead woman’s signature on the nominating petition.
Smith had represented the Arizona House district in suburban Phoenix for one term before Dropping his re-election bid In April 2024 when questions were raised about signatures on his nomination petitions.
He resigned at that time as a leader in Turning Point Action, the campaign arm of Turning Point USA, which had become a major force in Republican politics in Arizona. Charlie Kirk, Turning Point co-founder, and Tyler Boyer, another senior leader in the group, reached out to Smith in 2019 about launching Turning Point Action, his bio said.
The plea agreement calls for him to be sentenced to probation, pay a $5,000 fine, and be banned from running for public office for five years.
He previously portrayed the allegations against him as a coordinated attack by Democrats that was “ridiculous on its face,” but said he would withdraw from his re-election campaign to avoid stacking up legal bills. In campaign literature, Smith expressed support for the Republican-backed audit of the 2020 presidential election results in Maricopa County that ultimately concluded without providing evidence to support President Donald Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen. Smith also sponsored an unsuccessful proposal to ban mail-in voting and complained in a campaign ad about political elites violating election laws.