Kris Kobach has endorsed State Representative Steve Montenegro for Arizona Secretary of State. “Being endorsed by perhaps the best Secretary of State in the country is a real honor,” Montenegro stated in a press release Monday.
The support from Kansas’ Secretary of State could be expected given Montenegro’s support of the Kobach-authored SB 1070 while serving in Arizona’s State House of Representatives.
Kobach’s endorsement, however, is not Montenegro’s only connection to some of The Grand Canyon State’s most prominent nativists. Last year, Montenegro endorsed Russell Pearce’s campaign to again seek election to Arizona’s State Senate after losing a 2011 recall election. Pearce, in addition to being a friend and supporter of border vigilante and neo-Nazi JT Ready, worked with Kobach to draft SB 1070 and was the anti-immigrant bill’s staunchest proponent in Arizona’s legislature. Pearce lost his State Senate race in 2012. With his ties arch-nativists like Kobach and Pearce, one hopes Montenegro’s bid for Secretary of State in 2014 suffers the same fate.