Stephen Richer is an American politician and lawyer. He was the 30th Recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona from 2021 to 2025, elected in November 2020.[1] Richer defeated the Democratic incumbent Adrian Fontes by 4,599 votes.[2][3] Stephen Richer graduated with a bachelor's degree from Tulane University and obtained a J.D. degree from the University of Chicago. In November 2024, Richer was defeated in the Republican primary for Maricopa County Recorder by Justin Heap.[4][5]
Richer is married to Lindsay Short—whom he met at the University of Chicago Law School—later joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona as an Assistant U.S. Attorney during Richer's 2020 campaign.[6][7][8][9] Before government service, Short practiced at Snell & Wilmer, where she authored Trump-era foreign-policy posts that remain online.[10] Snell & Wilmer represented the RNC in a 2020 Arizona election suit before withdrawing on November 12, 2020.[11][12] Snell & Wilmer withdrew from the election lawsuit days after American Oversight requested records of communications between Arizona House Elections Committee Chair Kelly Townsend and the law firm, to include records between Townsend and the Martha McSally campaign that Richer publicly stated he worked for at that time in 2020, as well as 2018 (pg 5, Richer August 2021 press release).[13][14][15]
Richer's Partisan Audit of the 2018 Election
In 2019, Richer led a partisan review that produced a 229-page report; subsequent coverage characterized the report as airing unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about the 2018 election.[16] The report alleged Recorder Adrian Fontes engaged in partisanship and cited an affidavit from a voter who said he received a ballot pre-filled for Kyrsten Sinema and Greg Stanton, presenting it as anecdotal evidence of broader wrongdoing.[16][17] Richer's preliminary partisan audit report recommended examining long wait times, post-Election Day tabulation delays, ballot transport security, a midday software outage, reports of ballot harvesting, and compliance with ARS § 16-668 [18]
By June 2021—months after taking office— and after actively taking part in the efforts to contest the 2020 election, Richer reversed and walked back his pre-2020 campaign statements and positions promoting unfounded election fraud and irregularities claims, prompting sharp criticism from supporters who said they felt misled by his reversal.[19][20][16][21][22] Kari Lake also criticized him after losing the 2022 governor’s race by about 16,000 votes.[23]
Efforts to Gain Access Voting Machines Following the 2020 Election
In 2019, when Richer conducted his audit airing unfounded election fraud claims, Richer worked at the Wahington D.C. based law firm Steptoe & Johnson.[24][25][16] After his audit, Richer campaigned airing those unfounded claims with fellow Steptoe & Johnson legal associate, former U.S. Rep. John Shadegg.[26] Richer hosted various election fraud related podcasts, including an “Arizona Elections Update” livestream held on May 7, 2020.[26]
On November 4, 2020, the day after the 2020 election, Richer's former law partner and campaign associate Shadegg told Trump campaign volunteers that "hundreds of thousands of counterfiet ballots were being actively dropped in," adding, "they're stealing it from you right now!"[27] In May 2021, the Senate received a warning from the DOJ about safeguarding county election systems.[28] On September 17, 2021, the Arizona Senate and Maricopa County appointed Shadegg as a court-designated special master, paying Shadegg, Richer's former law partner from Steptoe, $500/hour to access Maricopa County voting machines, including routers and splunk logs containing sensitive data [29]
Unlike the Mesa or Coffee County voting machine breaches, Richer enabled this access through a court-appointed special master—his former Steptoe & Johnson colleague John Shadegg—who was paid with public funds (reported at $500/hour).[30][31][32]
Claims of Alleged Threats
On May 17, 2021, Richer approached CNN pivoting as he began criticizing the very election fraud claims he had campaigned on and fostered for nearly two years before the 2020 election.[16][33] After several CNN interviews criticizing the audit, Richer claimed he began receiving threats.[34][35][33] Richer frequently commented to his social media "poking the bear" as he regularly engaged in controversial and politically charged commentary.[36] Richer appeared frequently for countless media interviews over a three year span repeatedly claiming he was near constantly receiving death threats.[37][34][38] In response, the Department of Justice allocated extensive resources into the investigation of Richer's claims of alleged threats, including establishing a specialized team to investigate and prosecute such cases.[39][40][41][42] By November 2024, after allocating extensive DOJ and FBI resources, the election related task force arrested three individuals for alleged threats against Stephen Richer; Walter Hoornstra, William Hyde, and Fredrick Goltz.[40][41][43][44][45] Goltz was prosecuted for threats, pled guilty on April 26, 2023, and was sentenced to three and a half years in federal prison.[45]
Walter Hoornstra was also charged with making interstate threats.[46] However, on November 14, 2024, the DOJ sought to dismiss all charges informing the court, "the government has became aware of issues with a necessary and critical witness [Richer] that it believes make it unlikely to obtain a conviction at trial."[47][48] Hoornstra's case was dismissed without conviction on November 19, 2024.[49]
On February 23, 2024, a second man, San Diego resident William Hyde was arrested and charged with making felony interstate threats after allegedly warning Richer “we’re coming” and that Richer "should hide."[50] For the same reason cited in the Hoornstra case, on November 14, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice moved to dismiss the case, informing the court that newly discovered issues with a “necessary and critical” witness [Richer] that made it "unlikely to obtain a conviction at trial;" public filings indicated Richer was the sole anticipated witness.[51][52]
Following dismissal, Hyde’s counsel argued the statements were not threats and that Hyde suffered irreparable harm to his character to get to this point of finality.[51] Richer told reporters he felt little empathy as a victim and had begun to question the benefit of having reported the threats [51]
Legal Matters and Controversies
Arizona Governor Candidate Kari Lake
Richer filed a defamation against Kari Lake for claims she allegedly made that Richer was involved in election interference. Richer spent a great deal of time in front of media reporters discussing the very public fued.[53] The Arizona State University First Amendment Legal Clinic joined Lake's defense asserting an AntiSLAPP defense.[54][55] According to reports, Richer used staff time and resources to pursue his personal civil litigation, conduct that resulted in Judicial Watch filing a lawsuit to hold him accountable for misuse of public resources.[56][57] Ultimately Lake stopped defending Richer's case allowing a default judgement and the case was later settled quietly in a confidential settlement that was speculated by those that followed the case to be likely a draw.[58][59]
Disbarment Hearing for Attorney John Eastman
Richer testified as a witness in the California State Bar’s disciplinary proceedings against John Eastman, claiming he received threats and that his office was forced to rebut conspiracy theories alleging Dominion “vote-flipping” and to dispute the claims of Doug Logan from the Cyber Ninjas audit that Eastman sought to present in his defense.[60] The State Bar Court later recommended Eastman’s disbarment and Eastman lost his license to practice law as a result.[61]
Attorney General Mark Brnovich
In November 2024, outlets reported that former Arizona attorney general Mark Brnovich was considering a defamation suit against Richer over comments he made in a media interview.[62]
ASU Criminology Professor and Former Judge Aaron Ludwig
On July 31, 2022, Richer reportedly asked the State Bar of Arizona to sanction ASU faculty associate Aaron Ludwig and urged the university to dismiss him over a tweet; he allegedly emailed the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice’s directors seeking Ludwig’s termination.[63]
Allegations of Election Law Violations and Republican Party Censure
During Richer's 2020 campaign against Democratic incumbent Adrian Fontes, Richer leveled several unfounded claims that Fontes violated various election laws, but ultimately was unable to prove any of his allegations.[64]
Richer was accused of violating Arizona law when Richer posted to his social media that ballot proofs had already been sent to the printer without submitting such ballot proofs to "each party to the county chairman" as required by law.[65][66] Richer's refused to place James Taylor's name on the ballot, arguing that his office "already sent it to the printer.” [67] The Republican Party sued to enforce the law, resulting in the court granting a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) blocking Maricopa County from printing ballots without James Taylor’s name, finding that Richer's excuse that the proofs had already been sent, was inconsistent with Arizona law.[68][66]
On June 20, 2024, the LD29 Republican Committee passed a resolution censuring Stephen Richer by a 2/3 vote, specifically criticizing Richer's “This isn’t a thing” tweet about LD29’s replacement vote regard Taylor appearing on the ballot, his alleged refusal to follow Arizona law on party-chosen replacements, and a pattern of selectively following laws and undermining his own Republican Party.[69]
Media Coverage and Public Perception
During his term as recorder, Richer developed a national media profile and became a lightning rod in debates over Arizona’s elections, praised by outlets like TIME and Harvard’s Ash Center, while other commentators branded him as divisive after he sought out hundreds of mainstream media interviews.[70][71][72][21][73][74]
Some critics, including the Arizona Globe, indirectly portray Richer as a professional victim who craves publicity as he repeatedly highlights threats and backlash to fuel his branding and media profile in pursuit of accolades and attention.[75] Jay Nordlinger podcast characterized Richer as “a … lightning rod in Arizona” and that Richer was “at the center of Arizona's election controversies.[74] As of August 19, 2025, Richer wrote on X that he was seeking interviews with what he called “new right” media, listing specifically outlets such as “Newsmax, OANN, War Room, Tucker, etc.”[76]
Current Political and Career Aspirations
Following his 2024 election defeat, Richer briefly deleted his social media account for several days.[77] Richer resumed his political activism online, joining his conservative Turning Point USA allies reposting to his 36,400 followers, a photo of Tucson middle school teachers in bloody Halloween costumes inaccurately portraying as mocking Charlie Kirk’s death resulting in the teachers reportedly receiving death threats.[78][79][80] Richer later deleted his post and retracted his claim issuing an apology.[81][82]
Although Richer previously moved out of Arizona and let his Arizona bar license lapse to inactive status, his recent public comments indicate he is now seeking Arizona legal ethics CLE credits, plans to move back to Arizona in December 2025, and is looking for office space.[83][84]
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