Fresh off her arrest last week, Tina Peters, the Republican clerk of Mesa County, Colorado who pushed former President Trump’s Big Lie, on Monday announced her bid to become the state’s top elections official.
Peters announced her campaign during an appearance on former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. Peters told Bannon that she is running to “restore trust” and “put an end to government overreach in our election process.”
“Colorado deserves a secretary of state who will stand up to the Biden administration. … And, Steve, that’s why today I’m announcing that I’m running for Colorado secretary of state,” Peters said.
But as of Monday morning, Peters had not filed paperwork for her secretary of state candidacy, according to the Denver Post. Peters previously announced her intent to run for re-election as Mesa County clerk and recorder.
The announcement by Peters follows her arrest last week after she reportedly resisted a search warrant.
Peters has long been suspected of involvement in a leak of county election machine data. Last year, secretary of state Jena Griswold (D) successfully sued to strip Peters and her deputy from election duties after sensitive digital information from Mesa County’s voting machines was shared online by a prominent QAnon influencer, and in-person at Mike Lindell’s “Cyber Symposium” in Sioux Falls in August.
In October, a Colorado judge barred Peters from overseeing her county’s elections. The judge found that Peters neglected her duties and was “untruthful” when she allowed someone who was not a county employee to copy the hard drives of Dominion Voting Systems machines.
The local district attorney, state prosecutors and the FBI are probing whether criminal charges are warranted in the voting-machine breach.
Peters’ arrest last week was unrelated to the election data leaked from her office, however. Police had a warrant to collect Peters’ iPad after prosecutors said they noticed her filming a hearing Monday in the criminal case against a deputy in her office, Belinda Knisley.
Knisley faces charges for returning to the clerk’s office after being barred from the building last year. She was suspended and on paid leave.
According to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, an arrest warrant for Peters was “to be issued charging her with obstruction of justice.”
