Draft:Shelby Busch

Shelby Busch

Shelby Busch is a political activist who has served as Republican Chairwoman for a Legislative District in Arizona. Busch ran for election to the Arizona House of Representatives to represent District 19, and lost the Republican primary on August 4, 2020. Busch is currently serving as 2nd Vice Chair of the Arizona Republican Party.

Since 2018, Busch has continuously undermined faith and confidence in Arizona elections while presenting controversial subject matter experts. Busch has taken repeated aim at nonprofits who sought to register voters without evidence launching unfounded accusations.

Arizona Audit Activism
Busch and her husband Steve Robinson led the effort to secure the Arizona Audit; “A new revolution is upon us,” Steve told a crowd in Phoenix, not long after law enforcement had quelled the insurrection in Washington. “Let’s get five tyrants out of office,” Shelby said at the microphone, referring to the Maricopa County supervisors, whom they hoped to recall from their positions. Busch and her PAC, "We the People AZ Alliance," are funded by Patrick Byrne and Mike Lindell. In May 2021, Busch's group held a “revival,” at a veterans’ memorial near the State Capitol framing the audit in biblical terms. “Put your faith in God, like we have with this audit,” said a woman named Patty, wearing a “Latinas for Trump” shirt. “The election was stolen, and you don’t take from God. I will die fighting. We all need to be there. It is a war.” Busch said that day, “That heaviness you feel every day when you wake up?…That’s spiritual warfare.” Robinson referred to Trump as “our rightful president.” Busch and her husband Steve Robinson, told media outlets they have distrusted elections for years, even when Trump won in 2016, which prompted them to become major supporters of the audit in Maricopa participating in rallies outside the Arizona Capitol in December 2020 and on January 6, 2021.

Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Recall
Busch and her husband, Steve Robinson, along with associate of General Mike Flynn, Lyle Rapacki, focused their efforts on recalling the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. In late 2021, Busch forced the recall of Maricopa County Board of Supervisor Steve Chucri by dropping an embarrassing secretly recorded audio to the media in which he claimed dead people voted and based his colleagues.

QAnon Affiliation
Busch has long held ties with very public QAnon figures such as Liz Harris who rented a condo to the QAnon board owner Ron Watkins and platformed conspiracy theorists at a legislative hearing that ultimately led to her expulsion from the legislature for lying to the ethics committee. Busch has appeared on multiple QAnon affiliated shows as with leaders of the QAnon movement.

Public Record Request Harassment
Busch led efforts to inundate the elections offices with public records requests as she focused election denial tactics on reportedly uncovering election fraud.

Post 2020 Election Lawsuits
Busch and her associate Josh Barnett, who she served as his campaign manager, filed lawsuits seeking to overturn the 2020 election.

2024 Republican Party Siege
After successfully ousting Chucri in 2021, Busch and her associates purged Jeff DeWit from the Republican Party chair when she leaked the secret audio recording to the press in which he tried to bribe Kari Lake to leave the Senate race.