Arizona Rep Blows Whistle on Election Scandal That Could Jeopardize 2026 Midterms

Arizona faced a digital invasion that should have sent shockwaves through the halls of every election office statewide just two months ago, but it didn’t. In July 2025, pro-Iranian hackers breached the Arizona Secretary of State’s (SOS) Candidate Portal, defacing the website with anti-American propaganda and probing for deeper access to voter systems. This wasn’t just a glitch, according to Arizona Representative John Gillette (R-LD30); it’s a national security crisis, amplified by Democratic officials’ alleged stonewalling of federal oversight. 

Gillette’s whistleblowing “Project Sentinel” has begun to peel back the layers of alleged corruption, fraud, and incompetence that could jeopardize the 2026 midterms. If this sounds familiar, that’s because this playbook of denial and deflection has been well underway since at least 2020.

The attack unfolded in early July, when hackers—attributed to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps–with “moderate confidence” by state officials—hijacked the portal used for candidate filings and election previews. 

They swapped candidate photos with images of Iranian leaders, plastered Persian-text rants against Trump and U.S. foreign policy, and attempted SQL server intrusions. The site went offline for about 24 hours on July 17. But the real scandal came when Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) reportedly blocked federal engagement, despite mandates requiring coordination with DHS and CISA. 

Rep. Gillette, a retired U.S. Army Command Sergeant Major, has found himself at odds with what he describes as the “cartel-like” rule under Gov. Katie Hobbs, Fontes, and AG Kris Mayes. On September 3, Gillette launched Project Sentinel via his Substack, Black Canyon Strategies, promising raw intel drops on election failures, Medicaid fraud, and shady deals. 

He explained via Substack, “Governor Katie Hobbs and her Democrat allies in the legislature have vetoed bill after bill designed to protect taxpayer dollars, secure our elections, and cut out the criminal exploitation of welfare and benefits. SoS Fontes, and his installed leftist attacking our elections and attempting to build in their forever cheat, and AG Mayes, failure to investigate her running mates… all for power or policy. They chose political games over public trust.”

He wrote in a post to X, 

“Launching Project Sentinel TODAY Arizona has been run like a cartel! Corruption buried under bureaucracy, media silence, and political doublespeak. That ends now. The intel will expose: Election system failures Welfare & Medicaid fraud Shady deals , influence, fraud, waste and abuse. Backroom politics the media won’t touch. Intel drops the Dems tried to stop.”

The inaugural release dissected the “AZ cyber fiasco,” complete with oversight documents, screenshots of the defacement, and criminal referrals to DHS and DOJ. Gillette’s packet paints a grim picture: Legacy systems running outdated code, incompatible with NIST standards post-2018, left the portal vulnerable to multi-vector attacks. 

Hackers exhibited “advanced persistent threat” behaviors, including potential “sleeper code” insertions—Easter eggs waiting to detonate in future elections. While no voter data was confirmed stolen, the intruders returned after initial mitigation, probing weaknesses like weak encryption and interoperability failures. 

The legal violations have stacked high, though, according to Gillette. He cites 44 U.S.C. § 3554(b) for unreported incidents, Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funding conditions under 11 C.F.R. §§ 9007 and 9010, and 52 U.S.C. § 21081 banning non-compliant voting tech. His July 16 referral demands a DHS/CISA audit, a DOJ criminal probe into neglect or misuse of funds, and a review of Arizona’s HAVA eligibility. 

Fontes, meanwhile, downplayed the breach as “contained” and requested millions more in funding. He claimed in an August 12^th press release, “Our defenses held this time—but we can’t rely on outdated systems to protect us forever,” Fontes said. “We need to modernize our infrastructure now, not after something goes wrong.”

The alleged inaction isn’t isolated to the state government either. Arizona’s Senators, Democrats Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, addressed the issue by crafting a narrative against the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security on August 22 about reduced election aid. 

Yet Gillette alleges that there was no response from them, framing it as political interference. And Gov. Hobbs? She’s mired in separate scandals: $339 million of allegedly “disappeared” funds and alleged bribery probes tied to $400K donations for foster care contracts, and she seems to have little time to address Gillette’s concerns.

Representative Gillette has announced plans for additional ‘drops’ moving forward with “AHCCCS fraud, abuse, and corruption,” teed up with a promise of “Documents. Synopses. Hard proof. No spin, no cover-ups—just raw exposure.”