At a restaurant on Tucson’s north side on Thursday evening, U.S. Senate candidate and Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb told potential voters “we need more cowboy hats and belt buckles in D.C.”
A cowboy hat on his head and a large belt buckle at his waist — along with his sheriff badge and a gun on his hip — Lamb addressed a crowd of about 75 at Union Public House in St. Philip’s Plaza, making his pitch for why he thinks he can win the general election in November.
First he faces Republican Kari Lake, who has been consistently leading in the polls. Recent polling shows that lead narrowing. Also running in the Republican primary is Elizabeth Jean Reye.
The winner of the Republican primary election, on July 30, will face Democrat Ruben Gallego, who currently represents Phoenix’s District 3 in Congress. The winner will replace Independent incumbent Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who is not seeking re-election.
Lamb has focused much of his campaign on the border, which features heavily in his campaign ads, and he mentioned it numerous times on Thursday night. He also stressed his bona fides of having had his “boots on the ground.”
“One of the simplest ways of fixing our border is enforcing the law,” Lamb said.
He said tens of thousands of Chinese nationals have crossed the border so far this year — “almost every one of them military-age men.” The number of Chinese immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has increased, although border authorities don’t share age or gender data about them. Several Republican lawmakers and pundits have started using comments about “military-age men” recently, according to PolitiFact.
The border was on the mind of the attendees, too. Robin Stoddard, a veteran of multiple U.S. wars, said that he used to be a “left-winger,” but, “I wised up and became more conservative.” Stoddard was hoping to meet Lamb, and said the main issues he was concerned about were the border and inflation.
Gus and Glenda Myers had the same thoughts. The husband and wife were drinking beer and enjoying an appetizer at a table near the stage. Gus thought Lamb would be the best candidate to “close the border and stop the flow of drugs into the country.” Glenda said the urgency for closing the border comes from the claim that 85,000 migrant children had gone missing, “and were possibly trafficked,” she said.
The frequent claim is based on the fact that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, responsible for caring for unaccompanied minors until they can be placed with a sponsor, has been unable to follow up with those sponsors, many of whom are the children’s family members. That does not mean they were trafficked or — another common claim — sold into slavery.
In a short sit-down interview with Arizona Luminaria after the event, Lamb said “way more” than 10,000 recent border crossers have been sold into slavery in the United States. He also said “between 85,000 and 100,000 children have been trafficked.”
Asked for evidence to back up the claim, he countered, “Did you watch Dr. Phil?” Earlier this year Dr. Phil, the popular television personality, said “it is absolute” that children are being trafficked into prostitution rings and sweatshops in the United States.
No evidence has been presented to back up the claim, but Lamb said, “We don’t come up with these things like fanciful ideas. The reason we know these things is because we’re in the business of dealing with the transnational criminal organizations that are existing in this country.”
Trump travesty
During his public speech, Lamb referenced the verdict in the Trump hush-money trial, which came hours before the event. Lamb has long been a Trump supporter and has spoken at some of his rallies.
“How many of you feel good about what happened today?” Lamb asked the crowd, which responded with a chorus of boos and whistles. One heckler celebrated Trump’s guilty verdict, and someone repeatedly told the person to shut up. Tension rose momentarily before Lamb talked over the bickering.
“What we saw was a travesty to the rule of law, the political weaponization of the law,” Lamb said about the verdict.
“If they go after him, what’s going to stop them from going after you?” Lamb said. “That’s why the rule of law is so important.”
After his speech, Lamb shook hands, chatted, and posed for photos with members of the crowd. Martina Romero, wearing a Trump 2024 cowboy hat, was waiting with her friend Candace Davis to take a photo with Lamb. Romero said she is the organizer of a MAGA Facebook group and, “given what happened today, I don’t even know what to call it, a travesty, a sham of a verdict,” she expects local Trump supporters to be energized.
Romero said, referencing Lake, said “We don’t need a pretty face, we need someone who can get it done.”
By “it” she meant “shutting down the border.”
Border shutdown redux
Lamb had plans for shutting down the border. In the interview, he called for reinstating the Migrant Protection Protocols, more popularly known as Remain in Mexico. The Trump-era policy led to about 75,000 asylum seekers waiting out their claims in northern México. For numerical context, in April of 2024, Border Patrol encountered about 250,000 people who crossed the U.S.-México border, according to statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
A 2022 report from Human Rights First, a nonpartisan human rights organization, counted at least 1,544 cases of kidnappings, murder, torture, rape and other violent attacks against people returned to Mexico under the policy. The Biden administration terminated the program in October 2021.
“What is humane, if you really care about humans, is you stop this because humans are being taken advantage of,” Lamb said of people crossing the border. “They’re being enslaved, they’re being extorted, they’re being charged exorbitant amounts of money. Children are being used as pawns.”
As for the the Secure the Border Act, which the Arizona legislature will send to the voters in November as a ballot referendum that would give local police the authority to arrest people for crossing the border without authorization — historically and legally the purview of the federal government — Lamb said he supports it, but, “we’ve had some concerns and trepidations.”
“Ultimately, we’ll house them in our jails,” Lamb said of potentially arrested migrants. And jailing more people would cost money, he explained. He also wondered “Are we going to have the probable cause to be able to arrest people?”
Who you gonna call?
“I’m no politician,” Lamb said to the crowd as he closed his speech. In addition to his law-enforcement career, Lamb previously was a small-business owner and hosted the TV show “Live PD: Wanted.” He took office as sheriff in 2017 and was re-elected in 2020.
“I’m a patriot who loves God, family, freedom, and the constitution, and that’s why I do what I do.”
Lamb’s pitch to voters repeatedly invoked the role of a sheriff.
“Let me just tell you, we’ve got real problems in this country,” he said.
“If your house was on fire, which ours is, or if there were thieves in your house, which we have, or if there was a domestic situation where mom and dad can’t get along, which we have — we’re very divided as a country — who do you call?” he said. “Do you call a politician? No, you call your local sheriff. Why? Because we’re trained and experienced in restoring balance and order to the chaos.”
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