Arizona GOP leaders' quarrel over election results could impact party's future

The Arizona Republican Party continues to deny President-elect Joe Biden's win in the Grand Canyon state, even after its 11 electors for Biden cast their ballots and sent the certification to Congress on Dec. 14.As a result, a divide is widening between the activist, right-leaning faction and the establishment moderates in the state's GOP amid baseless accusations of election fraud by some Republicans and Trump allies -- accusations which have been dismissed by judges in several court cases.The clash within the Republican Party isn't likely to dissipate anytime soon, and those contrarian stances, like challenging Biden's win, within the party may even be a political strategy to energize some groups of voters, experts say."This election is far from over," Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward said in a video posted on Twitter Tuesday morning . Any claims brought by the party or the president's allies have been thrown out in court, and the party is now pursuing audits through subpoena power enacted by members of the Republican-led state legislature.Ward won her post in 2019 after two statewide losses in Republican primaries for U.S. Senate seats against late Sen. John McCain and former Sen. Martha McSally.She's been challenging the election in unsuccessful courtroom battles and criticizing fellow Republican, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who has defended the state's election integrity in the face of pushback from Ward and President Donald Trump.Despite Monday's Electoral College votes for Biden, Ward, who is a Trump elector, and other GOP electors in Arizona still met to cast unofficial ballots for the president-- and 27 members of the Arizona state legislature penned a joint resolution calling on Congress to accept those ballots, rather than the ones signed and certified by Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.James Strickland, an associate professor of political science at Arizona State University, said that Republicans' insistence on challenging election results might be a political strategy for future elections."There seem to be many people within the party who genuinely have questions about election processes, but filing lawsuits also may be an electoral strategy for 2022 and 2024," Strickland said about election fraud claims.