Welcome to what is the 956th profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Jay Lawrence, a former member of the Arizona House of Representatives who was first elected to represent District 23 in 2014, and who had a voting record aligning himself with some of the more deranged extremists in the party. Let’s just take a quick peek at some of his voting record to illustrate our point…
- February 18th, 2015: Lawrence votes for HB 2173, to try and make gold and silver acceptable as legal tender in Arizona.
- March 11th, 2015: Jay Lawrence votes for HB 2643, another attempt by the Arizona GOP to nullify the Affordable Care Act.
- March 29th, 2017: Lawrence co-sponsors SB 1367, which would require that abortion providers try and resuscitate a “viable fetus” after an abortion, even though by definition, any fetus that is legally permitted to be aborted is already not viable.
- February 25th, 2019: Jay Lawrence votes for HCR 2009, which would declare pornography a public health crisis.
- February 6th, 2020: Lawrence votes for HB 2084, to authorize the construction of a border wall without any construction permits. By anyone.
- March 3rd, 2020: With the threat of Covid-19 looming, Jay Lawrence makes sure to address the probl- just kidding, he co-sponsors HB 2706, to ban transgender girls from participating in sports in public schools.
The first is a bit of a head scratcher, because it involves the 2nd Amendment. While most Republicans have no desire to limit gun ownership to anyone, anywhere, Jay Lawrence is an exception in that he said the quiet part out loud. You see, as he spoke at a gun forum in 2019, Lawrence explained how, in his mind, that “black and brown communities” needed to have their firearms taken away because they were “better armed than the police who are supposed to be controlling them”:
”Black and brown communities, if you look at the weapons that they have, they are not licensed. They are better armed than the police officers who are supposed to be controlling them. They have firearms galore. Black and brown communities, black communities in particular, have gangs. And the gangs have to be stopped.”
Just. Wow. That’s… pretty racist, even by Arizona Republican standards. But that wasn’t Lawrence’s only moment of being blatantly intolerant. In January of 2020, he railed against the idea of having refugees resettle in Arizona, claiming that “they take from us”.
”I don’t want refugees settled here. They will take from us, they will make for lower wages for us, they will make for more expense in our schools, more expense in our emergency rooms. Call me a bigot, whatever you want, I just think it’s best for the state of Arizona.”
Why, we certainly will call you a bigot, Mr. Lawrence, as well as an ignorant bag of s***.
In September of 2020, Lawrence got the attention of many in the state legislature when on Twitter, he praised “Qanon Patriots who support President Trump”. When he received criticism for that post, he then actually started slagging Qanon supporters, claiming upon finding out what the movement actually was, that they were “nuts”. Which begs the question of why he praised someone for their patriotism without knowing anything about them. Anyway, that exchange happened only a few weeks after Lawrence finished third in the GOP Primary, ensuring he would not be getting a fourth term in office for his seat in the Arizona state legislature. We would like to wish him our finest “GOOD RIDDANCE” salutes at this time.
One Year Ago, February 1st, 2020: Johnnie Caldwell (GA)
Two Years Ago, February 1st, 2019: Todd Thomsen (OK)
Three Years Ago, February 1st, 2018: Graham Hunt (WA)
Four Years Ago, February 1st, 2017: Scott Schneider (IN)
Five Years Ago. February 1st, 2016: Jack Kingston (GA)
Six Years Ago, February 1st, 2015: Sandy Adams (FL)
