ICYMI: Former Gov. Jan Brewer rejects call to “nationalize” elections on KTAR News

In case you missed it, former Arizona Governor and Secretary of State Jan Brewer forcefully pushed back on President Donald Trump’s call to nationalize U.S. elections during a February 4 appearance on KTAR’s Outspoken with Bruce and Gaydos.

Brewer, a Republican who served as both Secretary of State and Governor of Arizona, and currently serves as Chair of RightCount Arizona, said Trump’s proposal is unconstitutional, criticized the recent FBI raid in Fulton County, and expressed unequivocal confidence in Arizona’s election officials and systems.

Below is the transcript of the program exchange.

Feb 4, 2026, Bruce & Gaydos, KTAR

LARRY GAYDOS (19:34): Now let’s talk about elections, let’s talk about voting and what Trump said in this clip right here…

PRESIDENT TRUMP (AUDIO RECORDING): The Republicans should say, ‘we want to take over, we should take over the voting in at least many, 15 places.’ The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.

GAYDOS: OK, I don’t think he’s read the Constitution. It’s one of these things where he sees it as, ‘you know, I really don’t like this thing, I’d like to have a little bit more power, that whole Constitution, that paper, it’s really ticking me off.’ First of all, you can’t do that, Barry. You’re a legal expert. This is the Constitution.

BARRY MARKSON: It’s a constitutional issue and it reminds me of like April of 2020, remember with COVID before the election. Trump was starting to see he was going to have trouble winning reelection. That’s when ‘the election is rigged’ started happening. He started talking about it being stolen, even though there was no evidence of that. He just started setting the groundwork for ‘if I lose, it’s not because I lost, it’s because they stole it from me.’ So now, we’re looking at this and suddenly we’re taking the election records out of Fulton County Georgia. The FBI is taking all the records. Now he’s saying, ‘we need to nationalize the election’ because he’s seeing what’s happening in the midterms and it’s not going to be pretty for him and the Republican Party.

GAYDOS: Governor Brewer, you know, you were once the Secretary of State before you became the Governor. I know how you feel about elections, they’re sacred. When you hear Trump say we need to federalize elections, what comes through your mind?

GOV. BREWER: Well, first of all, it’s not constitutional. He doesn’t have the right. Obviously, I do not think he will succeed. Going into Georgia really upsets me – taking the 2020 ballots – because now we lost chain of custody, ballot confidentiality and the safety of it all, and now that’s blown. I think the president is out of line on that. It belongs with the states. I have total, full confidence, totally, in our election officers and our election system, particularly here in Arizona. Bottom line is, we have ID at the polls, we have paper ballots, we have the best equipment. We’ve got people that understand elections, they’re operated and ran impeccably. It’s just not right. Somebody lost an election, but it’s not because of the election workers.

To listen to Gov. Brewer’s full interview on KTAR, click here.