After Trump Pardon, Joe Arpaio 'Strongly Considering' 2020 Sheriff's Run
Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he was “strongly considering” running for his former position as sheriff in 2020.
Arpaio told ABC News on Friday, “I’m very strongly thinking about it, very strongly considering it.”
“I’ll decide next month, and I always have a flare for these sorts of things,” he said.
The former sheriff received a pardon from President Donald Trump last year after being convicted for criminal contempt of a federal court order.
Arpaio told ABC News that he had met with Trump months ago but did not say what they discussed.
The White House also didn’t comment on the meeting, ABC News reported.
Additionally, Arpaio told the news agency that he would continue to campaign on raising the validity of former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
“I’m not a politician who worries about talking about things because they may lose a few votes,” the ex-sheriff said to ABC News.
“I brought it up in my last election and I’m not going to stop. Why would I stop?”
Arpaio also told ABC News that he believes that running the same time Trump runs for office would give the ex-sheriff a significant boost.
“One deciding factor thing would be is Trump and I will be running again together, just like 2016 but now in 2020,” he said.
Several billboards have been springing up around the Phoenix area advocating for the 87-year-old to run for office.
While Arpaio has denied creating the billboards, he has used them as fodder to tease a run on social media.
Earlier this week, Arpaio posted a picture of a news article on Instagram with the headline “Sheriff Joe is Back.”
In the caption of the post, Arpaio simply wrote, “Stay Tuned!”
However, Arpaio’s run for sheriff could be more challenging than in previous years.
The former sheriff ran for a Senate seat vacated by Jeff Flake last year, but ended up third in the same county he served as sheriff.
Arpaio served as sheriff in Maricopa County from 1993 to 2016 and became well-known for his hard-line punishments on prisoners.
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