6 Good Reasons Not to Elect Elijah Norton for Arizona Treasurer

Elijah Norton, a car insurance scammer, is running for Arizona State Treasurer and wants Arizonans to believe he’s not MAGA. His own words say otherwise. Arizona can’t afford a Treasurer who puts political ideology ahead of responsible tax management.

The Arizona State Treasurer oversees roughly $33 billion in public money. In a general election debate on September 23, the choice came down to one question: Can you trust Elijah Norton?

1. Norton can’t even win over his own party. Democrat Nick Mansour noted in the debate that Republican Treasurer Kimberly Yee has not endorsed Elijah Norton. Former Governor Doug Ducey hasn’t either, and Yee reportedly recruited a primary challenger against him, saying Republicans needed “somebody we can trust.”

According to Mansour, 36 Republican leaders, including three sitting Republican county treasurers, signed a letter saying Norton shouldn’t manage the state’s assets. Norton called the claim “ludicrous,” but he didn’t dispute that Yee and Ducey are withholding their support.

• He badmouthed current Treasurer Republican Kimberly Yee, and then backpedaled. Mansour pointed out that Norton has publicly attacked Yee’s work, calling her a figurehead and her staff political hacks he would fire on day one. On stage, Norton called the idea “ludicrous” and said he plans to hire only a new deputy treasurer.  But he did say it in an interview on the Speak Out radio talk show on May 7. Mansour cited the May 7 interview where Norton said “point-blank” that he would fire all the political appointees. Voters can check the tape.

• He wants to keep politics out of the treasury. Norton says he wants to keep politics out of investments. Yet he told the debate moderator he doesn’t want to invest in companies with what he calls racial hiring quotas. Mansour argued this would screen out hundreds of the Fortune 500 and could terminate the contracts of the companies that manage Arizona’s 529 college savings accounts. That is an ideological test, and it puts returns at risk. Mansour’s position is that changes like this belong with the legislature and the governor, not with the whim of one officeholder.

• Norton’s pitch for safety rests on a scare tactic. Norton repeatedly called Mansour’s endowment plan “crazy” and a “gamble.” But Mansour proposes to move the $11 billion Permanent Land Endowment, which funds education, toward a 70/30 to 80/20 stock-to-bond mix, an allocation he says mirrors what Texas does. He says Arizona has forgone $3.6 billion over 13 years, money that could have gone to schools. Norton’s own defense that “it’s worked well for 60 years” isn’t an argument against leaving billions on the table.

• Then there’s Norton’s business record. When Norton talks about trust, his own company history comes up. Mansour said more than 100 customers of Norton’s companies have sued him, alleging robocalling and deceptive marketing, including selling elderly adults warranties for cars they don’t have. Norton answered that, relative to his company’s five million customers, this is a small percentage. That is an incriminating answer for a man asking to be custodian of the public’s money.

Norton founded RED Auto Protection Inc. in 2011 and later started CarGuard Administration in 2015 and Veritas Global Protection Services in 2019.

• Mansour, by contrast, offers a clear and credible plan. He ran Arizona College for 14 years, managing hundreds of millions of dollars and more than 1,500 employees. More than 100 business leaders and more than 50 Republicans and independents have endorsed him. He wants more transparency, including releasing information on spending in the disastrous $1 billion ESA program that the treasurer’s office has spent over $120,000 fighting to keep from public view. And he wants to put his investment plan to work for Arizona’s schools.

Early voting starts October 7, and the registration deadline is October 5.