That paragon of truth, Nico Delgado, just landed an internship with another of Arizona’s most fact-averse figures: election denier and freshman U.S. Rep. Abe Hamadeh. According to a Delgado post on X, which Hamadeh retweeted, Delgado started working for Hamadeh on Monday.
Delgado said in a phone interview that he expects to assist constituents and do administrative tasks in Hamadeh’s district office until the summer, when Hamadeh wants to bring him to Washington, D.C., to intern on Capitol Hill. He also said he lives in Hamadeh's district and volunteered on his campaign.
Hamadeh’s press contacts, Alexis Wilkins and Lori Hunnicutt, did not respond to New Times’ emails to comment.
In October, Phoenix New Times reported on the outrageously inflammatory and false campaign signs that the high school senior paid for through his political action committee NicoPAC, which has spent nearly $10,000 since its creation in June 2024. Most of that money was spent on digital advertising and campaign signs. Delgado was 17 at the time.
“Nobody’s used to this boldness,” Delgado told New Times in October.
The signs were grossly incendiary, and also not true. They took aim at state Sen. Christine Marsh, claiming she voted against sending what became Proposition 313 to voters. The measure, which voters overwhelmingly approved, mandates a life sentence for anyone convicted of child sex trafficking.
Not only does Christine Marsh have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein, she voted in favor of the law Nico Delgado's signs accused her of rejecting.
Zach Buchanan
Some Democrats voted against referring the measure to the ballot while warning it could require life sentences for child sex trafficking victims who were coerced into recruiting others. (Indeed, the current legislature is now trying to fix that issue.) But Marsh wasn’t one of them.
Marsh and other Democrats objected to the signs, though Marsh wound up losing her seat to Republican Carine Werner. Delgado claims credit for that, and for flipping other seats in the state legislature, although it’s hard to know if his signs and PAC played a decisive role in those results.
Even before his signs popped up along Valley roadways, Delgado was something of a MAGA mascot. He’s been frequently spotted in a tan suit and red tie, taking pictures with the Arizona Republican Party’s notable alt-right figures like Hamadeh and Kari Lake.
Delgado also plans to ramp up his PAC’s efforts in the 2026 election.
“We’ve got a couple of people that are committing to kind of help us raise a pretty solid chunk of money compared to what we had last time,” Delgado said. “We’re trying to cover all bases but expand to those statewide races we didn’t have this year.”
Hamadeh’s first weeks as a congressman have been marked by his deafening silence about Donald Trump’s executive order attempting to ban birthright citizenship. Hamadeh wouldn’t be a citizen without birthright citizenship — his parents were undocumented at the time of his birth.
Hamadeh was one of several extremist Republicans running to fill former Rep. Debbie Lesko’s Northwest Valley seat in a July primary. Hamadeh got Trump’s endorsement and emerged on primary day at the top of the pack over Blake Masters and local elected officials, ensuring an easy victory in the general election and making him one of the youngest members of Congress at 33.
