Glassman touts endorsement in AG race that Yuma sheriff denies giving

Once again, perennial political has-been Rodney Glassman has talked a big game about his campaign to be Arizona’s attorney general. And once again, the Republican’s claims have turned out to be less than meets the eye.

Glassman, who is running against Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen in the GOP primary, recently bragged on X about the "support" he's received from "over 30 police associations across Arizona." Among those endorsers is Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot, a fellow Republican.

Unfortunately for Glassman, Wilmot does not appear to have actually endorsed Glassman, at least not in the way that Glassman apparently thinks. Tania Pavlak, a spokesperson for the Yuma County Sheriff's Office, said Wilmot has not endorsed Glassman as his preferred attorney general candidate.

"The Sheriff does not endorse any candidate and has only done so during his tenure as a Sheriff for individuals he has known for years and it is in written form," she wrote in an email. "All other individuals who run for political office, he supports them in running for office as long as they are qualified to perform such duty as that office requires."

That’s a pretty broad — and somewhat perplexing — definition of "support." Asked again if Wilmot had endorsed Glassman in the attorney general race, Pavlak replied in the negative. "There is no endorsement of any candidate,” she wrote.

If so, maybe someone should alert Glassman, who recently repeated his claim to having Wilmot's stamp of approval on a Rumble podcast with host George Nemeh.

Glassman might be forgiven his confusion. Wilmot appeared in a Glassman campaign video, posted two months ago, in which Glassman and Wilmot make a visit to the border wall and speak with a young girl they claim was smuggled into the U.S. by the cartels. A version of the same video appeared on Glassman’s LinkedIn page. And in May, Glassman posted a photo of himself shaking Wilmot's hand alongside Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan, who has actually endorsed Glassman.

"Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot has been on the frontlines protecting Arizona’s families from the invasion at our southern border,” Glassman wrote in the post. “He wants an Attorney General who will have his back, every time. I'm proud to earn his endorsement."

But according to Wilmot's office, a handshake does not an endorsement make. Will Sheriff Wilmot one day make Glassman an honest man? Inquiring minds want to know.

Glassman and the truth

This isn’t the first time Glassman has been caught exaggerating the truth. Earlier this year, Phoenix New Times caught Glassman fudging his fundraising prowess in a January press release, claiming he "broke the record for most funds raised in an off-year Attorney General's race" by hauling in $1.3 million. Glassman, heir to a California fertilizer fortune, neglected to explain that he had loaned his own campaign $1 million of that total.

Glassman's campaign donations have also come under scrutiny after he appeared to accept individual contributions above the legal limit.

Glassman’s run for attorney general is at least his third bid for major political office since 2010. Back then, he was a protégé of late progressive Congressman Raul Grijalva and was taking on longtime Republican Sen. John McCain. Glassman later vied unsuccessfully to be chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party.

Now, he styles himself as a fanboy of President Trump, going so far as to recreate a 2024 Trump campaign stunt in which the billionaire served customers at a drive-thru window in Pennsylvania.

On the Rumble podcast mentioned above, Glassman did his best to soft-peddle his former affiliation with the party of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

"When I was in grad school (and) an undergrad down in Tucson with the U of A, I was a Democrat," he explained. "When I was in my 20s, prior to getting married to my law school sweetheart. Prior to having kids, prior to joining the Air Force, prior to working in the private sector, I was a Democrat."

But Glassman was hardly a child in 2010 when, at age 32, he ran as a Democrat against McCain. By that time, Glassman had been a member of the State Bar of Arizona for two years, a Democratic Vice Mayor of the Tucson City Council and an aide to Grijalva, who endorsed Glassman's doomed Senate run against McCain.

In an interview with MSNBC at the time, Glassman praised Grijalva as “the kind of U.S. Senator that I'm going to be in Washington."

Glassman’s MAGA reinvention has convinced at least a few prominent Republicans to support him, though. On Glassman’s campaign website, Sheridan is listed as campaign co-chair along with Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, who first proclaimed his political love for Glassman in January. Similarly, Sheridan copped to being a Glassman supporter in an April op-ed in the Arizona Capitol Times.

But Sheriff Wilmot, it seems, is a little gun-shy. No wonder.

This story is part of the Arizona Watchdog Project, a yearlong reporting effort led by New Times and supported by the Trace Foundation, in partnership with Deep South Today.