These Mormon women are rejecting Trump, fraying GOP support in a key state

GILBERT, Ariz. — It was Annie Lewis' idea to put a "Republicans for Biden" sign in the front yard in the lead-up to 2020. For her, it came down to civility. As a teacher for over a decade, the mother of six little ones, and a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she felt then-President Trump did not show true leadership.

"I was embarrassed anytime a clip of Trump, at that time, was on and my children were in the room," Lewis said.

Lewis was not alone in her thinking. In 2020, GOP residents of Maricopa County in Arizona banded together to stand up against Trump. The signs were created by Dan Barker, a leader in the Maricopa County LDS community and former GOP-appointed judge, who wanted to find a way to support Biden without giving up his lifelong Republican identity.

His wife, Nan, was the one who pushed him to have a sign.

"She probably got there quicker than I did," said Barker, who in 2020 started the political action committee Arizona Republicans Who Believe in Treating Others with Respect. "I just wasn't quite comfortable identifying with the Democratic Party. And so for me, I said, hey, well, I'd rather do something like, 'Republicans for Biden.' "

Barker doled out thousands of signs, picketing at busy street corners and standing them up on lawns. Sometimes they were torn down, and other times they created controversy on community Facebook pages. But Biden ultimately won the state by just over 10,000 votes and flipped Maricopa County, the county with the largest share of Arizona's voters. Barker credits the win, in part, to his campaign.

"That's one of the main reasons we did it — so that people would know that you could be a conservative and vote for Biden because you did not find