Tucson Weekly publishes article, "Richard Grayson: Breaking News," about the candidate's withdrawal from the presidential race

Today, Thursday, January 3, 2008, Tucson Weekly published an article, "Richard Grayson: Breaking News": 

Richard Grayson withdrew from the race for the Presidency yesterday, changing the 2008 Arizona Democratic presidential preference primary campaign back into a 23-way race and sending other candidates scrambling to fill the space he left on the political map. 

The announcement in Apache Junction followed days of turmoil and division in the campaign of the handsome writer. Political professionals in both parties struggled to figure out who was helped and who was hurt by Mr. Grayson’s withdrawal. Some argued that his presence in the race would have simply divided the vote, and thus his leaving would inevitably help the other morons running; there were polls this week that seemed to back that up. 

Others, however, argued that Mr. Grayson’s withdrawal helped no one because they believed Mr. Grayson’s strength, at its core, was nonexistent. 

What was clear was that Mr. Grayson’s abrupt announcement reconfigured the rules of a game that the forty-eight candidates on the Arizona ballot were just beginning to learn. His reluctant candidacy, which surged in the polls last month before fading from boredom, had raised a host of strange and new scenarios. 

Chief among them was an election in which no one candidate would garner more than 5% of the vote in the February 5 primary. Mr. Grayson cited that possibility yesterday as the main reason for his withdrawal although he also had said he had withdrawn after hearing that other candidates were scheming to smear his daughter with a computer-altered photograph on Facebook and to disrupt her wedding. 

“The fact that I don’t have a daughter and she has no plans to get married apparently didn’t stop these political dirty tricksters,” Mr. Grayson charged. “They’re worse than Nixon.” 

Mr. Grayson offered no evidence, only quoting friends and an anonymous comment on an obscure blog.“I can’t prove any of it today,” he said on the CBS News program “60 Minutes.” “But it was a risk I did not have to take,” he added, “and a risk I would not take where my daughter is concerned.” 

A spokesman for the Arizona Democratic party dismissed Mr. Grayson’s assertions as “all loony” and questioned the spelling of the word “withdrawal” in the cartoon panel above.

A Writer’s Diary Entries From Late September, 2002 | Richard Grayson

A Writer’s Diary Entries From Late September, 2002 | Richard Grayson

Arizona Agenda's "What We're Laughing At" Laughs at Candidate Richard Grayson in Arizona's Legislative District 7

Today, Wednesday, September 23, 2026, Arizona Agenda's "What We're Laughing At" section focuses on Legsislative District 7 candidate Richard Grayson:

We got an email from candidate Richard Grayson recently bragging that he had broken the algorithm for a tool on iVoterGuide that measures where a candidate falls on the political spectrum.

“I seem to be the only person in the voter guide who got that rating! I feel like everyone else is G, PG, PG-13 or R and I am NC-17,” he told us.

And “unclassifiable” is the perfect term for Grayson, a serial candidate and political performance artist who has run for something — often multiple things at once — every year for about as long as we can remember.

This year, Grayson is running as a Green Party candidate seeking a seat in the state House representing Legislative District 7, though on his campaign website he warns people not to vote for any Green Party candidates because they’re “jerks.”

We first came across Grayson in 2008 as part of Project White House, an “experiment in reality journalism,” run by longtime political reporter Jim Nintzel, back when he was in charge of the then-venerable Tucson Weekly.

Short version: Nintzel realized that all you had to do to qualify for the Presidential Preference Election in Arizona was get a form notarized.

So he enlisted the weirdest Tucsonans he could find to run for president.

Grayson was one of those weirdos.

Nintzel actually ran the gag for two presidential election cycles — in 2008 and 2012 — adding dozens of names to the ballot all for the sake of a good laugh.

Grayson ran both times, though he dropped out pretty early in 2008, citing “days of turmoil and division in the campaign of the handsome (candidate).”

Unfortunately, lawmakers eventually wised up to Nintzel, and they changed the law so he couldn’t run the same scam in the 2016 election cycle, as we wrote back then.

Anyway, this trip down memory lane gave us a good excuse to text Nintzel about the great joy we still get from those 2008-2012 Project White House archives.

“Had no idea at the time that it would serve as a model for so many modern-day candidates but here we are,” he wrote back.

A Writer’s Diary Entries From Mid-September, 2002 | Richard Grayson

A Writer’s Diary Entries From Mid-September, 2002 | Richard Grayson

A Writer’s Diary Entries From Early September, 2002 | Richard Grayson

A Writer’s Diary Entries From Early September, 2002 | Richard Grayson

Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission publishes November 2026 Voter Education Guide, including Candidates for State Representative District 7

The Arizona Citizens Clean Election Commission has published it November 2026 Voter Education Guide  featuring candidates for state offices, including for State Representative in Legislative District 7, where Walter "Walt" Blackman, David Cook Sr., Richard Grayson, and Samuel "Sam" Martin are the candidates.

A Writer’s Diary Entries From Late August, 2002 | Richard Grayson

A Writer’s Diary Entries From Late August, 2002 | Richard Grayson

A Writer’s Diary Entries From Mid-August, 2002 | Richard Grayson

A Writer’s Diary Entries From Mid-August, 2002 | Richard Grayson

November 3, 2026 General Election: Arizona Legislative District 7 Ballot for State Representative Candidates

A Writer’s Diary Entries From Early August, 2002 | Richard Grayson

A Writer’s Diary Entries From Early August, 2002 | Richard Grayson

Richard Grayson is 2028 Candidate for Alaska's Other Senate Seat; His Primary Campaign Committee is "Senate Candidate Richard Grayson Will Sell Alaska to Russia Canada or Norway"

Failed Alaska U.S. Senate candidate Richard Grayson, who came in 16th in the August 18 primary, with just 345 votes after super PAC Fair Deal Alaska spent $330,000 on his campaign, is attempting to get revenge on the state's voters by filing with the Federal Election Commission to run as a 2028 candidate for Alaska's other Senate seat, currently held by Republican Lisa Murkowski. His principal campaign committee is Senate Candidate Richard Grayson Will Sell Alaska to Russia Canada or Norway.

Wall Street Journal publishes "Potomac Watch" column, "Alaska's Ranked-Choice Travesty," which discusses Richard Grayson's campaign for U.S. Senate

Today, Friday, August 21, 2026, the Wall Street Journal published on page A13 a "Potomac Watch" column by Kimbereley A. Strassel, "Alaska's Ranked-Choice Travesty," which discusses Richard Grayson's campaign for U.S. Senate.

Alaska's House contest featured, again, Eric Hafner, who is serving a federal prison term in New York after pleading guilty in connection with a string of threats against government officials. He made the final ballot in 2024, and may do so this year, too. The Senate race featured his mother, Carol Hafner, and Green candidate Richard Grayson—neither of whom lives in the state. Of more than 30 candidates running for the Senate and House, few outside the incumbents or the main Democratic challenger even tried to raise money. Mr. Grayson recently explained that he was running “for fun,” that he actually supports Democrat Mary Peltola, and that if he makes the final four, he'll quit . . . [A] mystery organization, Fair Deal Alaaka, ran more than $750,000 to help the Carol Hafner campaigns draw votes from Mrs. Peltola.

Northern Journal/Anchorage Press publishes article, "This Democratic Socialist could cost Mary Peltola votes in November. But he says he’d actually boost her," mentioning Richard Grayson's campaign for U.S. Senator from Alaska

Today, Friday, August 21, 2026, the Norhtern Journal/Anchorage Press published an article by Nathaniel Herz, "This Democratic Socialist could cost Mary Peltola votes in November. But he says he’d actually boost her, " briefly mentioning Richard Grayson's campaign for U.S. Senator from Alaska:

Leading up to Alaska’s high-profile U.S. Senate primary, political groups spent millions of dollars to boost not only the leading Republicans and Democrats, but who could tip the balance of a tight race in November.

Most of those efforts fell flat — namely, those that tried to boost spoiler candidates who don’t even live in Alaska, like Arizona resident and Green Party candidate Richard Grayson, who garnered just 343 votes in preliminary counts.

*

Update as of Thursday, August 26, 2026: Richard Grayson has garnered 400 votes.

 

New York Times publishes article, "Unusual Spending Raises Prospect of Election Meddling in Alaska," discussing shady super PACs unwanted and unwarranted support of the U.S. Senate campaign of Green Party Richard Grayson and others

Today, Wednesday, August 19, 2026, the New York Times published an article by Theodore Schleifer, "Unusual Spending Raises Prospect of Election Meddling in Alaska," discusses the unwanted and unwarranted financial support of the shady super PAC Fair Deal Alaska on behalf of the campaigns of Green Party U.S. Senate candidate Richard Grayson and other minor candidates. The article was published in the print edition for Thursday, August 20, 2026 on page 18A.

About $800,000 has been spent in the last few weeks by the super PAC Fair Deal Alaska to not only attack the leading Democratic candidate, Mary Peltola, but also boost two lesser-known hopefuls, the Green Party candidate Richard Grayson (who lives in Arizona) and Carol Hafner, another Democrat who could pull votes away from Ms. Peltola. That could benefit the Republican incumbent, Senator Dan Sullivan. Fair Deal Alaska formed just late last month, meaning its donors have not yet been disclosed.

Anchorage Daily News publishes an article by Alex DeMarban, " In Alaska's hotly contested U.S. Senate race, challenger Mary Peltola jumps to early lead," mentioning candidate Richard Grayson

Today, Wednessday, August 19, 2026, the Anchorage Daily News published an article by Alex DeMarban, " In Alaska's hotly contested U.S. Senate race, challenger Mary Peltola jumps to early lead," about the election results, mentioning Richard Grayson's candidacy:

The race has been marked by fringe candidates who have gotten a boost with help from shadowy political action committees. 

Peltola's recently campaign committee launched a website — theyarenotfromhere.com — arguing that national Republicans were spending big to promote spoiler candidates.

Fair Deal Alaska, which formed late last month, spent more than $800,000 promoting Carol Hafner, a Democrat, and Richard Grayson, a Green Party member, in an effort to weaken support for Peltola. Both Hafner and Grayson live in the Lower 48 and have run for office in other states.

Together, they'd received less than 1% of the vote early Wednesday.