Support from a conservative political group and the endorsement from two former Mesa mayoral candidates have caused a rift in what has been a largely quiet and civil campaign.
Scott Neely and Ryan Winkle, the two former mayoral candidates, appeared in a video together touting their endorsement of Scott Smith.
The video shows them standing together in front of a mural in downtown Mesa. Winkle is a Democrat with a progressive ideology and Neely is a conservative Republican.
The pair acknowledged in the video there’s not much the two agree on. “But there’s one thing we do agree on. Mesa needs Scott Smith as its next mayor,” Neely said in the video.
The video ends with a high-five and smiles. But it wasn’t smiles all around. When candidate Mark Freeman saw the endorsement, he took issue with it.
Freeman told The Arizona Republic he had concerns about Neely and Winkle’s social media posts criticizing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints members and the Israel-Palestine conflict, respectively.