This gun-slinging former Arizona sheriff running for Congress appears to have a few skeletons in his closet.

Newly revealed texts show Mark Lamb allegedly making a racist joke in 2016, suggesting black people are lazy in response to a border vigilante group member who used the N-word, the Arizona Republic reported.

Lamb’s text exchange with Border Narcotics Intelligence member Nick Steele took place in 2016, the same year he was first elected as Pinal County Sheriff.

“BNI guys work like [N-words],” Steele wrote.

“Hahahaha! So you don’t do anything?” Lamb replied, adding laughing emojis.

Steele laughed at the sheriff’s response and said they work like (N-words) because “it’s the right thing to do.”

“LOL No we work like [N-words] cuz it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “You guys do work hard,” Lamb messaged back. “I’m impressed! And grateful!”

Other screenshots of the texts show Lamb laughing at a homophobic joke Steele made about former Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu. Steele used insults about anal and oral sex about Babeu.

Lamb responded,  “Hahahaha!” 

“Sounds like karma is going to hopefully handle Babeu,” he added.

He also laughed at a joke Steele made about a “stupid bitch” he had a political dispute with.

“Hahahaha! You shut her up!” Lamb wrote.

Lamb found a meme about former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, suggesting she was a man, humorous.

“Hahahaha!” he replied.

Among more tame exchanges include Lamb slamming Pinal County Assessor Doug Wolf.

Lamb said he never liked Wolf, and said he thinks he’s “hot stuff.”

“He think’s he’s hot stuff….He’s the assessor for crying out loud,” Lamb wrote.

Lamb is running to replace Rep. Andy Biggs, who is running for governor, in Arizona’s 5th Congressional District.

He’s coming off a failed campaign in 2024, when he lost to Trump administration official and former television anchor Kari Lake in the Republican primary.

The California Post previously spoke to Lamb when he was Pinal County Sheriff in 2019.

Before becoming a more prominent politician, his goal was to stop Mexican drug cartels from smuggling illegal substances into the country.

“We are the last line of defense in Pinal County before the drugs head to California and other parts of the country,” he said.

“We’re seeing something we’ve never seen in America before,” he added. “The traffickers have taken advantage of the immigration crisis to flood the country with drugs.

“Both sides have paralyzed the debate on immigration, and now we need to get serious. We need common sense solutions to end it.”

---

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters