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Many Republican state and county officials in Arizona who have defended the fairness of the state’s elections appeared to have lost primary races Tuesday to challengers who campaigned at least in part on the idea of stolen or broken elections.
The apparent defeats came in key places in the state, such as Maricopa and Mohave counties, and in a race for the state Legislature, where there has been immense pressure to change how elections are run, or to even overturn election results.
The initial results suggest that unproven claims of widespread election fraud continue to have a strong hold on Republican voters in the state. And, in competitive contests, the results could lead some moderate Republican and independent voters who reject those claims to vote for Democrats in November, as happened statewide in 2022, when Democratic candidates swept top state races, said Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat.
Fontes said he believes voters in November will deliver the message that “we are moving forward, and we don’t want to have to play these shenanigans over and over and over again.”
“That, to me, is the message that voters in Arizona sent in 2022, and I have a feeling that might be the message that gets sent in 2024,” he said.
Counties have yet to finish counting ballots, including the majority of the mail ballots brought to the polls on Tuesday. Final results are expected later this week or next week.
The low turnout — below the expected 30% of registered voters — may have helped the candidates who are more extreme on election issues. That includes the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, where Kari Lake was projected to defeat Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb.
Maricopa County election officials lose their bids
In Maricopa County, Recorder Stephen Richer and Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers, both Republicans in critical roles overseeing the county’s elections, conceded their races early Wednesday to their challengers.
Both have vehemently defended the fairness and integrity of the last two general elections, in the face of harassment and ridicule from within their party.
“To the election deniers who have dedicated so much time, energy, and money to defeat me and others, I say: be careful what you wish for,” Sellers wrote in a statement. “At some point, you will have to answer for your efforts to undermine our democracy. I hope that you will eventually recognize that Maricopa County remains the gold standard for elections and have the courage and bravery to admit your mistakes.”
Sellers’ opponent, Chandler City Councilman Mark Stewart, emphasized the county’s ballot printer problems during the 2022 election while campaigning, saying county officials have created confusion and challenges for voters. In response to Sellers’ statement, he clarified in an interview Wednesday that he hasn’t claimed there was widespread fraud in the 2020 and 2022 elections. He said he just wants to clean up what he describes as errors in the process, such as the faulty ballot printers.
He also said voters he spoke with were concerned with many other problems in the county, not just elections. He will face Democrat Joel Navarro in November.
State Rep. Justin Heap, who defeated Richer, has refused to say whether he believes the 2020 and 2022 elections were stolen. He spent the campaign cycle criticizing the county’s 2022 Election Day problems and calling for better cleaning of voter rolls. As recorder, Richer oversees only early voting and voter registration, not Election Day processes.
Richer congratulated Heap in a statement posted on social media site X on Wednesday.
Heap said Wednesday that he was waiting for more results to comment on his contest. He faces Democrat Tim Stringham in November. Stringham on Wednesday encouraged Richer supporters to vote for him in the general election, telling them in a social media post to “continue to vote for the honest candidate.”
A Heap victory in the general election could change the dynamic in county government, which splits the responsibility for running elections between the recorder and the supervisors. The county has attempted since 2020 to present a united front against false claims and criticism about the county’s elections.
While Sellers and Richer lost, another defender of the county’s elections, Republican Supervisor Tom Galvin, appeared to have won against challenger Michelle Ugenti-Rita. And Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, who has defended the county’s elections in court against Republican challenges, appeared to have beaten challenger Gina Godbehere.
Legislature will lose deciding ‘no’ vote on election restrictions
In state legislative races, Republican state Sen. Ken Bennett of Prescott acknowledged his loss to state Rep. Mark Finchemin in a phone call with Votebeat on Wednesday.
Bennett has for two years been the deciding vote blocking Republican proposals to restrict voting in the state, such as eliminating early voting or transitioning back to precinct-based voting.
Finchem has claimed widespread election fraud since Donald Trump lost in 2020, and has led the fight for hand-counting ballots in the state. He spent nearly two years challenging in court his 2022 loss in the secretary of state race. He didn’t immediately respond to a call for comment Wednesday.
Bennett said he believes Finchem’s broad attacks on his voting record did him in.
The votes on elections were a contributing factor, Bennett said, “but, you know, they pushed four to five other lies as well.”
Democratic State Sen. Priya Sundareshan, who has helped lead her caucus’s push for greater voting rights and has worked across the aisle with Bennett, said she was disappointed to see Bennett, Richer and others lose.
She said that the results show how the Republican Party continues to be influenced by false claims of election fraud, and that she believes it will continue to weaken voter confidence in elections.
“For the sake of democracy and voting rights, our Democratic candidates really have the duty to put forward as good of a campaign as possible,” Sundareshan said, “so voters are able to continue to have trust in our elections and voters have full access to the ballot.”
Mohave and Pinal counties vote against officials who defended elections
In Mohave County, Supervisor Buster Johnson also told Votebeat Wednesday that he had lost his race against state Sen. Sonny Borrelli.
Borrelli has led the campaign across the state for hand-counting ballots instead of using voting machines, while Johnson has been outspoken in his defense of the county’s elections and his opposition to hand-counting.
Johnson said Wednesday that, along with his defense of the county’s current election system, he believes anger over his response to COVID-19 factored into his loss. He said he was just following state and federal laws in both instances.
Borrelli didn’t return a call for comment.
In Pinal County, County Attorney Kent Volkmer, who advised supervisors there not to hand-count ballots because it may violate state law, appeared to have lost to challenger Brad Miller, according to initial results.
Looking at the results across the state on Tuesday, Fontes said he hopes that if any of the candidates whom some may have classified as “election denialists” win election in November, they will see things differently once they are in office, as he has seen happen before.
“Once they see the work, once they understand the checks and balances, they change their tune,” he said. “So I don’t see this as a harbinger of doom. I see this as an opportunity to educate some folks and potentially change some minds.”
Jen Fifield is a reporter for Votebeat based in Arizona. Contact Jen at jfifield@votebeat.org.
