Your Guide to Arizona’s Primaries: Election Deniers Abound

Republicans who have spread false allegations of widespread fraud since the 2020 election are running for office up and down the ballot on July 30.

Daniel Nichanian

July 26, 2024

Arizona

Donald Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 presidential race have rocked Arizona politics in recent years, causing threats against election officials, and leading many conservatives to demand election audits, resist certifying elections, and push for new voting restrictions.

Now these aftershocks are showing up all over this swing state’s Republican primaries.

There’s the fake Trump elector from 2020 who is now running for Congress. The lawmaker who proposed a bill locking in the state’s 2024 electoral votes for Trump. The election deniers who want to take over local election administration. The Republicans who never conceded their own statewide losses two years ago and are now mounting comebacks, including Kari Lake and Mark Finchem.

To help guide you through these races, here’s your Bolts primer on what to follow on July 30.

Also on the menu, Democrats are hosting several noteworthy contests—including a sheriff’s race in Tucson marked by disagreements over immigration enforcement, and an expensive Phoenix-area U.S. House race to replace Ruben Gallego, who is running for Senate.

Be sure to return to this page on election night: We’ll update this page with results. And note that this guide is not exhaustive; it is Bolts’ selection of important races to monitor.

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Congressional seats

U.S. Senate (GOP primary)

Two years after she lost the governor’s race and refused to concede, Kari Lake is running for another statewide office; this time, she wants to replace the retiring Kyrsten Sinema in the Senate. Her longstanding alliance with Trump makes her the clear favorite to win the Republican primary over Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, also known for fanning unfounded conspiracies and nativism, as Bolts reported. (The winner faces Democrat Ruben Gallego in November.)

Result: Kari Lake won.

U.S. House: AZ-02 (GOP primary)

Incumbent Eli Crane, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, was one of just eight Republicans responsible for ousting Kevin McCarthy from the Speakership last year. Now, McCarthy is supporting Jack Smith, a former county commissioner who is challenging Crane. The incumbent said earlier this month he was not worried about this primary because his challenger happens to share a name with the special counsel who is prosecuting Trump.

Result: Eli Crane won.

U.S. House: AZ-03 (Dem primary)

This Phoenix-area district is deciding who’ll replace Ruben Gallego, who is running for Senate, and the winner of the Democratic primary will be heavily favored in the fall.

Left-leaning organizations, including the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, are spending to help Raquel Terán, the former Senate Minority Leader; she faces Yassamin Ansari, the former vice mayor of Phoenix. In the run-up to the election, a spending spree on Ansari’s behalf by a cryptocurrency group with Republican ties has fired up the race.

Result: Still too close to call.

U.S. House: AZ-08 (GOP primary)

The race to replace retiring Republican Debbie Lesko has drawn a who’s who of ultraconservative luminaries in Arizona.

Blake Masters is the Peter Thiel protégé who lost the 2022 Senate race. Abe Hamadeh, who landed Trump’s endorsement, has kept filing lawsuits since 2022 to contest his loss in the attorney general race. Anthony Kern is a fake Trump elector, indicted for that role. Trent Franks used to be part of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus until he resigned from Congress in 2017 while facing a sexual harassment investigation. And Ben Toma is the state Speaker who fought to keep a near-total ban on abortion in place this spring.

Result: Abe Hamadeh wins.

Offices in charge of election administration

Maricopa County Recorder (GOP primary)

Maricopa, the nation’s most populous swing county, has been ground zero for election conspiracies. The current head of the elections office, Republican Stephen Richer, has pushed against false allegations, frequently debunking them on social media, and even filing a defamation lawsuit against Kari Lake. Many of the state’s prominent far-right politicians are now backing challenger Justin Heap, a state representative who championed restrictions on voter access. Newcomer Don Hiatt, who also echoes false claims about the 2020 election, is also running.

Result: Justin Heap wins.

Yuma County Recorder (GOP primary)

David Lara sprang into action after the 2020 elections, connecting with a nationwide network of conservatives pushing false claims about widespread voter fraud and helping inspire key aspects of “2,000 Mules,” the debunked movie about the 2020 election results. Lara, a businessman, now wants to take over the elections’ office in Yuma County, a populous area of southwestern Arizona, challenging GOP incumbent Richard Colwell.

Result: Still too close to close.

Criminal justice offices

Maricopa County Attorney (GOP primary)

Rachel Mitchell, a Republican who now runs one of the nation’s largest prosecutor’s offices, became a national figure in 2018 when she stepped into Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings to question Christine Blasey Ford on behalf of Senate Republicans. Earlier this year, she left the door open to bringing charges against medical professionals who provide an abortion, a stance that drew heavy criticism from local Democrats. Still, her opponent in the GOP primary, Gina Godbehere, is challenging her from the right, arguing that the office should be more punitive, the Arizona Republic reports.

Result: Rachel Mitchell wins.

Pima County Sheriff (Dem primary)

Local immigrants’ rights activists got their officials to curtail local collaboration with federal immigration enforcement, but the issue has reemerged as a fault line in this Democratic primary. Sheriff Chris Nanos and his challenger Sandy Rosenthal are taking opposite stances on whether the county should once again join a federal program to collaborate with Border Patrol.

Bolts‘ Pascal Sabino reports on the history behind these local partnerships, and the debates rocking this sheriff primary.

Result: Chris Nanos won.

Legislative seats

LD1 | Senate (GOP primary)

After losing Arizona’s secretary of state race two years ago, election denier Mark Finchem didn’t concede, instead filing a lawsuit that was dismissed as frivolous. He has finally moved on since he’s now running for the legislature.

He is challenging state Senator Ken Bennett, a Republican who broke with several conservative proposals by his party in the last legislative session. Bennett was the only Republican to oppose an anti-trans bill in February, enough to doom it in this tightly-divided chamber, as well as opposing Republican election bills.

Result: Mark Finchem wins.

LD2 | Senate (GOP primary)

Republican state Senator Shawnna Bolick broke with much of her party this spring when she voted to repeal Arizona’s near-total abortion ban, delivering a speech that drew national attention. It was an unusual situation: The ban had just been revived weeks earlier by a state supreme court decision in which Bolick’s husband, who sits on the court, sided with the majority.

Now Bolick faces Josh Barnett, an ultraconservative challenger who has attacked her for her abortion vote. Barnett has also openly called for the state to ignore election results. He argued earlier this year that the legislature should lock in the state’s electoral votes for the Republican presidential nominee before any voting has occurred.

Result: Shawnna Bolick wins.

LD7 | Senate (GOP primary)

Wendy Rogers, a far-right state senator who has spoken at a white supremacist conference and is a member of the Oath Keepers, was even censured by her fellow Republicans two years ago after she called for public hangings.

She now faces a challenge from state Representative David Cook, who has a less conservative reputation despite also voting to uphold the state’s near-total abortion ban, the Arizona Mirror reports.

Result: Wendy Rogers wins.

LD17 | Senate and House (GOP Primary)

State Representative Rachel Jones proposed earlier this year to award all of the state’s electoral votes to Trump; she has also championed many new restrictions on voter access, such as abolishing mail-in voting. Now she’s running for reelection, facing two other Republicans, Cory McGarr and Anna Orth, who are also running very conservative campaigns. (Two of the three will move on to the general election, since the district elects two Representatives.)

The district also hosts a Senate primary between incumbent Senator Justine Wadsack, part of the chamber’s ultraconservative caucus, and her predecessor Vince Leach. Wadsack is claiming that a citation she received for speeding earlier this year is “political persecution.”

Result: The two incumbents move on in the House primary. Vince Leach wins the Senate primary.

Maricopa County’s governing board

District 1 (GOP primary)

There are just five people on the governing board of this county of more than 4 million—and while Democrats hope to gain ground on the board, so does the far-right. The board unanimously certified the results of the 2022 elections, drawing conservative wrath; now several of the Republican incumbents who did so face primary challengers.

First up: Jack Sellers, the board’s chair, says he has received death threats from people who falsely say that the county’s elections were plagued by rampant fraud. He is running for reelection against primary challenger Mark Stewart, who has declined to say if he would have certified the results either year—alluding to people’s “concerns” about the results.

Result: Mark Stewart wins.

District 2 (GOP primary)

When Supervisor Thomas Galvin beat back election deniers in the GOP primary two years ago, he said it was validation that it’s possible to “speak the truth about the 2020 election and win a Republican primary.”

That theory will get tested again this summer: He faces former Senator Michelle Ugenti-Rita, who was recently endorsed by Kari Lake in the name of fighting “for election integrity.”

Result: Thomas Galvin wins.

Other local elections

Fountain Hills Mayor

Joe Arpaio, the former Maricopa County sheriff who oversaw a string of jail deaths, built a facility called “Tent City” to detain immigrants, and was pardoned by Trump after a conviction for contempt of court, wants to be mayor of Forest Hills. He has already run, and lost, in the past and is trying again this summer.

Result: Joe Arpaio loses.

Scottsdale City Council

Two camps are battling it out to control one of Arizona’s most populous cities, the Arizona Republic reports; the scope of city spending and public initiatives are at issue in a more conservative faction’s bid to control city council.

Result: The more conservative camp gained.