PHOENIX – Arizona voters will wrap up a hotly contested Senate race and set the stage for congressional races that could tip the balance of power in the House and shape the future of both parties for years to come.
And Arizona’s position at the forefront of election battles and conspiracy theories over the past four years will once again take center stage as the top elections official in Arizona’s largest county faces a primary after fending off critics since 2020.
Here’s what to watch after voting closes on Tuesday at 10pm ET. Building a critical race in the Senate
Democratic Republican Ruben Gallego, who ran unopposed in the primary, will officially learn about his general election opponent — though he and GOP frontrunner Kari Lake have been sparring for months over the assumption that his party will be the nominee.
Endorsed by Donald Trump, Lake flatly refused to name his closest Republican rival, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, on the stump. Asked in March if he would be open to discussions with Lamb, Lake said, “I’m focused on the general election. We are very confident in what these survey numbers look like.”
The The closest two came to formal discussion On May 23, when Lake and Lamb participated in a virtual forum, Lake, who denied the election, berated him for not sharing his baseless theories.
“He’s an absolute coward when it comes to election integrity,” Lake said of Lamb’s refusal to dismiss the election results in 2020 when Joe Biden defeated Trump in Arizona and nationally.
“I don’t think Joe Biden could have gotten 81 million votes,” Lamb said at the forum. “But I don’t live in the world of feelings and thoughts. I live in a world of evidence, what you can prove in a court of law beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Although Lake is the frontrunner in the primary, beating Lamb and taking on big names like Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Vivek Ramaswamy and others, some in the Arizona Republican establishment are skeptical of his fiery style. succeeded in the general election. He narrowly lost the 2022 gubernatorial race.
Former Republican Gov. Jan Brewer praised Lamb in an interview with KSAZ-TV of Phoenix this summer. When it comes to Lake, Brewer had less favorable words: “There are a lot of people who are upset with him. They do not think that he is telling the truth and that he has changed his attitude about some things. He goes to different rallies, says different things to different audiences.”
Looking ahead to November, Gallego launched a Latino campaign coalition called Juntos con Gallego on Monday. Speaking afterward, he agreed to challenge Lake if he won the GOP primary.
“Unlike where he’s not arguing with his opponent, we’ll be happy to discuss Kari Lake,” he said.
Although Lake declined to name Lamb, he has choice words for Gallego, who has gone from “swamp rat” to “dead beat” at every campaign stop.
A battle over who Trump loves more
One the most closely watched GOP primaries of the election Both feature a battle between a pair of Trump aides who have made it the most prominent feature of their campaign in the 8th Congressional District.
Financier Blake Masters, who lost his bid for Senate in 2022, and Abraham Hamadeh, who lost his 2022 state attorney general race by just 280 votes (and made baseless claims that the race was rigged) are central to his current campaign. frontrunners in a tight race with several other prominent Republicans. Also running are state House Speaker Ben Thoma; and former Rep. Trent Franks, who served 16 years in Congress before him resigned suddenly Admitting to discussing surrogacy with two former female employees in 2017; and state Sen. Anthony Kern, who was among the 18 Trump aides and allies on the Arizona grand jury was charged in April for their role in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 elections in the state.
Hamadeh and Masters argued over who would be closer to Trump. In Hamada He won Trump’s support In December, Masters had said for months that he had Trump’s endorsement during his failed 2022 Senate bid. In an unusual move, Trump reiterated his endorsement in this year’s primary to support both. Masters like Vance have received major financial support from tech billionaire Peter Thiel in 2022.
The 8th District — in the northwest valley of the metropolitan Phoenix area with a large, elderly, retired population and a large portion of evangelical Christians — is solidly Republican. Tuesday’s winner is certain to defeat Democratic nominee Greg Whitten in November.
Two of the closest Home battlegrounds in the country
Former state Sen. Kirsten Engel is running unopposed in the Democratic primary for the 6th District, which covers much of the southeastern part of the state, including Tucson.
The race for the seat is being held by Republican Juan Ciscomani, who is currently in his first term is considered a shooting Nonpartisan Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. It’s one of two shootings that could help decide control of the tightly divided House in Arizona.
The matchup would be a rematch of the 2022 race in which Ciscomani beat Engel by less than 2 percentage points.
Meanwhile, GOP Rep. David Schweikert is the heavy favorite in the primary against lesser-known and less-funded candidates in the 1st District. But the Democratic primary is tight with six candidates running down the aisle.
In the running for Schweikert’s Democratic nomination in 2022 are Andrei Cherny, a businessman and former chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party who previously ran for Congress; Amish Shah, former member of the State House; Conor O’Callaghan, businessman; Marlene Galan-Woods, former television news broadcaster; Kurt Kroemer, former Red Cross regional director general; and Andrew Horne, photographer and orthodontist.
As the only woman in the primaries of her party, Remaining-Woods is emblematic of a larger trend in congressional politics. The Rutgers University-based Center on American Women and Politics, an influential organization that tracks the issue, found that fewer women are running as major-party candidates for the House of Representatives this year.
Gallego race to succeed
Arizona’s 3rd District, currently represented by Gallego, has a rich Latino history: Before Gallego continued that legacy, the district sent Arizona’s first Latino congressman, Ed Pastor, to Washington, and now former state Democratic Party Chairwoman Raquel Teran hopes to expand it.
“We need to make sure our voices are heard in Congress,” Teran said in an interview Friday.
“Of course, this is a Democratic primary and we welcome a healthy competition. But what we do not welcome is that Republican investors, donors who gave money to Donald Trump interfere in the primary election of the Democratic party,” Teran added, referring to his main opponent, Yassamin Ansari.
Ansari, a former Phoenix City Council member, has backed $1.3 million from Protect Progress PAC, which spends money to support Democratic candidates across the country — but crypto industry financiers are also backing Trump. In an interview with Phoenix’s NBC’s KPNX, Ansari distanced himself from the donors.
“I’m not sure what they want,” Ansari said KPNX’s Brahm Resnick from PAC supporters. “I ran because I hate Donald Trump. I can’t stand MAGA extremism.”
A great election about elections
In most provinces and earlier times race for the county record holder usually doesn’t make a lot of hoopla. Maricopa County is not most counties.
Stephen Richer, one of the nation’s most outspoken advocates for election processes, is fighting to keep his job as he prepares to control the vote this fall in the battleground state of Maricopa, Arizona’s largest county.
The administrative role of the Maricopa County recorder is extensive, including processing documents and overseeing the voter file and other parts of the election. Here are the top picks from 2020.
After ballot printers and vote counting machines malfunctioned during the 2022 Arizona election, unsubstantiated allegations of malicious activity surfaced, and Lake-backed conspiracy theories about Richer resulted in Richer receiving death threats.
Richer has continued to face multiple attacks to this day. Last month he Posted a video on X Shelby Busch, chairwoman of the Arizona delegation at the Republican National Convention this month, said she would “lynch” him if she had the chance. The video stems from a March 20 event in Mesa that went live on Rumble, a conservative video platform.
Richer’s primary challenger is state Rep. Justin Heap, who has dodged questions about whether the 2020 election was rigged. But he was supported by many of Arizona’s most prominent suffragettes, including Lake.
Longtime candidate Don Hiatt, who has worked in information management technology, has been more openly skeptical about the 2020 election.