Insider
Arizona is holding primary elections on Tuesday. Polls closed in most of the state at 7 p.m. local time and 10 p.m. ET.
See results for Arizona’s US Senate and US House primaries here.
The races & the stakes:
Arizona is holding competitive Republican and Democratic primaries for an open battleground gubernatorial seat vacated by incumbent GOP Gov. Doug Ducey, who is retiring due to term limits.
Former President Donald Trump’s influence and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election are major factors influencing primaries in both parties and will take center stage in the general election.
The crowded and chaotic Republican gubernatorial primary has become a proxy battle between dueling factions of the GOP, Insider’s Bryan Metzger reports.
Trump and other far-right figures are backing former local news anchor Kari Lake, who is running a campaign largely rooted in Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him, while former Vice President Mike Pence and Ducey have endorsed Karrin Taylor Robson, an independently wealthy real estate developer pitching herself as more electable than Lake.
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the state’s chief election official, and former Obama administration official Marco Lopez are competing for the Democratic nomination for governor.
Hobbs running for governor also opens up the crucial office of the secretary of state. The person elected to this office will be responsible for overseeing the 2024 presidential election in a key battleground state.
Adrian Fontes, Maricopa County’s former top election official, is running against state Rep. Reginald Bolding for the Democratic nomination. State Rep. Mark Finchem, a key ally in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Arizona, has the former president’s endorsement in the crowded GOP primary field that also includes state Rep. Shawna Bolick, state Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, and Beau Lane.
State legislative primaries:
Trump’s influence is also looming large in two high-profile GOP state Senate primaries.
In the 7th District, conservative state Sen. Kelly Townsend is facing off against highly controversial far-right Sen. Wendy Rogers in a race that’s become a battle over Rogers’ ties to the white-nationalist figure Nick Fuentes, far-right trolls, and the two candidates’ fealty to Trumpism, Insider reported.
And in the 10th District, current Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who is term-limited in the state House and running in the GOP primary for an open state Senate seat, told Insider he’s “running against Donald Trump.” Bowers testified before the January 6 committee about Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.