Primary Election Recap

While we await the official, final vote tallies from this past Tuesday’s Primary Election, here’s what we know to date:

• More Arizonans turned out to vote in the primary than in any previous cycle. While the turnout partly results from population growth, the higher numbers also resulted from increased enthusiasm among younger generations and liberal voting segments.
• S. Congressional races: No surprises in the candidates nominated by their respective parties.
• Arizona Senate
  • Incumbent senators Sylvia Allen (District 6) and Heather Carter (District 15) lost their bids for re-election. Sen. Allen lost to Wendy Rogers and Sen. Carter lost to Rep. Nancy Barto.
• Arizona House
  • Progressives’ attempts to unseat moderate Democrats were not successful in several legislative districts. The moderates all won their parties’ nomination.
  • Incumbent house member Jay Lawrence lost his race to newcomer Joseph Chaplik.
  • See detailed election results here.
• Campaign Spending
  • Surely records were set for campaign spending in party primaries.
    • In the state senate race in Legislative District 6, over $1 million was spent, $704,000 on behalf of Wendy Rogers.
    • In LD 15 race, over $1.6 million was spent, $800,000 from independent expenditure campaigns on behalf of Heather Carter – for a total of about $1.2 million spent on the Carter side alone.
    • Record spending also occurred in the Democrat contests between the progressives and the moderates.
    • One outside Arizona group funded by a New York billionaire spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to persuade Arizona voters to vote for liberal candidates.
    • See who supported candidates financially, and how much they spent at gov
  • Voters
    • Your vote matters. At the end of the day Thursday, two mayoral candidates were separated by only 12 votes. In another race, two state legislative candidates were separated by only 40 votes. Taking the time to vote wisely for those who share your values is well worth the time and effort.
    • Voters in Arizona thoughtfully and prayerfully made their electoral decisions. At the CAP office, we fielded calls and emails daily from voters seeking information on candidates.
    • Our azvoterguide.com website continues to be a go-to site for information on candidates and voting in general.
    • Write-in candidate for the Arizona Corporation Commission, Jim O’Connor, easily got the required number of about 6,700 write-in votes to qualify for the November 3 ballot. What seemed like an impossible number turned out to look relatively easy for grassroots advocates. That’s a good sign for voter engagement and activism.

November 3 Outlook

• As with the primary, expect to see record spending in federal and state legislative races. Grassroots activism and mobilization will be necessary in many areas of the state to counter the money. If you can financially support candidates and groups you agree with, then please do so. If not, please volunteer your time to help advance your values.
• By October 7, CAP will unveil an updated azvoterguide.com website that will include the following information on races:
  • President, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives
  • Arizona Corporation Commission
  • Arizona Senate and House
  • Arizona judges on the retention ballot
  • Select county and city races
  • Select school board races
• Most of all, continue to pray for the 2020 election. It’s a much different year with COVID-19, our changing state demographics, and the ever-increasing rise of false information being disseminated about candidates and issues.

ICYMI:

• Learn about the graphic hyper-sexualized materials being foisted on children in schools by joining this virtual summit on protecting children in education on Wednesday, August 12^th, 2020 from 10:00 a.m. to noon. Register today at here.
• The Heritage Foundation’s Ryan T. Anderson writes about the new data showing transgender surgeries do not help mental health.
• Arizona Attorney General, Mark Brnovich, joined several other attorneys general in signing an Amicus brief in support of a Washington state high school football coach exercising his First Amendment rights. The case before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals addresses the coach’s right to pray to himself after football games. Read the brief here.

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