Democrat Kris Mayes defeated Republican candidate Abraham Hamadeh in the race for Arizona Attorney General, a recount has been confirmed.
Ross D. Franklin/AP
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Ross D. Franklin/AP
Democrat Kris Mayes defeated Republican candidate Abraham Hamadeh in the race for Arizona Attorney General, a recount has been confirmed.
Ross D. Franklin/AP
PHOENIX – A recount has confirmed that Democrat Kris Mayes narrowly defeated Republican Abraham Hamadeh in the race for Arizona attorney general, one of the closest elections in US history. state.
The highly anticipated results announced Thursday in Maricopa County Superior Court are among the last in the country to come out of the November elections and cement another victory for party members. Democrats, who have shied away from electoral fraud schemes in what was once a strong Republican state.
With Hamadeh’s defeat, Republicans are running statewide in battleground states who spread former President Donald Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election has been stolen evenly. lost.
Mayes finished 280 votes ahead of Hamadeh, down from a lead of 511 in the initial check. The reason for the difference is not immediately obvious.
“I am delighted and ready to work as your next attorney general and vow to be your attorney for the people,” Mayes said in a statement.
Judge Timothy Thomason, who also announced the recounts in two other races, said Republican Tom Horne prevailed in the race for state director of public affairs and Republican Liz Harris. Peace won a state legislative seat in the Phoenix suburbs.
An automatic recount was required because the races were so close.
Outside court, Mayes attorney Dan Barr said the results should give the public confidence in the elections, despite adjustments to total votes due to a recount.
“They didn’t just make a rubber stamp on what it was,” Barr said. “They carefully evaluated the votes and came up with a different result. So I think people should have a lot of confidence in the process.”
Hamadeh’s attorney, Tim La Sota, declined to comment after the hearing ended. Mayes and Hamadeh were not present in court during the hearing.
Hamadeh, who did not give in to Mayes, filed a separate challenge to his race results, but a judge dismissed that case last week.
Hamadeh alleges problems with ballot printers in Maricopa County led to a series of problems that disqualified voters and affected his race due to improper handling of ballots that had been lost. copied or judged by people because the tabulators cannot read them. In dismissing the case, a judge concluded Hamadeh had failed to prove the counting errors he had alleged.
In the race for director of public guidance, Horne finished the recount with a lead of 9,188 votes. Hoffman previously made concessions to Horne, a former school principal who served one term as attorney general before losing the 2014 primaries. Horne collected 221 votes in the tally. vote again.
Horne criticized Hoffman for adopting a progressive teaching approach and promised to quash any hint of “critical racial theory,” which is not taught in public schools but is a hot-button issue for social conservatives. He has also said that schools have been closed for too long during the pandemic at Hoffman’s urging.
Harris won with a 275-vote advantage over Republican Julie Willoughby in the race for a seat in the state’s 13th District House of Representatives, which includes parts of the Phoenix-area Chandler, Sun Lakes and Gilbert suburbs. . Harris collected five votes in the recount.
even though Republican Kari Lake filed an unsuccessful lawsuit challenging her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs in the race for governor of Arizona with just over 17,000 votes, the race for governor was not close enough to trigger an automatic recount.
A recount is required in Arizona in contests where the gap between the top candidates is 0.5% or less. Hobbs beat Lake by 0.67%.
The judge who dismissed Lake’s case dismissed her claim that problems with ballot printers at some polling places on Election Day were the result of intentional misconduct.
Lake, who did not give in to Lake, is appealing the dismissal of her case with the Arizona Supreme Court. Hobbs took office as governor on Monday.
Once a Republican stronghold, Arizona’s top races went to Democrats in November. Republicans nominated a group of Trump-backed candidates who were focused on supporting his false statements about the 2020 election. In addition to Hobbs and Mayes, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly was re-elected and Democrat Adrian Fontes won the race for secretary of state. .
