Opinion: Arizona’s America First candidates galloped their way to wins on Tuesday. Before celebrating their luck, Democrats should remember David Garcia.
By Laurie Roberts | The Arizona Republic
Arizona Republican candidate for governor Kari Lake gives a thumbs-up to the crowd as former President Donald Trump speaks at a Save America rally on July 22, 2022, in Prescott.
The apocalypse is upon us, only it doesn’t have four horsemen. It has 13.
Arizona’s America First candidates were galloped their way to wins on Tuesday, fueled by angry Republicans still seething over a supposed conspiracy to deny Donald Trump his due in 2020.
A slate of candidates so extreme that it’s difficult to see how Democrats could blow this gift in November. (And yet … .)
Republicans elected an extreme slate
There is Blake Masters, who has endorsed a version of the “Great Replacement” theory so popular with the white supremacists who run around warning about a plot to replace white Americans with non-white people.
There is Mark Finchem, a rabid Stop the Stealer who is hoping to howl his way into the Secretary of State’s Office so he can oversee the 2024 elections in one of the country’s key swing states.
Good for Trump, so far:What to know about Arizona’s primary results
There is Abe Hamadeh, a 2016 law school graduate who duped Trump into endorsing him for attorney general by getting his brother to briefly loan him a million bucks so as to look like a player.
And there is Kari Lake, who mostly just wants to blow stuff up. Oh, and bash the media.
Legislature will get even more conservative
Trump’s candidates ran roughshod over the competition in Tuesday’s legislative, congressional and statewide races. Lake won every county in Arizona.
It was a rout – one in which Trump demonstrated that he doesn’t just hold Republicans in the palm of his hand. He’s got them in the clench of his fist.
The legislative races are mostly over now, given how few competitive districts exist. Expect a Legislature that’s more conservative – if that’s even possible – than the current cast of characters.
