Key facts
- Arizona's top GOP primary ticket includes multiple candidates who have promoted false narratives about the 2020 election.
- These candidates have made election integrity a central theme of their campaigns.
- Past Republican nominees who denied the 2020 election results have lost general elections in Arizona.
- Democrats intend to use these candidates' positions on election denialism as a campaign issue in the fall.
Arizona's Republican Party is heading into the general election with a slate of candidates who have promoted false narratives about the 2020 election, a strategy that has proven successful in primaries but historically unsuccessful in statewide general elections.
Candidates such as Biggs and Kolodin have made election integrity a central theme of their campaigns, with Biggs supporting the SAVE America Act and Kolodin advocating for stricter voting requirements. Petersen has pledged to bolster the attorney general's election integrity unit. These positions align with the continued preference of many GOP primary voters for candidates who echo President Donald Trump's claims about election fraud.
However, strategists like former Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) note that this stance can be detrimental in the general election, alienating independent and moderate Republican voters. The state was a focal point for efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, with allies of Trump pressuring state leaders. Despite Trump winning Arizona in 2024, past Republican nominees who ran on election denial platforms, including Kari Lake, Blake Masters, and Mark Finchem in 2022, ultimately lost their races.
Longtime GOP strategist Barrett Marson predicts that candidates like Biggs and Kolodin will be burdened by their election denialism in the coming months, suggesting that while Democrats may focus on economic issues, they will also likely highlight these candidates' perceived threats to democracy.