Rally ‘Round the Candidate
Ruben Gallego won Arizona’s Democratic U.S. Senate nomination unopposed on Tuesday night, which has become par for the course for the party in recent decades. Democratic nominees for the office in Arizona have been crowned without opposition on the ballot in five of the last six cycles: Richard Carmona (2012), Ann Kirkpatrick (2016), Mark Kelly (2020 special, 2022), and Gallego, with only Kyrsten Sinema facing a challenger in 2018. Dating back to 1986, 10 of the last 15 Democratic U.S. Senate nominees from Arizona have not had a primary opponent. Republican nominees meanwhile were unopposed for eight consecutive cycles from 1986 through 2006, but have had contested U.S. Senate primaries in each of the last seven cycles including Kari Lake’s win in a three-candidate field last night.
Martha Elizabeth McSally (an Iowa resident now?) apparently is the most recent Republican Senate nominee to have roots in what used to be the ‘Establishment’ faction of the party, which, prior to the primary victory by Blake Masters (at least until yesterday a candidate for the ‘deep-Red’ Glendale & West Valley-centred House seat) in 2022, has had the clout to essentially anoint its choice of Senate nominees without any debilitating primary slugfest – like the one in 1976 that ultimately resulted in the loss of one of its seats.
Even against no-name opponents, “Scari Kari” garnered un underwhelming 54.4% of the vote – perhaps an inauspicious indicator that the shrill persona of the ‘double denier’ (both the 2020 presidential and her own 2022 gubernatorial elections) is unmistakably wearing thin, even among her fellow populist-minded Republicans.
Debbie Lesko, presently representing the ‘Glendale & West Valley’ US House seat, has become the most recent federal lawmaker to make the jump from US Congress to a local elective office (House members have often made bids for statewide posts, particularly governor). With her party primary win in the ‘deep-crimson’ Fourth District of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, she seems assured of continuing to serve the robustly-growing suburban region, from state legislature to Congress to county administrative position.
Lesko seems highly likely to be succeeded by Abe Hamadeh, who won his primary election – the only contest that arguably matters here. Interestingly, had Kari Lake chosen to make her bid for *this* seat she might well have defeated both Hamadeh and Blake Masters (both her ticketmates in the 2022 statewide elections) – and likely ensured herself a ‘lifetime job security’!