Mark Finchem, a current state legislator in Arizona who was the Republican nominee for Secretary of State in this year’s midterm elections in his state, was defeated by Democratic pick Adrian Fontes, according to media calls of the race.
Fontes will be replacing Katie Hobbs, who — depending on how further counting unfolds — will potentially be Arizona’s next governor after outgoing Republican Doug Ducey departs. As of early Saturday, Fontes had secured 52.8 percent of the vote, while Finchem had 47.2 percent. Some counting remained. Fontes’s background includes a stint as the top elections official in Maricopa County, which is Arizona’s largest county by population. Finchem, in contrast, was also on the ground in D.C. around last year’s Trump-incited Capitol riot. In Arizona, he’s pushed policy changes like at least temporarily suspending the usage of tabulation machines for ballots and restricting early voting. After the 2020 elections, Arizona was among the states where officials faced intense pressure from Trump’s corner to take action on the results. (Biden won Arizona.)
In the state, Finchem helped put on one of the infamous post-election hearings where Rudy Giuliani and others appeared before state legislators in sometimes less-than-official or at least dubious contexts and promoted their false claims of widespread fraud. In Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano, the GOP state Senator who just lost his campaign for governor after spending way, way less on key advertising than his Democratic opponent, helped host a similar hearing. In Georgia, Giuliani’s false claims to state legislators have led to some of his potential criminal exposure in the ongoing investigation by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis into pro-Trump meddling with the election results after the 2020 presidential race concluded. Mastriano, meanwhile, was also on the ground in D.C. around the riot, although neither he nor Finchem have been charged with any crimes in association with their roles in the violent demonstrations.
A third official who was present, New Mexico county board member Couy Griffin, was charged — and later booted from his position on constitutional grounds. Yet another participant who also held elected office, West Virginia state legislator Derrick Evans, was also charged, and he rather swiftly resigned. In Arizona, Finchem also promoted the idea of decertifying Arizona’s results from the 2020 presidential race, which didn’t have a legal — or logical — foundation but nonetheless could have created legal chaos if attempted to be implemented. Republican candidates aligned with Trump who were running in other key races, like the contests for governor in Wisconsin and Michigan, also lost, meaning Democrats will hold positions of potentially key power when it’s time for dealing with the next round of presidential election results, when Trump will likely run. The race for governor in Arizona wasn’t called as of this weekend. A media call is not an official conclusion to the contest. Rather, it simply represents a mathematical calculation of the way the race is headed.
