Phoenix — These could be the most important elections on the ballot in 2024. It’s an election not for the president, but for his six elected Maricopa County officials who will oversee your vote.
Five Republicans and the only Democrat are up against a relentless attack by those who claim, without evidence, that the defeats of Republican candidates for president and governor were “rigged.”
After Maricopa County coach Bill Gates announced last week that he would not run for re-election in 2024, candidates are paying close attention to the race.
“The Future of Elections at Risk”
Like Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, who oversees early voting, at least four of the five county commission seats are likely to be challenged.
“Our electoral future is at stake here,” said Steve Gallardo, county superintendent and only Democrat.
“Democracy will be in danger.”
Fourteen months before the primaries, the county commissions that come into being after the 2024 election are likely to look very different from the GOP majority organization of the past three decades.
Here’s what we know:
Maricopa in the spotlight – again
In the 2024 fourth straight election, voters in Arizona and its largest county, Maricopa, will have a big say in which party controls the Senate. For the second cycle in a row, Maricopa County voters will be a key stepping stone to the White House.
Maricopa County’s new status as a battleground county has made it a target for Republicans seeking to regain decades of control over the county vote.
A Republican-led five-member county commission has regained control of county elections in 2020.
Since then, four Republicans and the lone Democrat have banded together to repel Republican attacks on election results and procedures.
2 new swing districts
There is no guarantee that the next board will take such vigorous defensive measures.
The 2024 election will be the first time that supporters of Donald Trump and Kari Lake, the Republican supporters who vote in the primary, will be able to cast votes on county commissions that reflect their dissatisfaction with the candidates’ losses. will be the election of
two of 5 seats on the board of directors It currently wins floating seats in Democratic-leaning purple constituencies.
Mr. Hobbes performed well in the Republican constituency.
The results of the 2022 midterm elections have confirmed that Gates’ and Republican director Jack Sellers’ constituencies will survive in 2024.
In 2020, veteran Republican politicians narrowly survived re-election challenges from rookie Democrats. Sellers won by just 403 votes.
In 2022, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs defeated Republican Kari Lake in both districts despite winning the countywide vote by just 2.4 percentage points.
Sam Almey, data analyst at Uplift Campaigns, said:
– Hobbes won the Sellers District 1 in the East Valley by seven points.
– In Gates’ District 3, which runs north-south through downtown Phoenix, Hobbes won by eight points.
If both constituencies vote Democrats, the board will be dominated by Democrats, assuming Mr. Gallardo wins a safe Democratic seat.
The Republican primary is likely to be tough
Supervisor Clint Hickman, a Republican from the all-red West Valley, has yet to decide whether to run again.
Not only did Mr. Hickman come under personal attack from election deniers, but his family egg business became the target of bizarre conspiracy theories involving chicken coop fires.
A Trump Republican primary is likely. If Hickman chooses to escape, will he be able to survive? That’s an open question.
Republican overseer and land-use attorney Thomas Galvin plans to run for a full four-year term.
He won a special election in 2022 to fill the remaining term of his resigned manager.
Galvin won 38% of the Republican primary vote. Two of the three opponents claimed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
Another notable election official is Republican Recorder Stephen Richer. Richer said he “thinks” he will run for re-election. He, too, will likely face a primary with Trump/Lake supporters.
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