Arizona Republic's coverage of 2020 election challenges wins top journalism honor

The Arizona Republic's yearlong coverage of challenges to 2020 election results was recognized Sunday with one of journalism's top honors.

The news organization's staff received the Scripps Howard Award for distinguished service to the First Amendment.

Republic journalists covered election night protests, partisan lawsuits, infighting among state and county Republican elected officials and a discredited recount of Maricopa County ballots. The news organization also fought for public access to the recount and went to court to demand public records about who was involved and who was paying for the recount.

The coverage was capped by the five-part series "Democracy in Doubt," led by reporters Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Ronald J. Hansen and Jen Fifield. The series detailed the pressure tactics used by former President Trump and his allies to try to flip Joe Biden's win in Arizona in Trump's favor.

Watch the video: The journalists behind the reporting discuss "Democracy in Doubt"

Wingett Sanchez, Hansen and Fifield sifted through documents, emails and text messages and got exclusive interviews that revealed in dramatic fashion how the pressure campaign and later the ballot review unfolded.

What emerged was the chilling story of a plot hatched before the results were in, extended through the Jan. 6 insurrection, and played out with amateurs flipping through ballots in the desert heat to bolster unfounded claims of election fraud. The series zeroed in on the elected officials who stood up to the pressure campaign brought by the White House and those who sought a dangerous compromise.

The Republic's reporting showed Arizona’s so-called “audit” of ballots was partisan, incompetent and reckless in its conclusions.

Judges said, “This work is a display of the true watchdog function that the media is supposed to play. The Arizona Republic was the eyes and ears of the nation, not just Arizonans. This is what democracy looks like.”

How we got here: An Arizona election audit timeline

Kathy Tulumello, Republic news director, said, "We told the world about the baseless challenge to the 2020 vote through classic local journalism techniques: showing up every day, demanding records, tapping into sources who trusted our reporters and our brand and owning a story with origins that stretched far beyond the state of Arizona.

"Through relentless reporting, we grew to understand that the “audit” — which had felt so local in the beginning — was part of an orchestrated, barely disguised national effort to undermine democratic norms."

A panel of veteran journalists and media leaders selected the 2021 winners from more than 800 entries across 15 categories.

Two other Republic entries earlier were named finalists in the Scripps Howard competition.

The five-part "Democracy in Doubt" series was named a finalist in local/regional investigative reporting.

“Draining the Forests,” a joint effort among four Gannett newspapers including The Republic, also was named as a finalist in the environmental reporting category.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Republic's 'Democracy in Doubt' coverage wins top journalism honor