Democrat Defeats Election Denier to Take Reins of Arizona Vote

Ryan Teague Beckwith
·1 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Democrat Adrian Fontes defeated election denier Mark Finchem, a Republican, in the Arizona secretary of state race, after a campaign that attacked Finchem for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

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A former local elections official, Fontes beat the state representative, 53-47, with 83% of the votes counted, in a race that centered on Finchem’s efforts to help former President Donald Trump overturn his 2020 loss in Arizona and campaign pledges to roll back vote-by-mail, which is used by more than 80% of Arizona voters.

The Associated Press called the race late Friday night.

With more than 1.1 million votes, Fontes ran ahead of every other Democratic statewide candidate on the ballot.

Secretary of state contests are usually sleepy, down-ballot affairs that do not draw a lot of attention. Yet the Arizona race became a big target for Democrats and allied groups, who poured millions into the race and ran ads that called Finchem an “extremist.”

As a state lawmaker, Finchem marched outside the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, saying the insurrection that day was “what happens when the people feel they have been ignored.” He also held an unofficial hearing on the 2020 election, was involved with an effort to put forward a slate of fake Trump electors and called for decertifying Biden’s win in Arizona.

Earlier this year, Finchem also co-sponsored a failed bill that would have severely limited mail-in voting and ended the state’s list of voters who automatically receive a mail ballot -- unpopular proposals in a state where nearly 90% of voters cast their ballot early in 2020.

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