Ahead of last week's primary elections in Arizona, the focus was on which brand of Republicanism would win: the older-school GOP that grudgingly accepted the results of the 2020 presidential race, despite Donald Trump's claims of massive voter fraud, or the "ultra-MAGA" wing that has transformed the state's Republican Party into a bastion of far-right conspiracy theories and barely concealed white nationalism. The outcome of Tuesday's vote seemed to deliver a partial verdict on that question. The victories of secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, a Jan. 6 protester, QAnon supporter and Oath Keepers militia member; Trump-backed Senate nominee Blake Masters, a self-described nationalist who embraces the racist "great replacement" conspiracy theory; and gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who has called for decertifying the 2020 election and imprisoning her Democratic rivals, was a clean sweep for the conspiracist wing of the GOP.
Beyond that spectacle, a down-ticket local race for Maricopa County Attorney seemed comparatively tame. Yet it's this office — the third-largest prosecutorial district in the country, after only Los Angeles and New York City — that is poised to have the most tangible impact on Arizonans, particularly when it comes to abortion rights in a state poised to ban most or all abortions.
