The normally low-key contest for Arizona attorney general will take on a new level of significance.
Abraham Hamadeh, who ran on a stridently conservative platform and received the support of former President Trump, trounced a slate of more seasoned candidates to secure the Republican nomination for the foremost legal officer of the Grand Canyon State.
He primarily won the primary by affiliating himself with Trump, rejecting moderate, business-friendly Arizona Republicans, and laying out hard-line stances on abortion, elections, and other issues popular with the GOP’s base.
Clean sweep! pic.twitter.com/NokpUnTpad
— Abe Hamadeh for Arizona AG (@AbrahamHamadeh) August 3, 2022
Opposite Views
Democrats are frightened by Hamadeh’s rapid political rise; they perceive him to be dedicated to reestablishing historical abortion prohibitions.
This includes a stringent 1864 law that would enable abortion doctors to be brought to justice with prison time, as well as continuing to pursue legislative and legal attempts to challenge the legitimacy of the 2020 election.
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s June judgment to overturn Roe v. Wade, Mark Brnovich, the long-serving Republican attorney general who lost Tuesday’s primary, initiated attempts to reinstitute the 1864 law, as well as other historical abortion constraints.
However, he has been an adversary of attempts to challenge the 2020 election and earned the ire of Trump for refusing to aid the former president’s attempts to have Arizona’s election recalled.
Hamadeh, if elected, also vowed to “prosecute the crimes of the stolen 2020 election” and reportedly advocated moves to “decertify” his state’s presidential electors for the 2020 election.
Hamadeh’s provocative beliefs have converted the general election into an uncompromising ideological struggle. It will leave voters with two dramatically different alternatives at the ballot box and have tremendous consequences for law enforcement in Arizona.
Kris Mayes
In November’s general election, Hamadeh, a retired Maricopa County prosecutor and military intelligence analyst, will face Kris Mayes, a Democrat.
On Tuesday, Mayes won the Democratic primary unopposed. Mayes, the former chairperson of the Arizona Corporation Commission, is stylistically and substantively vastly different from Hamadeh.
Mayes said Arizona’s state law guarantees the right to an abortion, she disagrees with Gov. Doug Ducey’s new 15-week limit on abortions, and it would be “unconstitutional” to charge abortion providers under a law from 1864.
Planned Parenthood of Arizona only endorsed candidates who would defund the police. Katie Hobbs and Kris Mayes both ‘earned’ that endorsement.
They both would jeopardize the safety of Arizonans to appease their radical left base. https://t.co/OLL3VPaqcZ
— Abe Hamadeh for Arizona AG (@AbrahamHamadeh) August 7, 2022
Mayes also suggested the general election would be a referendum on “democracy,” noting Hamadeh’s support for restricting mail-in voting and his unsubstantiated speculations regarding the 2020 election.
She even said if she is elected, she won’t follow state laws that limit abortion, even if they are legal.
The campaign for Arizona’s attorney general will have a significant influence on the state’s stance on a number of contentious topics, including abortion and elections.
The election for Arizona attorney general is just one of numerous high-profile instances of how moderate, pleasant, deal-making mindsets like those of Gov. Doug Ducey and Sen. John McCain are gone, at least for the meantime.
This article appeared in NewsHouse and has been published here with permission.
