Few Arizona lawmakers see upsets in their primary races

Key points:

• Most legislative incumbents won their primary races.

• Some Democrats at the Legislature were not successful in their races, including a key House budget negotiator.

• Progressive Democrats found some success in their primary races this cycle.

While most Arizona lawmakers seeking another term appear to have advanced to the general election, a few Democrats were upset in their primary races.

All votes have been counted, but results are still awaiting certification by the counties before they become official.

Here are the incumbents who lost their bids for reelection:

Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, D-Tucson

Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton conceded her bid for a fourth term in the Arizona House on Monday after finishing third in the Democratic primary for Legislative District 21, where only the top two candidates advance to the general election.

Rep. Consuelo Hernandez, D-Tucson, led the four-candidate field with nearly 30% of the vote. In this Democratic-leaning district, the primary winners are expected to win in November’s general election.

Miranda Lopez, a Democratic Socialist and a former executive director of the Pima County Democratic Party, leads Stahl Hamilton by just under 1 percentage point, enough to avoid the state’s automatic half-percentage-point recount trigger. According to unofficial election results, Lopez received 25.34% of the vote while Stahl Hamilton got 24.51%.

“While the outcome was not what we wanted or expected, I am truly humbled by the many who put their trust in me as a candidate and as a legislator,” Stahl Hamilton said in a statement on Monday. 

Hernandez’s running mate Maritza Higuera finished fourth in the race with about 20% of the vote. While Lopez and Stahl Hamilton did not run together, the Arizona Working Families Party described both candidates as “champions” of its progressive agenda.

Lopez wrote an open letter to LD21 voters stating that she’s running against Hernandez primarily because Hernandez’s campaign took money from corporations and voted more with Republicans in the Legislature than her Democratic colleagues.

“Our district does not need a Democrat in Phoenix who betrays working families to vote with Republicans more reliably than any other Democrat,” Lopez wrote. 

But now, it appears that Lopez and Hernandez will be seatmates in the House. 

“Congratulations to the DSA Tucson who are celebrating a win for Lopez by beating a long-time progressive democrat in the Democratic caucus,” Hernandez wrote in a July 24 post on X. “Way to go! I hope the DSA stops going after Democrats and focuses on being in the majority. I will be watching who helps.”

Stahl Hamilton helped craft two bipartisan budgets in the Legislature as the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. She was also a key figure in rolling a Republican majority and repealing the state’s territorial-era abortion ban during the 2024 legislative session. 

Former House Minority Leader Lupe Contreras, D-Avondale, told the Arizona Capitol Times that repealing the 1864 abortion ban was one of the most memorable moments in his legislative career. He keeps a picture framed in his office of Stahl Hamilton hugging him on the House floor when the repeal bill passed.

“To hold my friend in that moment, it was awesome because it meant so much to so many people,” Contreras said. 

Rep. Lydia Hernandez, D-Phoenix

While progressives came up short in Legislative District 21, they won decisively in LD 24, where two Democratic challengers easily defeated incumbent Rep. Lydia Hernandez.

Hernandez received about 14% of the vote, trailing Alberto Flores and Lisbeth Arescurenaga by more than 20 percentage points. Her running mate, Rosa Cantu, finished fourth with nearly 9%.

Flores and Arescurenaga ran on a slate with Sen. Analise Ortiz, D-Phoenix, who represents the district in the Senate. Both now advance to the general election in this  Democratic-leaning district. The trio ran a campaign targeting Hernandez, whom her local Democratic precinct committee censured for not  representing “Democratic values.”

Hernandez did not return a request for comment from the Arizona Capitol Times before Thursday afternoon. Democrats like Ortiz have accused her of siding too often with Republicans, noting her opposition to a Democratic amendment to prohibit federal immigration officers from wearing masks in Arizona. 

Rep. Myron Tsosie, D-Chinle

Tsosie is termed out of the House, but he did attempt to stay in the Legislature by running for his district’s Senate seat against former Sen. Jamescita Peshlakai.

Peshlakai leads Tsosie by more than 10 percentage points and will likely be elected in this safe Democratic district. She resigned in 2021 to accept an Interior Department appointment in former President Joe Biden’s administration. Assuming she wins this fall, she will serve in the Capitol with her mother, Rep. Mae Peshlakai, D-Cameron. 

The incumbent representative leads the three candidates in her House race with 42% of votes. Tsosie’s nephew, Ian Teller, leads by about 1.5 percentage points in the district’s second House seat over Mae Peshlakai’s sister, Angela Maloney. 

In a July 22 Facebook post, Tsosie thanked his supporters and said he felt blessed to have received their votes over the last eight years of his House service. He did not return a request for comment from the Arizona Capitol Times.