Overview and Live Results: Arizona Primary

After a quiet month, the down-ballot primary calendar restarts this week with the Arizona primary on Tuesday. The Tennessee primary follows on Thursday. 

The remaining 16 states will hold their contests between August 6 and September 10.^{1 1}49 states will have held a primary. Louisiana has a unique system, with no nominees determined prior to a November 5 all-party primary. A candidate can win an election that day by getting a majority of the vote, otherwise there is a top two runoff.

Arizona Primary

Polls close at 7:00 PM local time. That's 10:00 PM Eastern for all but Navajo Nation, which observes Daylight Savings Time. Those polls close at 9:00 PM Eastern.

On this page, we highlight some of the key races. More Arizona Primary Results >>

U.S. Senate

Elected as a Democrat in 2018, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema became an independent in 2022. She subsequently decided not to seek reelection. 

Rep. Ruben Gallego (AZ-03) is unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

Republican Primary

Endorsed by Donald Trump, Former television anchor Kari Lake is favored over Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb. Lake previously ran a high-profile race for governor in 2022, narrowly losing to Democrat Katie Dobbs. 

A poll released on Monday showed Lake ahead of Lamb by 50% to 38%.

U.S. House

District 1 (Democratic)

Republican David Schweikert is seeking an 8th term. In the state's most competitive U.S. House race in 2022, Schweikert was reelected by less than a 1% margin.

Another closely-contested general election is expected this year, with six Democrats vying to take on the incumbent.

The only other competitive general election seat in the state is in District 6. Rep. Juan Ciscomani is expected to be renominated for a second term. Former state legislator Kirsten Engel is unopposed for the Democrats. This will be a rematch from 2022, when Ciscomani won by about 1.5%.

District 2 (Republican)

Rep. Eli Crane is seeking a second term. Crane was one of eight Republicans that voted to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Supporters of McCarthy are attempting to repay the favor by supporting Crane's challenger, Jack Smith.

Crane will probably be renominated, but it is worth keeping an eye on.

District 3 (Democratic)

Incumbent Ruben Gallego will be the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. Three are looking to succeed him; the winner will be heavily favored in November. 

There are three candidates on the ballot, with the nominee likely to be either Yassamin Ansari, a former Phoenix vice mayor, or former state Sen. Raquel Terán.

District 8 (Republican)

Tuesday's marquee U.S. House primary will select a nominee to succeed Rep. Debbie Lesko, who is retiring from this safely Republican district.

Most of the attention has been on the bitter rivalry between former prosecutor Abe Hamadeh and venture capitalist Blake Masters. Both lost elections in 2022: Hamadeh for Attorney General and Masters for U.S. Senate.

Donald Trump endorsed Hamadeh early in the campaign - December of last year. However, in an unusual turn of events, Trump made an updated endorsement this past weekend of both Hamadeh and Masters.

The last-minute shift may owe to a thaw in the relationship between Trump and billionaire Peter Thiel after Trump's selection of Sen. JD Vance as his running mate. In addition, Masters worked for Thiel for several years, including as president of his foundation. He resigned during the 2022 Senate campaign, which Thiel helped underwrite.

Other notables in the race include Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma and former Rep. Trent Franks, who held this seat prior to Lesko. Franks resigned in 2017, and is attempting a comeback. It isn't completely off the table that Trump's dual endorsement splits the vote enough to bring one of these others into contention. 

Maricopa County Elections

Recorder (Republican)

Arizona became a hotbed of election denialism after the 2020 presidential election. While conspiracy theorists have not yet had much general election success here, those efforts continue.

That ongoing conflict has created an unusually high profile GOP primary for Maricopa County Recorder.

Among other things, this office oversees elections. The incumbent, Stephen Richer, took office in 2021 and has been a defender of the integrity of the County's elections. That has brought him criticism and harassment, as well as two challengers in Tuesday's primary. 

Maricopa County, which includes the Phoenix area, is home to more than 60% of the state's population.

Mayoral Primaries

Four Arizona cities among the nation's top 100 by population hold mayoral elections. These contests will either be resolved Tuesday or in a top-two runoff on November 5. Live Results>>

Upcoming Elections and Events

Down-ballot primaries will continue through early September. The remaining ones are listed below, along with other contests we'll be tracking during that period.

• August 1
  • Tennessee Primary
• August 6
  • Kansas Primary
  • Michigan Primary
  • Missouri Primary
  • Washington Top-Two Primary
• August 10
  • Hawaii Primary
  • Hawaii State Senate District 5 (Special Primary)
  • Honolulu Mayor (Primary)
• August 13
  • Connecticut Primary
  • Minnesota Primary
  • Vermont Primary
  • Wisconsin Primary
  • Wisconsin U.S. House District 8 Special Primary
  • Minnesota State Senate District 45 Special Primary
• August 19-22
  • Democratic National Convention
• August 20
  • Alaska Top-Four Primary
  • Florida Primary
  • Wyoming Primary
• August 27
  • Oklahoma Primary Runoffs
• September 3
  • Massachusetts Primary
• September 10
  • Delaware Primary
  • New Hampshire Primary
  • Rhode Island Primary