Each vote total update coming from Maricopa County has provided good news for Republicans candidates, with election night losses turning into election week wins. Every Republican who found themselves trailing in a county race has come back to take the lead, most by leads that are, by now, solid enough to secure the outcome.
Two races remain too close to call: The District 1 Board of Supervisors contest between Democrat Jevin Hodge and Republican incumbent Supervisor Jack Sellers, and the race for County Recorder between Democrat incumbent Adrian Fontes and Republican Steven Richer.
Hodge still holds a 1,256 vote lead over Sellers, while Fontes now trails Richer by 1,928.
The County Supervisor shift would be meaningful but would not alter the balance of power, where Republicans would still control three of the five votes. Plus the County Board of Supervisors is rarely the scene of partisan behavior, favoring five-zero votes on most items.
The big gain for Maricopa Republicans, and Republicans all over Arizona, is the County Recorder’s office, where 60% of the state’s votes are cast. Democrat Fontes has acted in very partisan ways over his one four-year term and has been chastised multiple times by the courts and even by the Secretary of State, herself a fellow Democrat.
The other close race in Maricopa County is the LD28 State Senate race where Republican incumbent Kate Brophy McGee has closed what was once a 5,000+ vote gap with Democrat Christine Marsh to just 622 votes.
It is unknown if either the Sellers or Brophy McGee race have enough ballots left to be counted to complete the comebacks, but the trend in the Fontes race has been towards the challenger on every drop so far, making a comeback far more challenging at this late stage.