Former Nogales Mayor Marco Lopez didn’t fare well in Tuesday’s Democratic gubernatorial primary – he lost to Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs by 50 percentage points.
Lopez did manage to win more votes than Hobbs in his former home of Santa Cruz County, however. Unofficial and incomplete results posted by the County Elections Office just before midnight Tuesday showed Lopez with a 51 to 43 percent advantage over Hobbs among local Democratic voters.
Hobbs will now run in the general election against likely Republican nominee Kari Lake, who held a slim lead over Karrin Taylor Robson with votes still being tabulated on Thursday. In Santa Cruz County, Lake earned 49 percent of the Republican vote to 37 percent for Taylor Robson.
Another Nogales native, Adrian Fontes, fared better in his campaign for the Democratic nomination for Arizona secretary of state. Fontes, the former recorder in Maricopa County, held a 53 to 47 percent lead over Reginald Bolding in the statewide voting as of Thursday. In Santa Cruz County, Fontes had a 73-27 advantage.
Fontes will next take on Republican nominee Mark Finchem in the general election.
In Congressional District 7, which includes all of Santa Cruz County, incumbent Rep. Raul Grijalva ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. His general election opponent will be Luis Pozzolo, who won the Republican primary by a 2-to-1 margin over Nina Becker.
Meanwhile, the races in newly redrawn state Legislative districts 19 and 21 didn’t offer much excitement in the primary.
LD 21 races
Legislative District 21 includes Nogales, Rio Rico, Tubac, Tumacacori, Kino Springs and Patagonia Lake, as well as parts of Sahuarita, southeast Tucson and Bisbee/Naco in Cochise County. In this district, incumbent state Sen. Rosanna Gabaldon is running unopposed in the Democratic primary and general election and will retain her seat in November barring anything unforeseen.
In the race for the district’s two seats in the Arizona House, Consuelo Hernandez of Tucson and Stephanie Stahl Hamilton of Tucson beat Akanni “Oye” Oyegbola in the Democratic primary and will advance to the Nov. 8 general election, where they will be unopposed.
There were no Arizona House candidates in LD 21 on the Republican primary ballot, though Damien Kennedy of Amado and Deborah McEwen of Rio Rico are official write-in candidates who presumably advanced the the general election.
LD 19 races
Northeastern areas of Santa Cruz County, including Patagonia, Sonoita and Elgin, are part of the new Legislative District 19, along with most of Cochise County, all of Greenlee County and parts of Graham and Pima counties.
State Sen. David Gowan, a Republican from Sierra Vista, is running uncontested in the LD 19 primary and general elections, and will take the seat barring anything unforeseen.
Two Republican incumbents – Lupe Diaz of Benson and Gail Griffin of Cochise County – and one Democratic candidate – Sanda Clark of Green Valley – ran uncontested in the LD 19 House primary.
They’ll all move to the general election in November to vie for two open seats.
