MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Arizona Republicans picked staunch allies of President Trump in their primary races on Tuesday.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The candidates for governor and secretary of state both denied the 2020 election results.
MARTIN: Ben Giles is here to tell us more. He's political editor at member station KJZZ in Phoenix. Good morning, Ben.
BEN GILES, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: So what do we know so far?
GILES: Well, so far, we know that far-right candidates are sweeping statewide primaries. For example, Congressman Andy Biggs is now the GOP nominee for governor here, and state lawmaker Alexander Kolodin won the GOP race for secretary of state. They both cruised to victory in the primary largely thanks to endorsements for Biggs from President Trump and for Kolodin with the backing of Turning Point, the political machine founded here in Arizona by the late Charlie Kirk.
But the thing is, Trump's endorsement and Turning Point's backing isn't as meaningful in the general election when these MAGA candidates have to appeal to a broader portion of the electorate, particularly Arizona's influential bloc of independent voters. So this outcome has some Republicans in Arizona worried that Democrats could again win key races in this swing state.
MARTIN: Which is interesting because this is a state that Trump won handily just two years ago. So say more about what it is about these GOP candidates that have some Republicans so concerned.
GILES: I think the key thing is they're not President Trump. What we saw in Arizona, both in 2022 - the last midterm - and 2024, is that Trump himself is something of an outlier in Arizona. For example, when Trump won the popular vote for president here two years ago, Democrat Ruben Gallego also easily won the U.S. Senate race, outperforming the Republican in that race.
And in the last midterm election, Democrats - like our current governor, Katie Hobbs - attacked a slate of Trump-backed candidates as too extreme and too beholden to the president to represent Arizonians. Democrats are going to paint Republicans like Biggs and like Kolodin - the GOP nominee for secretary of state - as so pro-Trump that they won't act in the best interest of Arizona voters, pointing out that like Trump, both of these candidates are election deniers who've spread unfounded rhetoric about elections in swing states like Arizona.
MARTIN: So Republican voters are picking these Trump-backed candidates who could very well lose statewide races in Arizona. It's interesting. Were there no alternatives?
GILES: There were. In primaries for both the governor's office and secretary of state, there were GOP candidates considered. I don't want to say more moderate, but more traditionally conservative in a state like Arizona, but neither primary was that close. The Associated Press - they called both races about an hour after polls closed when the first batch of results were dropped here on election night. And that's a reflection of the enormous influence not just of Trump, but of Turning Point, which backed both Biggs and Kolodin.
That organization now has a lot of influence in Arizona, at least among GOP voters in the primary. Primary voters here seem to be signaling that they prefer these far-right candidates to best represent their interests, despite the fact that those far-right candidates keep losing when Democrats and independents also have a say in November. So this November will be yet another test of not just Trump but Turning Point's ability to get their preferred candidates across the finish line. And so far, Michel, that's not something they've been able to accomplish in key statewide races.
MARTIN: That's Ben Giles of KJZZ in Phoenix. Ben, thank you.
GILES: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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