Arizona Votes Tuesday. One Race Is 'Consequential'

It's an interesting way to go into an election: by saying you won't concede if you lose. That's apparently the stance of Mark Finchem, who is running for Arizona secretary of state (and therefore its chief election official) and told a June crowd there "ain’t gonna be no concession speech coming from this guy." Six states are holding primaries on Tuesday, and as the AP puts it, "Arizona's secretary of state race is the most eye-catching and consequential ... in part because of Republican state Rep. Mark Finchem." The 65-year-old is a retired Michigan police officer, a member of the Arizona House, and an election denier. Finchem was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and claims Trump lost Arizona due to "fictitious ballots." More:

• His work to reverse the 2020 results. The AP reports Finchem was a backer of the controversial state Senate "audit" of the 2020 Maricopa County results and in 2022 tried to get the Republican-held Legislature to tell Congress that Arizona wanted to decertify Joe Biden's win in the state.
• His GOP rivals. Finchem is running against three other Republicans, two of whom (State Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita and ad exec Beau Lane) say they would have certified the 2020 results. The fourth, state Rep. Shawnna Bolick, says she would have been fine with "breaking the law" and not certifying the state's results, reports the New York Times. Lane, who has been endorsed by Gov. Doug Ducey, is thought to be Finchem's biggest competition.
• His lead. In a sign of the attention the race is drawing, Politico reports there has been public polling around the race; the final poll shows Finchem 21 points ahead of Lane. The Guardian similarly describes Finchem as the frontrunner. He has former President Trump's endorsement as well.

• On the Democrats' side. Two men are vying for the Democratic nomination: former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes and Arizona House Minority Leader Reginald Bolding. Neither is a fan of Finchem, and they have painted his potential to win as dangerous for democracy.
• Zooming out. Finchem is the chosen candidate of the Trump-backed America First coalition of election deniers looking to hold secretary of state positions, and he's not the only one with a shot. Politico reports coalition founder Jim Marchant is Nevada's GOP nominee, coalition member Kristina Karamo will likely end up vying for the role in Michigan, and coalition member Doug Mastriano is the GOP candidate in Pennsylvania.
• The Arizona governor race. The Guardian reports former news anchor Kari Lake is the frontrunner in the GOP primary for governor. She too is an election denier who at one 2022 rally asserted almost a dozen times over the course of an hour that the election was stolen.

(More Election 2022 stories.)